If I have backed up my iPhone to iCloud, can I delete photos from phone, yet still have copies in the cloud?

No!

iCloud is not a backup drive, is a syncing tool which happens to be the central server to some of the files.

Once your photos are synced with iCloud they no longer occupy storage on your phone as if they were stored locally, but you shouldn't remove the pics you see in Photos app on your phone. If you do so, it will sync with iCloud and then they'll be removed for real.

Check these links:

What's the difference between device storage and iCloud storage? - Apple Support

Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support

Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

bscherer wrote:

Your response is Not helpful. The question is not "Is iCloud a backup platform". The question is, how do I delete my photos from my iPhone without deleting them from the iCloud? I can't do an iOS update on my phone because it says I don't have enough storage. It says the photos are the bulk of the storage users. I'm like, Ok. I'll delete some photos, after all, they're on the iCloud service that I'm PAYING HARD EARNED DOLLARS for every month. Then, I can get that iOS update done once the storage on my phone is cleaned up. But, WAIT! NOW, if I delete photos from my phone, I'm deleting them from the iCloud, as well?!? I can't even use Windows File Explorer, anymore (my "back door", previously). Now, Windows says \DCIM "This folder is empty". Ok. We'll try iTunes. The phone doesn't even show up as a device in iTunes, even though Windows recognizes it as being a device with storage and I have "told" the iPhone to trust my Windows device.

You clever, clever people have turned this into a real cluster.

The response is 100% factual. If accuracy is not helpful, then I can’t imagine what is. But then again, for the past few years facts don’t matter, I guess.

FACT: You cannot delete photos that are synced to iCloud from your phone without them also being deleted from iCloud, because the purpose of iCloud is to SYNC content, not back up content. You may not like the answer, but it IS the only answer.

FACT: You can transfer photos to your Windows PC, but not using Windows File Explorer. Here are the instructions→Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

The 3rd millennium provides many, many ways to back up photos. iCloud is not one of them; why should it duplicate what these others do?

• iCloud backup (not the same as iCloud Sync)
• iTunes backup
• Transfer your photos to your computer via USB cable
• Apple Photo Stream
• Sync to Google Photos
• Sync to some other photo archiving service such as Shutterfly
• Sync to Dropbox
• Sync to box.com
• Sync to Microsoft OneDrive
• Sync to Amazon Photos
• back up to Livedrive
• Backup to any other backup or archiving service

Right, I understand your situation… Unfortunately if you delete your photos from your iPhone they will also be removed from iCloud.

Maybe move your photos to your Mac’s local storage before deleting them.

Yes, they’ll be deleted from everything. Again, iCloud is a sync tool by definition, not a cloud storage as main function.

Every Apple app syncs files through iCloud and not with it, this means if you delete from a device, it’ll be deleted from all devices.

The way to prevent it is to stop that device from syncing before erasing the files or formatting the device.

Best way is to download all the images to you computer and to an external drive, get them back to your daughter and then delete it from your account.

amazingenerg wrote:

So my next question would be, why am I paying for iCloud storage then?

iCloud is a syncing service. Everything in iCloud is synced to all devices that are logged in to that iCloud ID. So a photo taken on your phone will appear on your computer, your iPad, or other devices within seconds after being taken. And photos synced to iCloud from your computer will appear on your phone within seconds. But, as it is a sync service, deleting a photo from any device will delete it from all devices logged in to that iCloud ID.

The other reason you pay for it is security. If your phone is lost, stolen, falls in a toilet or gets thrown under a bus you will still have the photos in iCloud.

Your response is Not helpful. The question is not "Is iCloud a backup platform". The question is, how do I delete my photos from my iPhone without deleting them from the iCloud? I can't do an iOS update on my phone because it says I don't have enough storage. It says the photos are the bulk of the storage users. I'm like, Ok. I'll delete some photos, after all, they're on the iCloud service that I'm PAYING HARD EARNED DOLLARS for every month. Then, I can get that iOS update done once the storage on my phone is cleaned up. But, WAIT! NOW, if I delete photos from my phone, I'm deleting them from the iCloud, as well?!? I can't even use Windows File Explorer, anymore (my "back door", previously). Now, Windows says \DCIM "This folder is empty". Ok. We'll try iTunes. The phone doesn't even show up as a device in iTunes, even though Windows recognizes it as being a device with storage and I have "told" the iPhone to trust my Windows device.

You clever, clever people have turned this into a real cluster.

Nope! Be careful or you won't have any photos left.

What you can do is optimize storage though by keeping lower resolution photos on your phone and the full sized ones in the cloud.

That’s for you to figure out… why are you paying for iCloud?

Is it because you are out of device storage?

Do you save files in the cloud that you’d like to access anywhere?