Photos storage ios 15

With the exact same settings on my iPhone Xs and my 13 pro the Photos storage data is taking up 54GB on Xs but it is 130GB on 13 Pro. All the same photos on both devices, however its a few more photos in Xs than there is in 13 Pro. Why is this?

Does “same settings” include the iCloud Photos setting for Optimize Phone Storage vs. Download and Keep Originals?

What is the storage capacity of your two phones? I think that the Optimize Phone Storage setting might be flexible in terms of how many original photos are stored on the phone, depending on the total storage capacity of the phone.

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Yes I have the exact same settings. You have a point there (that different storage capacity on the two devices maybe changes how they handle photo storage) however I have 256 GB storage on both.

Strucks me that it might depend on how much of the total phone storage is full(?)

Just a guess … there may also be a difference in Photos storage behavior based on available storage vs the total storage of the phone. In other words, your older phone might have more memory taken up by apps and data that have accumulated over time, compared to the newer phone. This would affect the way iCloud Photos handles local phone storage if the Optimize Phone Storage setting is enabled.

Perhaps your photos storage might change over time also (setting aside accumulation of new photos). When setting up a new phone, your photos might take up a certain amount of storage, but this could change, as iCloud Photos dynamically allocates storage as your phone’s available storage capacity changes. All of this is a guess on my part. Someone with more technical knowledge could confirm or refute this.

Thanks so much for your time, I guess you are right!
Have a nice day!