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eihpets90 Author

Level 1

4 points

How to delete photos from devices but keep in iCloud

I can't seem to find any info on this for High Sierra. I have an iPhone and iPad that I would like to keep connected to iCloud for current photos. My iCloud photos library is huge and I don't want all of it on the devices. Is there any way to delete older photos and videos from the devices but retain them on iCloud? I don't need photos from 2015 on my phone but want to stay connected for newer ones. I'm invested in the "i" family but getting frustrated that I'm running out of space because I took too many pictures at that house party in 2016. TIA

iPhone 5, iOS 10

Posted on Apr 15, 2020 8:22 AM

Top-ranking reply

FoxFifth

Level 10

472,167 points

Posted on Apr 15, 2020 8:24 AM

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.

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How to delete photos from devices but keep in iCloud

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