Google Photos or iCloud storage full? These are your options
Keep getting the message that your storage is full? What it means, what you can do, and why paying Google or Apple more is not the only solution.
By Daan, September 22, 2026. 2 minute read.
“Your storage is almost full.” Many people get that message on their phone. They often swipe it away, because what are you supposed to do with it? Still, it is important to act on it.
What does that message mean?
Google gives you 15 GB of free space, Apple 5 GB. Your email, photos and backups all have to fit in there together. After a few years of taking photos, that space is full.
Once the space is full, new photos are no longer saved online. They are then only on your phone. Sometimes you can’t even receive email any more.
Option 1: pay Google or Apple more
That is the easiest route, which is why it is the one you are offered. It works, but you stay dependent on the same American company, and the amount goes up as you take more photos.
Option 2: clear out your photos
You can delete duplicate photos, failed photos and large videos. That helps for a while. But it takes a lot of time, and before you know it you have thrown away something you would have wanted to keep.
Option 3: move to a European photo service
There are European photo services that do the same as Google Photos or iCloud: they automatically keep your photos and show them on all your devices. The differences:
- they fall under European privacy law;
- your photos are locked before they leave your phone, so only you can see them;
- you can often share the space with the whole family.
Option 4: a photo vault at home
For families with a great many photos, a photo vault of your own at home can work out cheaper. One device for the whole family, with no monthly fee per person, and an extra copy kept outside the home.
How do you move your photos?
Google and Apple offer a way to download all your photos in one go. That can take a few hours or even days, and then they need to end up in the new place, with the right date and in the right albums. That is exactly the work I do for you.
Only once everything has been moved safely, and we have checked together that it is all there, do you cancel the old subscription.
Would you like me to arrange this?
Are all your photos only on your phone? I make sure they are kept safe automatically, with a European photo service or in your own photo vault at home.