It doesn’t upload everything. Recent photos and those you have viewed will stay on your device. So you can’t upload all your pictures to iCloud and have them free up space on your device. You might want to try Google Photos or another backup service.
@Baylor
Seriously, it seems like Apple staff don’t use their own products with 64, 32, or 16 GB storage
Torrance said:
@Baylor
Seriously, it seems like Apple staff don’t use their own products with 64, 32, or 16 GB storage
True, but they’re not really selling products with 32 GB or less anymore. It’s like comparing the storage of a 4 GB original iPhone to what you get on their current devices. As time goes on, storage gets cheaper, but our needs keep growing.
@Baylor
People really don’t get how messed up it is that Apple sells a 64 GB $500 tablet in 2024. I had over 64 GB on a computer from the 1990s, and I had more than 64 GB SSD storage in a 2006 ThinkPad. That’s decades ago, and Apple wants to charge you $200 for extra 64 or 128 GB now. They say they care about the environment, but they’re just making devices outdated before they should be.
Maybe you just have too many photos
Before the new mini came out, I had the 6th gen with 64 GB, thinking that would be enough since I don’t download much. It filled up fast, so I upgraded to the M2 Air for 128 GB and it’s been so much better. The only way I managed was by airdropping the pictures I needed and deleting unnecessary apps.
Another thing is that iOS seems to download thumbnails or low-quality images for all your photos and videos, no matter your settings. This way, you can at least see your photos when you’re offline, but even low quality takes up a lot of space with so many photos.
It’s still working on optimization. This usually happens while charging and can take a while, especially if you have lots of photos. I have about a sixth of that amount, and mine takes a full week to load everything.
They should let us set limits on Photos and Files storage. For instance, if you set Photos to a max of 10 GB, that would mean some photos that haven’t been accessed in six months could be deleted automatically.
How much free iCloud storage do you get? 150,000 photos and videos sounds like a lot
Meade said:
How much free iCloud storage do you get? 150,000 photos and videos sounds like a lot
Lol, that’s a lot of pictures for sure
You might want to look into iCloud storage. I have 2 TB for $9.99 a month, which is the best way to handle it unless you’re planning to upgrade your device.
Seems like they must have taken their Flintstones vitamins
That’s a ton of pictures 
That’s how iCloud has worked for years. The only way to free up space is to sync to another service like Google Photos and then delete the originals to have them stored in the cloud instead.
Maybe you should delete some photos
I wish they had a cleaning app for iPads like CleanMyMac
Just get iCloud