iOS is giving away large storage space, and surprisingly many people don't know about it.
Photo Backup#
A few days ago, a netizen wanted to back up their massive amount of photos and asked for recommendations for a free cloud storage service.
Although most cloud storage services strongly recommend their own photo backup function, it is easy to upload photos but requires payment to download them.
Some seemingly free online photo storage services, such as Penguin Space or Moment Album, compress the image quality.
Moreover, there is even censorship, and they have the right to delete photos that they are not satisfied with.
iOS Shared Albums#
So, in the end, I recommended the built-in shared album function in iOS. Not only did he not know about it, but many people are also unaware of this feature.
The official statement is that each person can create 200 shared albums, and each album can store 5000 photos or videos, calculated by quantity rather than capacity. They are stored in iCloud space but do not occupy personal iCloud storage. As long as you don't invite others, it remains your private album.
Considering each photo is around 3MB, you can store 1 million photos, which is a capacity of 3TB. It is enough for many years of use. And it's free, without censorship, and the image quality is only slightly compressed. So, for those with limited capacity, you can put your photos in shared albums and delete them from the local album. Shared albums can still be accessed and viewed on other iOS devices.
Shared Gallery#
As a side note, iOS 16 has added a feature called shared gallery, which many people may not know about. It allows you to invite up to 5 people and occupies local storage. It is only suitable for sharing some pictures among family members. Perhaps Apple noticed that many people were taking advantage of shared albums, so they are preparing to patch it.
Now, let's talk about some deeply ingrained habits of certain old friends. They may think that their phones are not secure or they may be afraid of losing them, so they always want to back up their photos to their computers. Personally, I suggest not wasting time on this. Your photos are stored in iCloud, which is the cloud. As long as you remember your Apple ID, you can view your photos on any Apple device at any time.
Online Gallery#
Of course, if you are using Windows, I also don't recommend using any file transfer tools. I recommend using the website public.photos. It can display the photos in your shared albums as a website, creating an online gallery. This makes it convenient to view on your PC and share with others, without being restricted by the official limitations.
Using it is also very simple. First, log in to this website using the same Apple ID as your phone. Then, click on "new album" and enter a name, for example, "666". Then, follow the prompts to open the Photos app, go to the album page, and click on the top left corner to create a shared album. Use the name provided by the website, "wuzhi.666", and click next. Paste the provided email address and wait for a minute or two to receive an email confirming that you have subscribed to your shared album. After that, you can view the photos in your shared album on this website.