“Turn off download originals” is how people pronounce Optimize iPhone Storage when they search for how to free up iPhone storage without deleting photos. Azalea does not host originals, so there is no matching switch in Cloud Album. The second copy has to already exist on a disk or bucket you control. If the check failed, do not offload.

I treat offload as a separate session from backup. On 14 Mar 2026 the iPhone 15 finished 18,432 items / 86.41 GB to USB. We opened stills and a 4K clip from the disk that evening. Optimize went on afterwards. A week later Settings → iPhone Storage → Photos was 41.6 GB. The disk library had not moved. That drop is iOS evicting locals, not Azalea deleting anything.

After a claim, the new phone does not ingest every original into the camera roll. That is the other half of freeing space: download on demand. In the Pixel 8 → iPhone 16 run (2 Apr 2026, 11,614 items, 81.95 GB, S3 us-west-2) the system Recents stayed empty until a few test downloads. The backed-up library held the keys. Favorites did not travel; Android cannot reuse iOS local_identifier.

What remains, once Pending is 0

iOS Settings → Photos → Optimize iPhone Storage, only after another copy exists and you have opened it.
Manual delete of videos you have opened on USB or S3. Recently Deleted is a 30-day wish, not a backup; empty it only if you accept the loss.
Android: delete in the system gallery or use the OEM cleaner, still only after the MediaStore object exists on the target. Azalea will not offer “delete device copies” the way Google Photos does.

Do not combine Google Photos “delete device copies,” iCloud Optimize, and Azalea against the same local files. Three janitors, one roll.

Steps

Finish backup in Azalea until Pending is 0. Failed must be empty or explained. A 2 MB black MP4 that already failed playback on the Pixel stayed unrecoverable in April; we left it in the ledger so the next run would not treat it as new. That is not a reason to wipe the rest of the library, and it is not a reason to offload unopened video.
Open twenty items from the destination, not from the phone grid. Include the newest shot, the oldest shot, the longest 4K clip, one Live Photo pair, and one ugly filename. On USB, plug the disk into a computer if you want a Finder or Explorer stat; do not rename. On S3, download a key and compare bytes.
Screenshot the Azalea status page. Write down Settings → iPhone Storage → Photos (88.1 GB on the lab iPhone 15 before Optimize).
Then, and only then, enable Optimize iPhone Storage, or delete specific videos you have already watched on the destination. Azalea has no toggle for this. Bundle net.duguying.photos does not keep a shadow original for you.
Recheck Photos in Settings a few days later. The destination library size must be stable. If USB Pending climbs again because you shot new video, those new files are not covered by last week’s offload.

USB jobs need the app in the foreground. If you offload while a USB run is still paused on a lock screen, you can evict a local that never reached the disk. Watch Pending, not the Live Activity. Tap Resume Backup after a lock. Tap Check again after a replug.

On Android, Automatic backup plus a foreground notification is still killable. Xiaomi 14 HyperOS 2.0.5 in the family NAS case (DSM 7.2.2, share photos) showed a live notification while the worker was already dead. Do not delete gallery copies because the notification looked healthy. Open Status. If Pending has not moved, resume, then verify, then delete.

One failure: offloading into a full iCloud plan

The March iPhone 15 had a 200 GB iCloud plan that was already full. Optimize could not park originals in iCloud, so the Photos line would not have fallen, and any fantasy that “iCloud has them” was false. USB went first for that reason. If your plan is full, Optimize is not a free-space tool. It is a wait. Freeing space without deleting photos, in that state, means a second copy on USB or S3, then either waiting for iCloud quota or deleting only files you have opened on that second copy.

English object-storage tests used S3 us-west-2. A bucket profile with the wrong region fails Test Connection on the first list. Do not offload after a red signature error. You have not made a second copy.

Picking a folder inside iCloud Drive as a “USB” target is not a second copy either. The confirm exists because that path puts bytes back in Apple’s account. Use a physical volume or a bucket whose keys you hold.

FAQ

Can I free up iPhone storage without deleting photos if I only use Azalea?

Yes, by letting iOS Optimize run after Azalea has a verified original on disk or in your bucket. Azalea itself will not evict PhotoKit assets. If you refuse iCloud entirely, delete only items you have opened on USB or S3, or use a larger phone. There is no Azalea-hosted original to fetch later.

After I claim a library on a new iPhone, why is Recents empty?

Claim reads the ledger. It does not inject every file into the system camera roll. Download what you need. That is how the new phone stays small. The old phone can Optimize or sit in a drawer for 48 hours. See the switch-day checklist.

Is Recently Deleted a safety net?

For 30 days, on that device, if you have not emptied it. It is not a backup, it does not survive a wipe, and it does not exist on the USB disk unless you exported first. Use Diagnostics if you are unsure whether export finished.

What about Android Storage Saver / Google compression?

Azalea does not write a saver tier. If you already uploaded to Google Photos in compressed mode, that is a different, smaller file. Do not delete the MediaStore original until you have the Azalea copy. Android auto backup covers permissions and WorkManager.

Where do I download Azalea?

/en/download. Quality versus Optimize is a longer argument in original vs optimized. USB behaviour is on the USB feature page.

Offload originals after a backup you have actually opened