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So if I put photos in my iCloud drive, does that mean I can remove them from my computer to free up storage space?

So if I put photos in my iCloud drive, does that mean I can remove them from my computer to free up storage space?

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Sep 20, 2021 8:45 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 20, 2021 9:12 AM

No.


You can allow iCloud to manage your local photos storage.


iCloud Photos does host your photos on Apple’s servers, and you can let iCloud manage how your photos are cached on your iPhone…


But… if you delete a photo locally (when iCloud Photos is enabled), it will be deleted everywhere.


See the optimize-storage info here: Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support


There really isn’t a great way to work around a lack of local storage on an under-configured iPhone or iPad. Some offloading is possible (and iCloud and iCloud Photos can help there), but can require ongoing storage management.


2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 20, 2021 9:12 AM in response to lesleyfromporter

No.


You can allow iCloud to manage your local photos storage.


iCloud Photos does host your photos on Apple’s servers, and you can let iCloud manage how your photos are cached on your iPhone…


But… if you delete a photo locally (when iCloud Photos is enabled), it will be deleted everywhere.


See the optimize-storage info here: Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support


There really isn’t a great way to work around a lack of local storage on an under-configured iPhone or iPad. Some offloading is possible (and iCloud and iCloud Photos can help there), but can require ongoing storage management.


Sep 20, 2021 8:47 AM in response to lesleyfromporter

Not necessarily. If you use iCloud photos on your Mac, it will keep your photos in sync with those in the cloud. You could upload all of your pictures and then disable iCloud photos. If disabled, you could then delete all the pictures on your Mac and they will live only in the cloud. Of course, then you have no additional backup copies.

So if I put photos in my iCloud drive, does that mean I can remove them from my computer to free up storage space?

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