User profile for user: pumpkincandle98
pumpkincandle98 Author
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42 points

Deleting Photos From iPhone but keep on Mac

I do not have a lot of storage left on my phone and I am trying to delete some photos. However, I want to keep these photos on my Mac even though I'm deleting them off my iPhone. Every time I delete a photo it deletes of my Mac as well. I know there is a way to save photos on Mac while deleting them off my iPhone but I cannot figure it out. When I click "delete photo" it says it will be deleted from iCloud photos on all devices. Do I need to download a separate app like google photos in order to do this? Or is it something in settings that I am missing?

iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 14

Posted on Jan 14, 2021 7:48 AM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
200,457 points

Posted on Jan 14, 2021 12:06 PM

You have to disable iCloud Photos on your iPhone to be able to delete photos from the iPhon, but keep them on your Mac.

The purpose of iCloud Photos is to keep the Photos Library on devices and in iCloud identical.As long as a device is syncing with iCloud Photos you must not delete any photos on that device, unless you want to delete the photos everywhere. Turn off "Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Photos > iCloud Photos". The drawback will be, that you can no longer use iCloud to transfer photos from your iPhone to to your Mac.


Alternately, you could use two different Photos Libraries on your Mac. A larger archive library with all your photos, perhaps on an external volume, and a smaller library as your system photos library to sync withiCloud and all your devices. See: Create additional photo libraries in Photos on Mac - Apple Support

You can have several Photos Libraries on a Mac, and only one of them can sync with iCloud Photos. The photos in all other libraries will be local on your Mac.





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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
200,457 points

Jan 14, 2021 12:06 PM in response to pumpkincandle98

You have to disable iCloud Photos on your iPhone to be able to delete photos from the iPhon, but keep them on your Mac.

The purpose of iCloud Photos is to keep the Photos Library on devices and in iCloud identical.As long as a device is syncing with iCloud Photos you must not delete any photos on that device, unless you want to delete the photos everywhere. Turn off "Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Photos > iCloud Photos". The drawback will be, that you can no longer use iCloud to transfer photos from your iPhone to to your Mac.


Alternately, you could use two different Photos Libraries on your Mac. A larger archive library with all your photos, perhaps on an external volume, and a smaller library as your system photos library to sync withiCloud and all your devices. See: Create additional photo libraries in Photos on Mac - Apple Support

You can have several Photos Libraries on a Mac, and only one of them can sync with iCloud Photos. The photos in all other libraries will be local on your Mac.





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Deleting Photos From iPhone but keep on Mac

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