Where can I store vault photos when my iCloud or Google Drive is full?

The free backup comes first

York Vault backs up every item for free to storage you already own. On iPhone and iPad, that is your own iCloud. On Android, it is your own Google Drive. We hold no copy. See encrypted backup.

That storage has limits. Apple gives “5 GB of storage for free”, and sells more as iCloud+. Google says: “Each Google Account includes up to 15 GB of storage, which is shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos.” A library with a lot of video can need more than that.

York Cloud is for that case. It is part of Pro. See pricing for the plans.

When York Cloud helps

You want to	Without York Cloud	With York Cloud
Back up a large library	Buy more iCloud or Google storage	Store it in York Cloud
Sync one library between iPhone and Android	Not possible	Sync through York Cloud
Share an album with people you pick	Not possible	Use shared albums
Open your library in a browser	Not possible	Use the web app

Sync between devices on the same platform does not need York Cloud. In Plus, iPhone, iPad and Mac sync through your own iCloud, and Android devices sync through your own Google Drive. A library on both iPhone and Android syncs through York Cloud, in Pro. See sync across devices.

How an upload works

1. York Vault encrypts the item on your phone.
2. York Vault asks our server for a one-time upload address.
3. Your phone uploads the encrypted item straight to storage.
4. The storage confirms the upload, and the item counts as backed up.

The storage is Cloudflare R2. The one-time addresses are what Cloudflare calls presigned URLs, for “granting temporary access to objects without exposing your API credentials”. Your item goes from your phone to storage. York Vault encrypts it before it leaves, and no server on the way can read it.

What we hold

We hold encrypted data and no key. We cannot open your items, and we cannot read their names, dates, places or albums. Support never asks for your code or your recovery key, and nobody here could use them. See what we can and cannot see.

This also means we cannot reset your code. Your 12-word recovery key opens your library on a new phone.

If Pro ends

York Vault never holds your own items behind a payment. Viewing, export and restore of your items stay free on every plan, including after Pro ends. Export everything is one action and needs no plan. See what stays free.

How other vault clouds work

App	Cloud storage	Where we read it
Private Photo Vault	Cloud Vault on a paid plan. “The free version of the app does not backup your files to Cloud Vault.” Its app text also says: “Cloud backup will be deleted in %@. Renew your subscription now to fix it”.	App Store listing and app package
Keepsafe	“Private Cloud: Stores up to 10,000 items in Keepsafe” on Premium. On a downgrade, its app text says “Basic reduces your Private Cloud storage.”	App Store listing and app package
NQ Vault	Paid cloud backup. After a plan ends: “Cloud Backup space has been reset to 1GB.”	App package

We read each app package in September 2026 and checked the listings on 2026-10-03. In the 836 App Store reviews we studied, 63 describe a paywall in front of files already in a vault. One Private Photo Vault user wrote: “Unless I buy a subscription all will be erased.”

For the full backup design, read how backup works. To compare one of these apps in detail, see our Private Photo Vault alternative page.