Photo storage on iCloud Drive

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Level 1

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Photo storage on iCloud Drive

I have iCloud Photos turned off on all my devices (and I don't think I've ever had it on, or if I did, it was only briefly), but I still have lots of photos taking up space on my iCloud Drive; I can log into iCloud and see photos going back 3 years or so, up to a couple of weeks ago. I am using my photostream, but that isn't supposed to count against my iCloud storage. I'm trying to save space on iCloud. Can I delete those photos from my iCloud drive without deleting anything from my Mac, iPhone, or iPad? I back up all my devices to my Mac, not iCloud, for what it's worth. Thanks!

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 31, 2020 4:50 PM

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Answer 1

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zinacef

Level 10

88,473 points

Jul 31, 2020 6:01 PM in response to UCR_EQ

UCR_EQ wrote:

Can I delete those photos from my iCloud drive without deleting anything from my Mac, iPhone, or iPad? I back up all my devices to my Mac, not iCloud, for what it's worth. Thanks!

No you cannot. Once you delete data from your iCloud Drive, it will be subsequently deleted on all your devices. Try the following instead --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzN-0dJlPg8

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Answer 2

UCR_EQ Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 1, 2020 1:25 PM in response to zinacef

Thank you for the quick reply! It turned out that I accidentally did have iCloud Photos turned on for my new iPad, which probably is why those pictures ended up in my iCloud Drive. I have since turned off iCloud Photos for all my devices. So is it true that if I now delete these photos from my iCloud Drive, I'll lose them on all my devices, even if iCloud Photos is already off? That's pretty scary--one mistake and my photos are wedded to iCloud Drive!

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Answer 3

zinacef

Level 10

88,473 points

Aug 1, 2020 4:37 PM in response to UCR_EQ

Yes, that is indeed true - if you delete the photos from either iCloud Drive (where they shouldn't be) or iCloud Photos (where they should be), then it's deleted in iCloud and all your devices as this is how iCloud works and was designed. It's a syncing system that syncs all of your data across all of your devices making it readily accessible to you.

You may want to consider using a traditional cloud based system like Dropbox or preferably Google Photos.

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Photo storage on iCloud Drive

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