iCloud help please

[Juju79]

Hello

i got the iPhone Xs max this week, I’ve come from Samsung s8+.

I wanted to back up my photos so I purchased 50gb iCloud. I clicked back up and in settings under iCloud it said I’d backed up 25gb of data, I had switched on iCloud Drive, but when I went into files app to view my iCloud items there was noting there and it said I’d not used any iCloud storage. In settings if I turned on iCloud photos (I think that was that option) it then showed in iCloud settings that I’d only backed up 25mb of data or something stupid, as though the photos vanished from the back up I’d done to my iCloud. Argh so confusing. I’ve watched videos and Googled but still getting nowhere.

Where can you view your iCloud account and it’s contents? I’m so confused and it’s making me question should I have just waited for the Samsung s10 haha, far easier.

Thank you

Ju

[jonsie]

Yes you can sign into iCloud here

https://www.icloud.com/?id=123

....and yes you shoulda waited

[Juju79]

Thank you.

That just takes me to a screen to click set up iCloud on your device and page with instructions comes up.

I’ve already for iCloud set up on my phone, I just can’t view my cloud anywhere to see the things I’ve saved to t, if that makes sense.

Thank you

Ju

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@Juju79 how to use iCloud here https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204264

[Juju79]

Thank you. Thta explained it well.

I'm just still confused where on my iPhone I'd view my icloud? To see things I'd backed up? I don't have a laptop anymore to view icloud that way. I just use ipad and phone.

Thank you for your help.

Ju

[Juju79]

I even just backed up my ipad and had photos turned on to back up and after the back up went to files and it said in the icloud I had 0 files. What am I doing wrong? I can't seem to view my back up anywhere and that's concerning.

Thank you

Julie

[MI5]

Tbh with you @Juju79 I just use Google photos app on my iPhone.

It's easier and less hassle than icloud which is designed more for syncing multiple apple devices rather than what you want to do.

[Juju79]

Thank you.

Is Google photos private and secure and will they always be there on the app or laptop if I log into Google photos?

Yes I just want a secure back up of all my photos. Coming from my Samsung s8 I transferred all photos to my iPhone. The was about 10k of them haha. Years and years of my kids photos and memories. When transfered to iPhone they weren't in my nice year albums, just a mixed up mess of 10k photos in one album which was a bummer.

I just like to have them on my phone but backed up too.

Thank you.

Ju

[MI5]

Google photos will do all that. Your photos are most likely all on there anyway.
Get the app from app store and try it out.

[davethorp]

If you want to check the photos are backed up to iCloud you can do so in settings/tap on your user account at the top/iCloud/Manage Storage

You should see something similar to this (my photos are in yellow)

You will not see the photos in iCloud Drive as photos sync with the photos app on Apple devices. The main point of iCloud Photo Library is to sync your library across devices without needing to use device storage. My photos library for instance takes 570GB of storage which would only fit on one of my iOS devices and one of my macs. The other devices have low res versions of the photos synced to them to optimise device storage

iCloud Drive where you looked for photos is more for documents and is used a lot more on macs than it is on iOS devices