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Why do I need space on my phone to backup to icloud?

I thought that buying more iCloud storage meant that I could save photos, files, etc to the iCloud and free up the iphones internal storage. I can not remove anything from the phone without also deleting it from the iCloud so what is the point because I can’t even take a picture now?

iPhone 7, iOS 13

Posted on Sep 14, 2020 8:53 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 14, 2020 8:58 AM

iCloud storage is not really off device storage. iCloud keeps everything in sync across devices but in doing so, you need to use space on Apple’s servers. That’s the iCloud storage that you are using. iCloud Photos doesn’t really store photos on the servers so that you can delete them from your device and download them again later, it just keeps all actions in sync across all devices that are using iCloud Photos.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 14, 2020 8:58 AM in response to IllNeverBeKyle

iCloud storage is not really off device storage. iCloud keeps everything in sync across devices but in doing so, you need to use space on Apple’s servers. That’s the iCloud storage that you are using. iCloud Photos doesn’t really store photos on the servers so that you can delete them from your device and download them again later, it just keeps all actions in sync across all devices that are using iCloud Photos.

Why do I need space on my phone to backup to icloud?

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