Welp. Guess it’s finally time to delete 10,000 photos.

But hold up. Your photos might not be the problem.

Recently, a follower told me she had about 30,000 photos and was using 1.9 TB of iCloud storage. Meanwhile, I have about 35,000 photos and use only around 300 GB.

But before you start deleting memories, check what ELSE you’re storing. Here’s where I’d start.

What’s actually using your iCloud storage?

On your iPhone, open Settings → your name → iCloud → Storage. You’ll see which categories are using your space.

As you review what’s using your iCloud space, ask yourself:
Do I need access to this across my devices?
and Would I be devastated if I lost it forever?

If the answer to both is no, it’s a good candidate to remove. If the answer to either is yes, understand where you’ll keep it before removing its iCloud copy.

1. Clean up or disable iCloud Backup.

Start with Settings → your name → iCloud → Storage → Backups.

Do you see a backup for an old iPhone or iPad you no longer use? Removing it can free up space. Tap the device, then choose Turn Off and Delete from iCloud.

iCloud Backup and iCloud Photos are separate settings. iCloud Backups is not required to use iCloud Photos.

Personally, I don’t use iCloud Backup. I choose which things I want stored in iCloud; the important ones for me are Photos, Notes, and Contacts.

That doesn’t mean everyone should turn Backup off. Syncing the items I do won’t preserve everything needed to restore your phone. If that matters to you, keep iCloud Backup or set up a device backup on your computer.

2. Review or disable Messages.

Messages can be another sneaky storage hog. All those videos and attachments in your conversations can add up. Check Settings → your name → iCloud → Storage → Messages to see how much space it’s using.

I personally don’t use Messages in iCloud. But if having your message history stay updated across your Apple devices matters to you, you may want to keep it on.

Here’s the catch: turning off Messages sync isn’t a guaranteed storage fix if you still have iCloud Backup enabled. Messages that aren’t syncing through Messages in iCloud are included in your device backup instead.

If you decide to leave Messages on, you can free space by removing specific conversations or attachments you don’t need. When you save any photos or videos you want from Messages, they’ll stay in Photos even after you remove from Messages (you don’t need two copies).

3. Review app data.

Your storage list may include apps you didn’t realize were using iCloud. In Settings → your name → iCloud → See All turn off anything that doesn’t pass the ‘would I be devastated to lose this?’ test.

I personally have disabled ALL apps. Like I said before, I only want Photos, Notes and Contacts using my iCloud space. I know that if I lost my iPhone, I can always reinstall my apps (for free) from the app store on a new phone.

4. Check your family’s storage usage

If you share an iCloud+ plan, your own account may not be using most of the space. Open Settings → Family → Subscriptions → iCloud+ to review the shared plan and family usage. Sharing storage doesn’t automatically share your photos, messages, or files. Everyone uses their own Apple Account, but their storage usage counts toward the same pool.

Have each person review the three steps above to free space for everyone.

Pro Tip: if one person needs substantially more space, compare the cost of getting them their own plan vs upgrading the entire family to a more expensive shared plan.

What if photos really are the issue?

Then your library may simply need a bigger plan. I’d rather you pay for enough space than constantly delete photos you want to keep. I explain that approach in What to Do When Your Cloud Storage Is Full.

Having a lot of photos is NOT a problem. I LOVE having 35k photos stored in iCloud because of the amazing search features and tech that allow me to use and enjoy my photos… with ease!

Still confused by iCloud?

My free Understanding iCloud Guide explains how it works, common myths, and my recommended settings so you can decide what makes sense for YOUR life.

The post how to free up iCloud storage without deleting photos appeared first on Miss Freddy.

currently…

making photo placemats for my kids upcoming birthdays. They love them.

working on a gallery wall in our hallway featuring family photos from all our professional photo sessions over the years.

going to see Sara Bareilles next weekend and I seriously can’t wait. I saw her at the Minnesota Zoo back in 2011 and still remember how amazing her voice is live!

reading The Elements by John Boyne. I love his writing.

listening to The Telepathy Tapes podcast. It’s blowing my actual mind.

finishing the Iron Series in the CGX app. I can’t believe I completed all 50 sessions.

standing on a vibration plate for 10 minutes a day as my wellness habit for the month. I’ve had it for a year, kind of thought it was a gimmick, but have been surprised how much of a difference it’s making when I use it consistently.

waiting for the results of the recent print test I’m doing for Do Crew. I ordered the same two photos from 12 different places and so far the results have been really interesting!

playing with a really cool new software that helps with scanned images. I can’t wait to share more about really soon.

speaking at the More For Moms conference later this week!

The post life right now [september] appeared first on Miss Freddy.

As a professional photo organizer, I’m always most interested in the changes that make it easier to organize, find and actually USE the photos on your phone. Here are the iOS 27 Photos changes I think you should know about.

iOS 27 Photos Updates

Shared Albums are finally full resolution!

