Your move-in photos may not be the originals any more: where you keep them decides

Most of what we have written is about getting the original file from someone else: a tenant, an applicant, a contractor. This one is about your own photos.

The pictures you took on move-in day are often the strongest evidence in a deposit dispute. But the dispute usually comes a year or more later, and by then the copy you can find may not be the file your phone made. Nobody deleted anything. A shared album, a backup setting or an export button quietly kept a smaller copy instead.

A smaller copy is still a real photograph of the unit. It is just a different file. It has fewer pixels, so the hairline crack is harder to see. Its SHA-256 fingerprint is different from the original’s. And if the camera data did not survive the trip, nothing in the file says which phone took it or when. That matters most on the day a tenant says your photos are AI, because the file you can hand over is your answer.

Three places the original gets swapped for a copy

1. An Apple Shared Album made before iOS 27

Shared Albums are an easy way to show an owner the unit, and many managers use them as the record. For albums made on older software, Apple’s Shared Albums limits page (updated 14 September 2026) says: “When shared, photos are reduced to 2048 pixels on the long edge, except panoramic photos, which can be up to 5400 pixels wide.” Videos “are delivered at up to 720p resolution.”

That changed with this year’s software. Apple’s upgrade page says that “Starting in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, Shared Albums adds support for full-resolution sharing”, and the limits page says photos in the new kind of album “are stored in iCloud in their original formats at full resolution.” But albums made earlier “will stay the same” unless you upgrade them, and the page says that after upgrading, “newly shared photos and videos will be in their original resolution.” It does not say the photos already in the album are restored. So treat anything shared to an older album as the reduced copy. The original is wherever it was taken: the photographer’s own library, if it is still there.

2. Google Photos set to Storage saver

Google Photos backs up in one of two qualities. Its help page says that in Storage saver, “Photos are compressed to save space. If a photo is larger than 16 MP, it’ll be resized to 16 MP.” Photos “may be compressed into a different image format, like a .jpg”, and “Videos higher than 1080p will be resized to high-definition 1080p.” The same page notes that some files are stored at their original size anyway, so you cannot assume either way. Check the file.

If the phone deletes its own copies to free space after backing up, the Storage saver copy may be the only one left. The other setting, Original quality, keeps the file as it was taken.

A related trap: some apps pull photos out of Google Photos through Google’s developer interface. Google’s developer documentation describes the download option as “retaining all the Exif metadata except the location metadata.” So a copy fetched that way arrives without its location, even when the original had one. We have not tested any particular property-management app. If yours imports from Google Photos, ask the vendor what it keeps.

3. The wrong export button on a Mac

Photos on a Mac has two ways to export. Apple’s user guide says Export Unmodified Original exports photos “in the original file format in which they were imported into your photo library.” The ordinary export makes a new file in the format, size and quality you pick. That new file is a copy, made today. When the file is evidence, use Export Unmodified Original.

Two settings that sound risky and are not

• Optimize iPhone Storage. The phone keeps smaller versions, but Apple’s iCloud Photos page says “iCloud Photos stores your photos and videos in their original, high-resolution version.” The original still exists. Download it before you hand it to anyone.
• OneDrive on an iPhone. Microsoft’s support page says the iOS app “uploads High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) photos in their original format, instead of uploading them as JPG.”

A note on iPhone originals and our checker

Most iPhones save photos as HEIC. Since 6 October 2026 our checker reads the camera data inside HEIC files, so you can check the original itself. We have tested that on real HEIC files from an iPhone XR and from Canon and Sony cameras, not yet on a current iPhone. If the checker cannot follow a particular file’s layout it says “Not Read”, which means exactly that: nothing in the file was checked. Either way it records the file’s SHA-256.

So keep the HEIC as the record, and check the HEIC itself. If you also export a JPEG copy, the copy has its own fingerprint, different from the original’s, and may have lost the camera data on the way.

A routine that keeps the original

1. Set your backup to original quality once: Original quality in Google Photos, or iCloud Photos, which stores originals. Check it on every phone that takes inspection photos.
2. Within a week of the inspection, copy the files themselves into the unit’s folder, with Export Unmodified Original on a Mac or by downloading the original from iCloud or Google Photos. A shared album is for showing people, not for keeping the record.
3. Run the batch through the checker and save a report. The report is dated and lists each file’s SHA-256, so a year later anyone can confirm the file you hand over is byte-for-byte the one you checked on the day. It does not prove the photograph is real. Nothing does.
4. Send copies, keep originals. Share however you like. Just do not let the shared copy become the only one.

In some states a written move-in record is required, and in others it simply wins arguments. For the rules state by state, see deposit deduction rules across the Mountain West.

The limits, stated plainly

• The Apple, Google and Microsoft pages quoted here were read in October 2026. Settings move, so check your own before relying on this.
• We have not tested property-management software, tenant portals or messaging apps here. For files coming in from tenants, see how to get the original photo from a tenant.
• Keeping the original proves which file your phone made. It does not prove what the photo shows was there, or when. Camera clocks can be set wrong, and camera data can be edited.
• Our checker gives no confidence score and does not judge a picture by looking at it. A reduced copy is not a fake, and a missing camera record is not proof of anything.
• This is not legal advice.

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ImposterShield reads the evidence inside image and video files. It runs in your browser and uploads nothing. If a file has been stripped, it says so. That is the product working, not failing.