iCloud Photos

Originally published in September, 2015, this article has been updated in January, 2026.

iCloud Photos

Our photos are some of our most precious possessions. We keep thousands of them on our mobile devices, we share and upload them constantly. Yet they are the number one thing people lose and are also the most upset about losing. We have lost count of the times customers have approached us with a broken or damaged device asking if we can recover their photos.

Thankfully, Apple has a very elegant system that can take your existing library and upload it to iCloud for peace of mind storage. iCloud Photos does a few things differently, and people aren't always aware of the settings in iCloud that concern Photos and the differences between them.

To put it in one sentence, iCloud Photos takes every photo in the library of the device you enable the feature on and uploads it to the cloud. Any change you make — whether that be an edit, a deletion, or a duplication — is also uploaded and synced across all your devices.

By adding more devices, you combine their photo libraries into one unified collection. Everything is accessible on every device. For example, if I have 300 photos on my iPhone, 300 photos would upload to the cloud. If I then enable iCloud Photos on my iPad which has 200 photos, it would upload those 200 photos to the cloud. Both my devices would then be accessing photos from the cloud, so the cloud and both my devices would have 500 photos. Don't think of this as 3 copies—try to think of it as 1 centralised library shared between your Apple devices.

Getting Started

In our experience, far too few people back up their computers, never mind their phones or tablets. Given your iPhone is also usually the device from which most people take and share photos, it is the first device we recommend you enable iCloud Photos on.

Under the settings in iCloud, turn on iCloud Photos and it will start to upload all the photos in that library. You can also see quite a few other options.

Understanding Photo Stream vs iCloud Photos

A common misconception is that Photo Stream backs up and stores photos. It does not. Photo Stream purely syncs them to all your other iCloud-connected devices. It has limits which are quite generous and can appear as if it is backing up. The limits are 30 days' worth of photos or 1,000 photos, whichever value you hit first. Photo Stream doesn't count against your iCloud storage, but it's a temporary syncing service, not a permanent backup solution.

iCloud Photos, on the other hand, permanently stores your entire library in the cloud with no time or quantity limits (other than your iCloud storage capacity).

Optimising Storage

One thing to keep in mind is storage, especially if you have a larger memory device. You can very quickly accumulate a very large amount of data with photos from a modern iPhone! By changing the iCloud Photos setting from Download and Keep Originals to Optimise iPhone Storage, you can actually save space without losing any photos.

When you enable optimisation, your device stores smaller, device-optimised versions of your photos and videos, while the full-resolution originals remain safely stored in iCloud. The originals download automatically whenever you need them. This also helps with multiple device libraries, as a few devices can quickly expand your library size, and keeping the originals on all devices can eat up storage rapidly.

iCloud Storage Plans

The other storage option to keep an eye on is your iCloud storage limit. 5GB is given to every account for free, but this fills up quickly with photos, device backups, and other data.

Current UK iCloud+ Storage Plans (January, 2026):

• 50GB - £0.99 per month (ideal for light users with a modest photo collection)
• 200GB - £2.99 per month (great for families or users with larger photo and video libraries)
• 2TB - £8.99 per month (perfect for serious photographers and families with multiple devices)
• 6TB - £26.99 per month (for those with larger families up to professional photographers and content creators)
• 12TB - £54.99 per month (for those with extensive media libraries)

For most people, we recommend upgrading to the 50GB option for £0.99 per month if you're using iCloud Photos. It gives you much more scope for storing photos as well as device backups and other iCloud storage-related items. For families or anyone with a substantial photo collection, the 200GB plan at £2.99 per month offers excellent value.

All iCloud+ plans can be shared with up to five family members using Family Sharing, with each person's photos and files remaining private. iCloud+ also includes additional privacy features like iCloud Private Relay, Hide My Email, and Custom Email Domain.

Additional Benefits

iCloud Photos isn't just about storage. It offers powerful features for managing your photo library:

• Automatic organisation: Your photos are organised by date, location, and people
• Powerful search: Find photos by searching for objects, scenes, or people
• Shared Photo Library: Share a photo library with up to five family members
• Cross-device editing: Edit a photo on one device, and the changes appear everywhere
• Memories and Featured Photos: Automatically curated collections of your best moments

Important Considerations

When you delete a photo from any device with iCloud Photos enabled, it's deleted from all your devices and from iCloud. Deleted photos move to the Recently Deleted album where they remain for 30 days before permanent deletion, giving you a chance to recover them, if needed.