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if I send all my photos to cloud photo can I then delete them from my phone? I'm trying to switch phones . thanks

If I send all my photos to cloud photo can I then delete them from my phone? I'm trying to change phones? Thanks

iPhone 5, iOS 10

Posted on Dec 28, 2019 9:20 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Dec 28, 2019 11:18 AM

You can use the following procedure to delete the photos and other data from your phone without affecting anything on iCloud: What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support


However you cannot just manually delete the photos by going into the Photos app and deleting them. 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.


6 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Dec 28, 2019 11:18 AM in response to gingernurse

You can use the following procedure to delete the photos and other data from your phone without affecting anything on iCloud: What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support


However you cannot just manually delete the photos by going into the Photos app and deleting them. 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.


if I send all my photos to cloud photo can I then delete them from my phone? I'm trying to switch phones . thanks

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