With the ‘Download & Keep Originals’ option enabled, your iPhone’s storage space will fill up quickly – we’ll show you how to disable it.
Turn off “Download and Save Originals.”
The ‘Download & Save Originals’ feature refers to the storage of photos and videos you take with your iPhone. If you have enabled this feature, you choose to save all photos and videos in full resolution on your iPhone. So you can be sure that you only have the best versions of your photos and videos on your iPhone. That obviously has advantages. However, a major disadvantage is that it takes up a lot of storage space (depending on how many photos you take). But luckily you can do something about that.
If you have an iPhone on which the amount of storage space is limited, it is better not to enable that function. Instead of ‘Download and save originals’, you can choose the ‘Optimize iPhone storage’ function. The original photos and videos on your iPhone are then automatically replaced by smaller versions, which also take up much less storage space. However, the original versions are still within you iCloudso you can always download them from there. Check which choice you have set as follows:
- Open the Settings app;
- Scroll down and tap ‘Apps’;
- Scroll to ‘Photos’ and tap it;
- Check the box next to ‘Optimize iPhone Storage’.
If you change your mind again or, for example, you have purchased a new iPhone with much more storage space, you can still choose the ‘Download and save originals’ option here. Your photos and videos on your iPhone will then be replaced by the original and full versions.
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