This is a BIG one! It’s always irked me that iCloud Shared Albums reduced the resolution of anything you added (not enough to stop using them, but still annoying). In other words, someone’s photo you saved from your Shared Album wasn’t necessarily the same full-quality file sitting in their Library.

With iOS 27, Shared Albums now support full-resolution photos and videos! Hooray!

There is rumor that this will end the loophole where Shared Albums did not count toward your iCloud storage, but that remains to be seen.

You can rate photos 1–5 stars.

You can now give photos a rating from one to five stars. If you’ve used photo management software like Adobe Lightroom in the past, star ratings may already be familiar to you. They give you another way to identify and sort your best photos.

But do you NEED to start rating every photo in your camera roll? Absolutely not. Personally, I still think the simple Favorite button is enough for most people. I use Favorites to quickly identify the photos I love and want to find again.

But I can see star ratings being useful when you’re working on a specific project. Maybe five stars are the absolute BEST photos you want in your family yearbook, four stars are strong contenders and three stars are backups. Or perhaps you’re sorting through hundreds of photos from a vacation and want a little more nuance than Favorite/Not Favorite.

It’s another tool in your organizing toolbox. Use it if it makes your life easier. Ignore it if it makes organizing your photos feel like more work!

You can add keywords to your photos.

Keywords have existed in the Mac Photos app for a long time, but with iOS 27, you can finally add them right from your iPhone. Apple has also made keywords searchable on the iPhone.

So… how is a keyword different than the caption option we’ve had for awhile?

A caption is a description of a photo. You might write something like, “Paint Color: Sherwin Williams Retreat”

A keyword is a label or tag that you would use repeatedly on several photos. For that same photo, your keywords might be “family history”, “school” or “scanned photo”.

Again, I don’t think you need to start adding keywords to every photo in your Library. Apple Photos is already VERY good at searching the actual contents of your photos. You can search for things like “dog in snow,” “birthday cake,” or “beach” without manually tagging anything.

But keywords can be helpful for things Apple can’t automatically identify. For example, you could “Christmas card” for contenders for this year’s card (though I use Albums for this purpose instead).

You can save a still photo from a video.

FINALLY! Have you ever recorded a video and realized afterward that there was one perfect moment you wish you had captured as a photo?

In the past, I recommended using the free FrameGrab app to pull a high-quality still photo from your video.

But with the iOS 27 Photos updates, you can now do this right inside the Photos app. Open the video, pause it around the moment you want, then tap the three dots in the top right and choose ‘Save Video Frame As Photo.”

Your iPhone will extract that individual frame and save it as a photo in your Library, keeping the date taken intact!

I LOVE this addition because I take a lot of video. Sometimes the best “photo” of a moment is hiding inside a video you already captured, and now you don’t need a separate app to get it.

Overall, I’m excited about the iOS 27 Photos updates.

Last year’s iOS 26 update felt mostly like Apple rearranging the furniture. This year, we’re getting some useful new tools.

My favorites are definitely the full-resolution Shared Albums and the ability to grab a photo from a video. Star ratings and keywords are nice additions too, especially for people who want a little more control over how they organize their photos.

But remember: just because Apple gives you another way to organize your photos doesn’t mean you have to use it.

You do NOT need to rate every photo. You do NOT need to keyword your entire camera roll. You do NOT need to turn photo organizing into a giant project. Use the features that make your photos easier to find and enjoy… and happily ignore the rest!

Want to make your Photos app work better for you?

My new Camera Roll Reboot is a fun, step-by-step guide (fully updated for iOS 27!) that walks you through the settings and features of the Photos App.. so you can take control of your camera roll in under 30 mins! Find your favorite photos faster, clean up some clutter automatically, and feel more confident using the camera roll you already have. No massive organizing project required!

The post ios 27 photos updates appeared first on Miss Freddy.

currently…

settling into a school routine. The kids are both at the same school this year which is making life SO much easier!

working more in my basement office because the dog is finally needing less daytime supervision.

obsessing over Wispr Flow… it’s saving me SO much time replying to messages, DMs, emails and more! It’s SO much better than the built-in dictation on my iPhone and I love using this from my computer as well.

loving the new cooler (I got the white one) that I splurged on prior to hosting my sister’s bridal shower. I can’t wait to use it again and again!

reading The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow.

listening to The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett.

wearing this comfortable tennis skirt on repeat because it’s still so dang hot here.

eating from a new 8 week meal plan I put together with the help of TikTok, the Recipe Notes app, and ChatGPT.

buying heavier dumbbells. I’ve stayed committed to strength training through the CGX app and it’s fun to see I can handle heavier weights now.

promoting the GOHQ event with enthusiasm because I look forward to it ALL YEAR LONG! Get your free ticket!

