Photo storage glossary
One term, one page. Plain-English definitions of the iPhone photo and storage words people meet when their phone fills up — what each one means, what it costs in space, and exactly where to change it in iOS.
- HEIC
Apple’s default photo format since iOS 11 — about half the size of the same shot as JPEG, and not where your storage went.
- Recently Deleted
The 30-day album. Deleted photos keep their full size until it is emptied — which is why storage doesn’t drop right away.
- Live Photo
A still plus about three seconds of video, shown as one item — and roughly double the storage of a plain photo.
- Burst photos
Ten frames a second under one thumbnail. Each frame is a full-size file, which is why bursts are the best-disguised weight in a library.
- Near-duplicate photos
The same moment, shot again — different files, so no album gathers them. Usually the biggest recoverable category in a large library.
- ProRAW
Raw DNG capture on Pro iPhones — around 25 MB a frame at 12 MP, and closer to 75 MB at 48 MP.
- Optimize iPhone Storage
The setting people misread. It moves originals to iCloud and leaves smaller versions on the phone — it never shrinks the library.
- iCloud Photos
One library mirrored across your devices. A delete travels to all of them — which is why sync is not a backup.
- Duplicates album
Apple’s own duplicate finder, iOS 16 and later. Excellent on true copies, blind to near-duplicates.
- Screenshots
A PNG of your display, saved into the library forever for a reason that expired in an hour.
- Camera roll
The old name for your main library grid — and a hard look at what the “items” count at the bottom actually counts.
- iPhone storage vs iCloud storage
The most common confusion in photo storage: one is fixed and physical, the other is rented — and more of the second is not more of the first.