There are several tricks and features to ensure your photos and videos don’t lose quality
Without a doubt the service iCloud that Apple offers its users is one of the best options the ones you have when you find that iPhone, iPad or Mac storage space is running out but you want to keep your favorite photos or apps.
On top of all that, iCloud offers a synchronization between devices pretty decent and fast and you can even delete some original files to store them in the cloud to save even more storage.
If you have ever used this service with your photographs, you have surely noticed that the Photo quality and the videos drop a bit. If you do not want this to happen to you, below we will analyze different ways so that it does not happen.
Settings in the Photos app
The first thing we need to know is that in the Photos app we have two options that we can use to store the files: “Download original photos” or “Optimize storage”.
If you choose the first option, iCloud will do a backup copy of all your photos and videos, but each file will also be stored on your device, so if you want to save space, it is not recommended to do so.
Instead, Optimize Storage is surely the solution you’ve been waiting for to your storage problems. With this option enabled, the Photos app will be free to access deletion of the original version of your photos and videos to save that space.
The bad thing about this is that you will have to have Internet connection to open those photos or videos stored in the cloud whenever you want to view them. Your library will still be in the Photos app, and files will download from iCloud whenever you want to open them.
Poor quality preview
It seems that for some time now the company Apple the quality has gone down again files stored in iCloud since in the past the Photos app would download the original image or video when you couldn’t access it locally.
This “update” is due to the fact that from now on the photos and especially the videos, are very large and high quality files and iCloud then shows us a reduced size and quality version.
Like almost everything in life, this has its positive side: files with a lower resolution they download faster than the original files, which is quite noticeable when the internet connection is slower than expected.
You can get the files with original resolution
If you are concerned about the files not having the optimum resolution, there is several possibilities
The first What you can do is change the option and download the original files as explained above, but remember that this will affect your internal storage space. For that:
- open app Settings.
- Click inside Pictures.
- Activate the option Download and keep the originals.
There is another trick to force downloading the original file instead of the lower resolution preview that the app gives you. When it comes to a photo, zoom in pictures sometimes you just have to force the application to download the original files to see all the details. This, although a temporary fix, may be worth a good look at the photo.
If you have a Macyou can also see the original file in the menu file then in Export > Export unmodified original.
Many of us will agree that Apple could i add an option to allow those who wanted to see the maximum resolution of the files even if it meant waiting longer to download it. We’ll see if that comes true in future iOS updates.
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