User level: Level 1 (5 points)my phone keeps saying i dont have storage but im on 2TB family sharing and its not full as yet, been deleting but still
Posted on Oct 10, 2026 11:36 PM
User level: Level 10 (95,874 points)Oct 11, 2026 3:04 AM in response to siphosethu99
Device storage is wholly different that cloud storage. If you’re out of space on your device, you’ll need to delete it offload content. You can also elect to optimize things like photos to keep originals in iCloud and lower resolution files on your device to save space.
User level: Level 7 (25,466 points)Oct 11, 2026 8:00 AM in response to siphosethu99
As muguy says, iCloud does not add any extra storage to an iPhone. It does offer another place to store some things, but everything that's in iCloud has to have been on your device first, so you need room on the phone to even swap stuff around. Many operations use the iPhone's empty storage space to move files around. If you run out of storage, then those operations may not be able to be completed and, ironically, that can mean that even deleting doesn't work. If you have less than 10% of your iPhone's storage available, then things can get lost forever. This is also true if your iCloud storage space gets low.
Optimize storage allows you to keep you pictures at iCloud while only having smaller, screen-sized pictures on your phone. But, again, there has to be room on the phone to be able to do the operations.
You can see this:
Manage storage on iPhone - Apple Support
but it doesn't offer any magic solutions. You have to get rid of stuff on the phone. You may have to delete small things first so you will get enough room to delete larger things.
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256374039