The post life right now [august] appeared first on Miss Freddy.

Let’s walk through it.

don’t panic (seriously)

Acknowledge how overwhelming it can feel to suddenly become responsible for someone else’s lifetime of memories. And the emotions that come with it.

Give yourself permission to take your time. These photos have already waited decades to be dealt with. They can wait a little longer while you get emotionally ready to tackle the project.

step 1: get them somewhere safe

Before you do anything else, get the boxes out of danger. That means out of:

• attics (too hot)
• garages (too humid, too many bugs)
• basements (flood risk, mold risk)

Move them to an interior closet, a spare bedroom, or under a bed. Somewhere climate-controlled and boring. You’re not organizing yet. You’re just making sure nothing gets worse while you wait to start the project.

step 2: do a quick review (this part shrinks the project considerably)

This is my favorite step, because it’s where the project stops feeling impossible. You’re going to do a fast pass through the boxes and make quick decisions about whether to keep or toss. Separate documents or non-photo items into their own pile.

This is your time to toss the doubles (or triples!), blurry or terrible photos, photos without people where you don’t understand the context, etc. When I did my own family collection, over 50% of what was in the boxes wasn’t worth keeping or digitizing. Half. Gone. The project got SO much smaller, and the photos that remained actually felt meaningful because they weren’t buried under 20 blurry shots of somebody’s thumb (that someone paid to develop and therefore felt required to keep?).

Don’t overthink this pass. If you’re not sure, keep it. The point is to get the obvious trash out of the way.

step 3: sort into high-level categories

Here’s where people get stuck: they try to sort hyper-specifically by person, by year, and by event all at once, and their dining room table becomes a photo minefield they can’t clean up for weeks.

Don’t do that. At this stage, you only need high-level buckets. Something like:

• by decade (60s, 70s, 80s, 90s)
• by life stage (childhood, high school, early marriage, kids)
• by city if your family moved a lot
• by generation if you inherited multiple families’ worth (grandparents, parents, you)

These buckets exist to give some basic structure to the project and provide clear stop and start points on the next step. “I’m going to digitize the 1970s box today” is a real, concrete task. “I’m going to digitize all of grandma’s photos” is a task that feels too big to begin.

The finer sorting (by person, exact year, event, etc) is SO much easier after digitizing, because you can drag and drop and search instead of shuffling paper around.

step 4: digitize (DIY or hire it out)

Now you actually turn the piles into files. You have two real options:

DIY. You buy or borrow a scanner, set up a system, and work through the boxes at your own pace. This is the right choice if you have time and patience. It’s also cheaper up front, though it costs you hours.

Hire a professional. You ship the boxes (or hand them off), and someone else does the scanning. This is the right choice if you’re short on time or if you know yourself and know the boxes will sit in that closet for five years if you don’t hand them off.

There’s no wrong answer. This blog post walks through some considerations to help you make this decision.

step 5: organize and back up

Once your photos are digitized, they need a real home and two backup copies.

I recommend importing your digital photos into a photo service with smart search and facial recognition, like Apple Photos or Google Photos. These tools can automatically recognize things like dogs, soccer, birthdays, and other subjects, making it much easier to find specific photos later. You can also create more specific albums if you want to organize by person, event, year, or anything else.

For your two backup copies, keep it simple. External hard drives are a great option, or you can create a copy on a flash drive to give to another family member. The goal is to make sure your family’s memories don’t exist in just one place.

step 6: decide what to keep (physically)

Once your photos are safely digitized and backed up, you get to decide what happens to the original prints.

You have my permission to do whatever feels right for you. Keep the originals if they’re meaningful to you, if you love having something tangible, or if you simply don’t feel ready to let them go. Toss them if you’ve made peace with keeping the memories digitally and don’t want the physical clutter.

There’s no “right” answer here. Keep them. Toss them. Keep some and toss some. It’s your family, your memories, and your decision.

step 7: actually enjoy them

This is the whole point. Digitizing is the initial finish line… now comes the fun stuff.

Maybe that looks like:

• A photo book of the highlights from each side of the family
• A shared album with siblings and cousins
• A slideshow at the next family gathering
• A collection of favorites for the next generation

These photos have been sitting in boxes long enough. Now it’s time to actually use them, share them, and enjoy the memories they hold.

Ready to Get Those Photos Out of the Boxes?

You don’t have to tackle this project alone or figure it all out yourself.

My Scanning & Digitization Services can help you turn boxes of old photos, slides, and other family memories into organized digital files you can actually enjoy.

Prefer to DIY? My Organizing Old Photos Course walks you through the process step-by-step so you can digitize and organize your family photos yourself.

Now… go open one box!

The post what to do with boxes of family photos you inherited appeared first on Miss Freddy.