iPhone, Thumb Drive and Computer Storage... Explain Like I'm 5?

February 25, 2024 7:04 AM

I have an iPhone Xr, an iPad Pro 11" (2nd Gen), fairly new desktop computer and a few many-Gig thumb drives. I think I accidentally set up cloud storage (or changed something) from my iPad last year and a couple weeks ago got an emailed notice that my cloud storage had 25% space left.

My iPhone is at about 55g of 64g storage and shows up red though I recall the days where close to 9G of storage was more than any person could ever need ever. (In fact, I recall getting an Atari Megafile 30 (30MB) and was told that was PLENTY. Ha. 1990 or so.)

I know some of the iPhone storage problems are podcasts (though I removed a lot of those already), and 7-8 videos in OSnap! Pro which I use for painting timelapse videos, and I will be moving a lot of those to my computer or a thumb drive soon. Also some short dog videos.

I would like/prefer:
1. Not to use the cloud at all - but probably this means I won't be able to view photos from my iPad (and I still want to do that sometimes for painting reference)? I ESPECIALLY do not want to pay for extra cloud storage or lose any of my photos.
2. (I think this is obvious but to be sure!) -To confirm that if I've moved photos and videos to my thumb drives and/or computer hard drive, then all the scary messages about losing my photos forever (when I delete them from my phone) are lies, and
3. To know that this plan is fine - keeping the photos/videos on my phone to a minimum and thus no cloud storage charges. Downsides to this plan?
4. Which category is appropriate for this question? "computers and internet" or "technology"?
5. Finally, when I open my iPhone on my computer, all the files are in folders by month. I find this SO ANNOYING when I would like to look through all of them at once - is this possible?

I hope that these several sub questions in one question do not run afoul of the rules.

posted by Glinn to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Best answer: What kind of computer do you have, a Mac or a Windows machine? Either way it should be easy to at least backup your photos from your phone to your computer. In my experience it's a bit easier to do and manage on a Mac than on Windows. (This is an important question and will affect the ease of doing what you want to do, since Apple's tools for Windows aren't nearly as good as they are for Mac.)

If you are, indeed, using a Mac, you're probably seeing your photos in Apple Photos. You can see them all in one place by looking at the "Recents" category, and making sure the filter option on the upper right is set to "All Items." The terminology was confusing to me, but "Recents" seems to mean "everything," even if you've done an import of a few images from a camera. You can also secure your photos by exporting them to another location on your hard drive or flash storage without bothering the Photos app (if that's the software you use on your desktop).

The more difficult questions you ask are related to memory and storage. The days of small storage are gone, and 64GB phones are really good only for people who never take photos...or don't mind using cloud storage. Apple makes life difficult if you don't use iCloud, but generally very easy if you do, and it makes choosing one side or the other of your dichotomy at the end of your question #1 difficult. Many iPhone features are next to useless without paying for some iCloud storage, Photos being one of them. iCloud is reliable and cheap... 99 cents a month for 50Gb and $1.99 a month for 200GB, either of which would probably meet your needs. You can see Apple's guide to iPhone photos here.

Using iCloud for your photos will ensure you have them available on our phone, on your computer (again, easier with a Mac than with a PC, but still doable), and stored securely in the cloud. This meets my definition of a properly backed up device: files in three places, one of which is out of the house. (iCloud also gives you reliable and transparent backup of you iPhone and iPad). It will also give you transparent access to your photos with your iPad, though you can always Airdrop photos from iPhone to iPad as you need them.

Flash drives are unreliable and easily lost, and frankly Apple does not make moving stuff around to/from iPhones or iPads and flash storage easy. The cloud and your computer are far more reliable and easy for backup and external storage. Again, not knowing whether your desktop is a Mac or a Windows machine, I can't give you sure advice on handling your photos on the desktop machine...but I do know Apple provides software to manage photos on both Windows and Mac.
posted by lhauser at 2:02 PM on February 25 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you, this makes sense. I have a Windows computer.
posted by Glinn at 7:56 PM on February 25

Please do look at the downloadable iCloud for Windows software to see what capabilities it gives you. Also look at iMazing($), which promises to effectively manage devices from Windows and Mac. I find it underwhelming on Mac, but that could be because Apple does a good enough job out of the box. Good luck!
posted by lhauser at 9:57 AM on February 26 [1 favorite]