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Can you backup photos or do they just “sync”

I’ve read all articles explaining how iCloud backups works and how iCloud photos work, but it seems like photos will sync and be uploaded (when on WiFi ) to iCloud and shared across devices.


But how can photos be “backed up” to the cloud, so that I can delete them on my device to free up storage. But I want to be able to backup new photos as well so I can’t just turn off iCloud sharing.


Any ideas?

Posted on Dec 20, 2019 3:24 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 20, 2019 3:35 PM

Neither iCloud Photos nor iCloud Backup will accomplish what you want.


iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photo Library turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 20, 2019 3:35 PM in response to corbin35

Neither iCloud Photos nor iCloud Backup will accomplish what you want.


iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photo Library turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.


Dec 20, 2019 3:53 PM in response to corbin35

If you don't have iCloud Photos turned on then photos are included in iCloud Backup (unless you specifically exclude them),

However, that doesn't mean that you can delete them from the phone and still have the photos recoverable for an unlimited time in the future. If they are deleted from the device they aren't included in future backups and will be lost. Also note that you cannot selectively restore a backup; when you restore, all data on your phone (not just photos) is replaced with the data from the time of the backup.

Can you backup photos or do they just “sync”

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