Where are my photos stored?
You are using your iPhone and/or a Mac, and possibly iCloud. Where are your photos – locally, at Apple, or both?
It depends on multiple dimensions, also on your system settings. Below some guide for orientation. The biggest difference results out of your Mac Photos App setting (or iPhone System settingon the Photos App, where you decide whether your library is handled as „iCloud Photos“ or not. Let me walk you through.
How to find the settings?
Mac: Open your Photos App –> Menu Photos –> Settings –> iCloud –> Checkbox „iCloud Photos“
iPhone/iPad: Open your System Settings –> Apps –> Photos –> Toggle „iCloud Photos“
If iCloud Photos active
Your data will be stored primarily on Apple iCloud Server. Your device is mirroring data from the iCloud Servers on your local photo library to the extent local storage space is sufficient. Also if you take new photos or are editing images, the changes are first stored locally on device, and the system will synchronise the data to the iCloud servers.
Depending on the system setting „optimise iPhone memory“ the system may automatically purge data if local storage gets scarce; the system then purges local data it thinks you currently don’t need and loads it on demand.
If you want to have your data really completely captured or backed up, you will need to grab both the online data from iCloud, AND local data which may not yet be synchronized to iCloud.
If iCloud Photos not active
All your image data will be stored locally on your device only. If you want to sync it to other devices, you will need iTunes or 3rd party tools.
Where is the photo library data on my device?
The Photo Library is a package containing subfolders, database files and image files. The system stores it in the user’s path and displays it as if it were one big file:
/Users/(user)/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibraryOn iOS devices, you will not be able to access the path or the file. Also Apps are sandboxed and can not access the file directly. Apps can only access the data via Apple’s official Photos API.
On Mac devices, users can access the file. The strong recommendation is to keep hands off the file unless you have a backup and know what you are doing. Inspecting the File is possible if you use the Finder – and right-click (you may need Strg+click) the file, and choose „show package contents“.