
The first and most obvious is to switch to the Download Originals option. If you really want to get the original media from a photo or video stored in iCloud, there are a few things you can do. How to get full-resolution media in the Photos app But the downside is that the quality is considerably worse than the original media. The good part is that these lower resolution previews are downloaded faster than the original files, which is important when you don’t have a fast internet connection available. This has both positive and negative points. But since we now have things like ProRes 4K videos or ProRAW images that result in really large files, iCloud shows users a lower-resolution version of that media. In the past, the Photos app used to download the original image or video from iCloud when that media wasn’t available locally.

While this isn’t exactly a new “feature,” it seems that Apple has indeed further reduced the resolution of the previews (especially for videos) when you don’t have local files downloaded to your device. Recently, some users on Reddit raised a discussion about the Apple Photos app showing low-quality previews for media stored in iCloud Photos. Your library will still be there in the Photos app, but the media will only be downloaded from iCloud when you choose to open them. In other words, you may need an internet connection to open your photos and videos stored in iCloud. When this option is enabled, the Photos app will eventually remove the local version of your photos and videos from your device to save storage. However, turning this option on can end up filling up your device’s internal storage pretty quickly.īecause of this, Apple also offers the Optimize Storage option. This means that even when you don’t have a Wi-Fi or cellular connection, you can still check your entire photo library. The benefit of choosing Original Download is that you’ll always have a copy of all your photos and videos with you. The first option, as the name suggests, will simply back up all your photos and videos to iCloud, but every file will also be stored locally on your device.

If you’re an iCloud Photos user, there are two options available in the Photos app settings: Download Originals or Optimize Storage. But how does this affect the quality of the media you see in the Photos app? Download Originals or Optimize Storage However, Apple also lets users remove the original files from the device in order to save storage.

With iCloud Photos, iPhone, iPad, and Mac users can store all their photos and videos in iCloud so that they are always kept synchronized between all devices, while also being backed up automatically.
