photo's/icloud/storage question

[JonH]

I'm trying to figure out how to permanently store photo's from iphone and remove them from iphone.

My wife has macbook & iphone 6 w/16GB. She is running out of space due to photo's video's she has made.

icloud also told her she was running out of space so she is purchasing more space.

I see that the iphone uploads photos to icloud but if photos are deleted from phone, they are also deleted from icloud. So apparently icloud cannot be used as permanent storage. Is this correct? If not, what needs to be done to change the way it is working.

I've just learned that her photo's can be loaded to macbook into the photo app and apparently then deleted from iphone (haven't tried deleting yet). Is this how permanent photo storage is normally done?

I have read about max limit of 30 days, 5 GB, 5000 photo's or something of that sort and it is confusing to me. I don't want to do something where she loses photos but her phone needs to be cleaned up.

Assuming photo's are placed on macbook are permanent storage then why would she need to pay for extra space on iCloud? Should I turn off whatever sync's to iCloud and stop paying for extra storage?

Up until recently she was saving videos she made on iphone by emailing them to herself to save on macbook. Now something has changed and she can no longer email them due to size. Is there a setting somewhere the is preventing this? I know SMTP is not the best solution for this but tell her that!! So is there a solution to allowing SMTP of excess byte size? The mail is handled by my own mail server - there is no limit imposed so it's apparently a limit by iOS but I do not find a setting for that.

 

[J. A.]

You're right: iCloud can't be used as online storage (yet), and there's no setting to change that.

If you intend to store the images and videos somewhere else, she won't need the extra iCloud storage. 5 GB are free. If the images are stored somewhere else regularly, she won't need more than that, and all you'll have to do, is to change her storage plan and downgrade in Settings - iCloud.

Photos and videos can be saved to the computer this way:
Import photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer - Apple Support

It's also possible to store photos online. OneDrive (using an Outlook account), Google Pictures (with a Gmail account), Dropbox, Box are just a few that allow this.
There's also Flickr, where you get 1 TB of free online storage, and I think also videos can be uploaded, or they're working at it. You'd need a Yahoo account, if you want to use Flickr.

 

[JonH]

Thanks, JA. That lifts the fog a bit. She doesn't need online storage at all, we simply misunderstood the way iCloud works.

 

[J. A.]

Glad to help.