SMBDrop

How to free up iPhone storage by moving photos to a NAS, safely

By Isaac Griffiths, developer of SMBDrop ·

Photos and videos are usually what fills an iPhone. Moving them to a NAS or a shared folder on your computer is a good way to get the space back, but it's also the easiest way to lose photos for good. The copy has to be complete, it has to be the originals, and you have to understand what deleting on the phone actually does.

Here's the order that keeps you safe: check your iCloud settings, copy, verify, make a second copy, then delete in batches.

Disclosure: I make SMBDrop, one of the tools mentioned in step 2. Every other step applies whatever you use to copy.

Step 0: See what's actually using the space

Open Settings → General → iPhone Storage. If Photos is the big bar, carry on. If it's Messages, much of that may be photos and videos in conversations; the same screen lets you review large attachments. Apps you don't use can be offloaded from here too, which keeps their data.

Step 1: Check iCloud Photos first. This is the trap.

Look at Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Photos.

So decide which you're doing. If you want to keep using iCloud Photos, you don't need to delete anything to free space: Optimize iPhone Storage already does that. If your phone is full and you want to move away from iCloud, don't switch to Download and Keep Originals: it applies to your whole library at once and needs the very space you're trying to free. Leave Optimize iPhone Storage on and export the originals in batches instead, a month or a year at a time. An app that copies originals fetches each one from iCloud as it goes, so it needs an internet connection but not room for the whole library. After each batch, open a few of the files on the NAS and check the counts and sizes (step 3). Don't turn off iCloud Photos or delete anything until you have a complete, independent copy of the whole library and you've verified it (steps 3 and 4). Backing up an iPhone without iCloud covers leaving iCloud in more detail.

Step 2: Copy the originals to your NAS

Any method that keeps originals will do. What matters is that you get the real files, including both halves of Live Photos, not converted JPEGs.

Avoid "Save to Files" for this job unless you've checked the share sheet's format option and you don't mind Live Photos losing their motion. What counts as an original, and why a Live Photo is two files explains the details.

Step 3: Verify the copy before you delete anything

This is the step people skip. Work through one batch, a month or a year at a time, rather than the whole library at once.

  1. Count. In Photos, select the batch and note how many photos and videos it shows. On the NAS, count the files in the folder. Live Photos count twice on the NAS (a .HEIC and a .MOV), so the NAS should have at least as many files as Photos shows items.
  2. Check sizes and types. Swipe up on a few photos in Photos to see their format and size, and compare them with the files on the NAS. A HEIC that arrived as a JPEG, or a 300 MB video that's now 40 MB, means something converted it.
  3. Open a sample. Open a dozen files on a computer, including a few videos all the way through, a Live Photo's .MOV, and anything you care about most.
  4. Check metadata. Capture dates and locations should still be there. On a Mac, Preview's inspector shows them; on Windows, the file's Properties → Details.

If you want certainty about a specific file, compare checksums. On a Mac, shasum -a 256 IMG_1234.HEIC in Terminal; on Windows, Get-FileHash IMG_1234.HEIC in PowerShell. Two copies with the same checksum are identical byte for byte.

Step 4: Make a second copy

Once photos are only on the NAS, the NAS is no longer a backup; it's the only copy. Before deleting from the phone, make sure there's a second one: snapshots on the NAS protect against accidental deletion, and a copy on an external drive or an offsite backup protects against the NAS itself failing. That's the old 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two kinds of storage, one somewhere else.

Step 5: Delete in batches, then empty Recently Deleted

  1. In Photos, select the batch you've verified (for example, everything from 2023) and delete it.
  2. Deleted items go to Recently Deleted and stay there for about 30 days, still using space. That's your safety window if you notice anything missing.
  3. When you're confident, open Albums → Recently Deleted and delete them for good to get the space back.

Keep the photos you look at often on the phone. Moving 2019 off is easy to live with; moving last month off usually isn't.

Bringing a photo back

Files on an SMB share are ordinary files, so you can get them back the same way you sent them. SMBDrop can browse the share and import files onto the iPhone; imports are checked byte-for-byte and never overwrite an existing file, and you can save them to Photos from there. The Files app's Connect to Server can do the same for a few at a time.

FAQ

If I delete photos from my iPhone, are they deleted from my NAS?

No. A copy on an SMB share or NAS folder is independent of the phone. Deleting on the iPhone doesn't touch it. The exception is a sync app set to mirror deletions, so check your NAS app's settings if you use one.

If I delete photos from my iPhone, are they deleted from iCloud?

Yes, if iCloud Photos is on. Deleting on the iPhone deletes the photo from iCloud and every device using it. If your phone is full, leave Optimize iPhone Storage on and copy the originals to your NAS in batches, checking each batch. Don't turn off iCloud Photos or delete anything until you have a complete, independent copy that you've verified.

How do I know my NAS copy is complete?

Work in batches. Compare the item count in Photos with the file count on the NAS (Live Photos are two files), spot-check formats and sizes, open a sample including videos, and compare checksums for anything critical.

Why doesn't deleting photos free space straight away?

Deleted photos stay in Recently Deleted for about 30 days. Empty Recently Deleted to get the space back once you're sure the copy is good.

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