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Cleaning up my 200GB iCloud with some JavaScript

andykong.org

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Re: Cleaning up my 200GB iCloud with some JavaScript

#61

Post by 369548684892826 »

sgt wrote: post #47
Havoc wrote: post #3

Good timing..I've been getting the same warning mails (though 50gb). Was planning to go through photos but checking vids first makes sense

Been getting the same warning emails (200GB in my case). So I tried this now, but it doesn't seem to highlight anything after pasting in the gist into Chrome. Does it work for you?

If you have a Windows machine lying around, the iCloud app lets you download all your media out of iCloud Photos. Once it's all on Windows it's a lot easier to find the largest files!

Re: Cleaning up my 200GB iCloud with some JavaScript

#62

Post by Alifatisk »

Liftyee wrote: post #55
Alifatisk wrote: post #49

I've tried iCloud, Onedrive, Google Photos. Out of all these three, I stuck with Google Photos on my Iphone. iClouds bad pricing and storage issues led me to switch to Google Photos, It's way better. The lack of native support on iOS can be a little cumbersome though. The only thing I wish these cloud providers offered was a way to deduplicate photos / videos. That would make my life so much easier.

> The only thing I wish these cloud providers offered was a way to deduplicate photos / videos. Same here ... but of course that would make it easier for customers to not have to pay more, so sadly don't think it's ever happening.

What makes it worse is even if you run a deduplication app on the folder your syncing to Google Photos, the synchronization is one way only, so the changes does not remove the duplicated items on Google Photos.

Re: Cleaning up my 200GB iCloud with some JavaScript

#64

Post by mmh0000 »

cnicolaou wrote: post #11

Surprisingly, I've received a similar storage notice from Apple before the holidays and I decided to download all photos/videos into my own media server instead of hosting it on iCloud. There is not an easy, straight-forward way to download your archive from iCloud. I am slowly getting there using multiple machines and devices. The issue with the recent changes with Apple is that they increase the prices for no good…

>> There is not an easy, straight-forward way to download your archive from iCloud.

Let me revolutionize your life:

https://github.com/icloud-photos-downloader/icloud_photos_do...

Re: Cleaning up my 200GB iCloud with some JavaScript

#65

Post by frostix »

mft_ wrote: post #18

Okay, so it could be a bug, but it is possible that iCloud is secretly storing more than one version of the file in some cases? (After all, Apple does similar things with other media files.) The example given at the end is interesting: > So iCloud says the video is 128MB, I download it and the video is actually 48MB, and my free storage increases by ~170MB when I deleted it. Interesting! This suggests that iCloud isn…

Differential backups or any sort of versioning seemed like one of the most obvious culprits (that and or total redundant storage to preserve the file) but the issue with all of this is it’s entirely opaque.

Ultimately you’re increasingly tethered to some service for your storage that you pay for periodically based on total storage yet you have little-to-no information how to best optimize that storage if you want to operate in a fixed cost bracket or lower storage/cost ratio. So as a consumer, do I just wave my hands and keep throwing more and more money at the problem, especially now that devices are increasingly pushing everything, including storage, as a subscription service to meet my actual functional needs (that realistically could be met by local storage options if manufacturers didn’t have a vested interest in pushing me towards service based storage solutions)?

The modern business strategy in technology is simply hiding behind complexity. The cost is too complex for you to understand, it gives too much information away about our internals to competitors, and so on. Yet somehow these metrics are derived to assure the business is operating above cost because when the rubber meets the road it must be done, yet when the consumer wants to understand it’s suddenly too complex. The problem is that tech in many cases is growing to scales that really is too complex and business managers know this, so it’s often a valid excuse to hide behind. Conveniently that’s where they focus on investment and padding margins though.

Re: Cleaning up my 200GB iCloud with some JavaScript

#66

Post by captn3m0 »

Alifatisk wrote: post #63
captn3m0 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t even get an option for 200GB increment.

That's weird, so you can only go from 5 GB -> 50 GB -> 2 TB?

Sorry, I meant I never got any additional increment options, even when I was at 200GB.

So I jumped 5, 50, 200, 2000.

Re: Cleaning up my 200GB iCloud with some JavaScript

#67

Post by ezfe »

Alifatisk wrote: post #49

I've tried iCloud, Onedrive, Google Photos. Out of all these three, I stuck with Google Photos on my Iphone. iClouds bad pricing and storage issues led me to switch to Google Photos, It's way better. The lack of native support on iOS can be a little cumbersome though. The only thing I wish these cloud providers offered was a way to deduplicate photos / videos. That would make my life so much easier.

iCloud Photos has deduplication

Re: Cleaning up my 200GB iCloud with some JavaScript

#68

Post by rscrawfo »

Alifatisk wrote: post #51
sandreas wrote: post #40

That's one of the reasons I self-host. I just don't trust the cloud providers regarding clarity and transparency... even if my self-hosted solution was far less reliable, less secure and less performant (I imagine it's not ;), I probably wouldn't change. I personally use immich[1], a very complete solution with iOS / Android App, Server-Component and Sync / Backup option. [1]: https://immich.app/

It looks interesting but the warning at the top tells me I should wait for it to become more stable?

I would if you want to use it as backup. But if you just use it to display photos and have another process for sync it’s absolutely fantastic!

To me it’s better than any other interface I’ve tried. Commercial or home lab.

Re: Cleaning up my 200GB iCloud with some JavaScript

#69

Post by Dalewyn »

frostix wrote: post #65
mft_ wrote: post #18

Okay, so it could be a bug, but it is possible that iCloud is secretly storing more than one version of the file in some cases? (After all, Apple does similar things with other media files.) The example given at the end is interesting: > So iCloud says the video is 128MB, I download it and the video is actually 48MB, and my free storage increases by ~170MB when I deleted it. Interesting! This suggests that iCloud isn…

Differential backups or any sort of versioning seemed like one of the most obvious culprits (that and or total redundant storage to preserve the file) but the issue with all of this is it’s entirely opaque. Ultimately you’re increasingly tethered to some service for your storage that you pay for periodically based on total storage yet you have little-to-no information how to best optimize that storage if you want to…

>So as a consumer, do I just wave my hands and keep throwing more and more money at the problem,

Yes.

I can go and buy 1TB of Microsoft OneDrive or 2TB of Google Drive for less than a Franklin a year, and most people won't even need 1TB let alone 2TB. Both Microsoft and Google also offer 100GB plans for a Jackson a year, which is what I purchase myself. The average person can get by paying a Washington per month to Apple for 50GB of iCloud.

The amount of money I would save from managing photos myself locally isn't worth the time spent nor the money spent on the hardware.

EDIT:

For the downvoters, consider this: If I were to manage all this myself, I would need at least three storage mediums with one being a different form factor to satisfy the 3-2-1 backup scheme. I would also need to procure arrangements for that third backup copy in the 3-2-1 scheme. And I would need to spend time managing it all.

That is going to cost me more than a Franklin per year. Life is short, my time is precious, and my money is ultimately expendable.

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