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I store my iPhone photos in iCloud. I accidentally turned on iCloud photo storage on my Mac and a very large number of photos from my Mac has filled my iCloud storage space. How do I remove the photos that uploaded from my Mac to iCloud, and leave my iPhone photos in the iCloud.
As a backup, make a copy of the photos that are in iCloud that are from your Mac.
Archive or make copies of your iCloud data.
Then go to System Preferences/iCloud (Apple ID for Catalina) and turn off Photos syncing. If asked if you want to save the photos, choose Yes. Then go to Photos/Preferences/iCloud and turn off iCloud syncing.
Then go to iCloud.com/Photos using a computer browser and delete the photos that are in iCloud that are from your Mac. Once you have them deleted, then find the Recently Deleted album, and delete the photos from there.
Check the Photos application to see if you are missing any photos. If so, import them from the backup. Once you are sure you have all the photos in the Photos application, you can delete the backup if desired.
As a backup, make a copy of the photos that are in iCloud that are from your Mac.
Archive or make copies of your iCloud data.
Then go to System Preferences/iCloud (Apple ID for Catalina) and turn off Photos syncing. If asked if you want to save the photos, choose Yes. Then go to Photos/Preferences/iCloud and turn off iCloud syncing.
Then go to iCloud.com/Photos using a computer browser and delete the photos that are in iCloud that are from your Mac. Once you have them deleted, then find the Recently Deleted album, and delete the photos from there.
Check the Photos application to see if you are missing any photos. If so, import them from the backup. Once you are sure you have all the photos in the Photos application, you can delete the backup if desired.
When iPhone and Mac are signed in with same Apple ID and password on the same network , and iCloud photo library is set up on both https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204264
The photos will sync , in Mac if the iCloud storage is filled see the article https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud-iphone/photos-and-icloud-overview-mmbc402b84/1.0/icloud/1.0
iCloud storage
Photos uses your iCloud storage differently depending on which iCloud features you turn on. See What is iCloud storage?
Increase the iCloud storage space in Mac by upgrading https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud-iphone/upgrade-or-downgrade-storage-mm2fdfb6d515/1.0/icloud/1.0
The photos in iPhone and iCloud.com will stay intact , but if you delete the photos from Mac they will be deleted from iCloud.com ( but there are thousand of photos they will all mixed up in icloud ) , so select the desired photos and delete .
You must be calculative to delete photos , the devices are synced and if you delete photos from iCloud.com they will be deleted in iPhone / Mac simultaneously .
Your answer was very helpful. I was hoping there would be an "undo" button so that I would not need to manually delete from iCloud a large number of photos that I synced from my Mac to iCloud (unintentionally). Thank you.
You are welcome.
icloud storage of photos
