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User profile for user: yizhao
yizhao Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

icloud photos backup questions

Let's say I have 1000 pictures in my phone and I want to clean out for phone space. I back up all 1000 pictures to icloud and then turn off my phone icloud backup before delete all pictures from my phone. Now I have 0 pictures in phone but still have the 1000 pictures in icloud. My question is till next time I have another new 100 pictures in my phone and I want to back up to icloud again, will the 100 new pictures overwrite the old 1000 pictures in icloud ? what is the best solution for this, adding the new 100 pics but still keep the old 1000 pics ?

Posted on Dec 28, 2020 3:17 PM

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User profile for user: FoxFifth
FoxFifth
User level: Level 10
472,203 points

Posted on Dec 28, 2020 3:27 PM

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.


Neither iCloud Photos nor iCloud Backup have an option to do what you describe.


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


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos 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.

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User profile for user: FoxFifth
FoxFifth
User level: Level 10
472,203 points

Dec 28, 2020 3:27 PM in response to yizhao

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.


Neither iCloud Photos nor iCloud Backup have an option to do what you describe.


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


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos 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.

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icloud photos backup questions

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