Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
iPad Air 2 with iPadOS 15.3
I’m trying to manage the thousands of photos on my iPad. When I select some to erase off of my iPad, I get a challenge window stating if I proceed it will erase them off other devices and the cloud?
why is this not intuitive?
iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi, Cellular
Hi OrganaicGrower, if you open the Photos app and long press a photo, it gives you the option to Share. When you press Share you get the option Save To Files. If you select this option you will be prompted to pick a destination to Share(save) that pic. Select "On My iPad" to save a picture locally. This pic (or I should say this copy of the pic) is now stored locally on the device. If you decide to edit or delete this particular copy saved to your local iPad, it effects only that device local copy.
The iCloud saved Photos is purposefully meant to be a shared network drive for your Apple Devices. It's how to access any photo taken on any Apple device which can be very useful. Put another way: you may be accessing the photos from your iPad but, in effect, you are looking at a photo on the shared iCloud Drive. However, the good news is, inside the Photos app, you can press the Select button in the upper right. This will allow you to select, in theory, an unlimited amount of photos to then press Share and select save to the local device. Repeat this process for any Apple device you want to have a local copy of the pic.
Hi OrganaicGrower, if you open the Photos app and long press a photo, it gives you the option to Share. When you press Share you get the option Save To Files. If you select this option you will be prompted to pick a destination to Share(save) that pic. Select "On My iPad" to save a picture locally. This pic (or I should say this copy of the pic) is now stored locally on the device. If you decide to edit or delete this particular copy saved to your local iPad, it effects only that device local copy.
The iCloud saved Photos is purposefully meant to be a shared network drive for your Apple Devices. It's how to access any photo taken on any Apple device which can be very useful. Put another way: you may be accessing the photos from your iPad but, in effect, you are looking at a photo on the shared iCloud Drive. However, the good news is, inside the Photos app, you can press the Select button in the upper right. This will allow you to select, in theory, an unlimited amount of photos to then press Share and select save to the local device. Repeat this process for any Apple device you want to have a local copy of the pic.
To be clear, when you say you are going to delete all the photos on your iPad, you mean the photos saved/stored locally on the iPad (not photos saved from the iPad to the iCloud Drive), correct.
First, here is Apple Support's document on the subject. Definitely give it a review:
Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support
There is an "optimize storage" on the iPhone/Ipad. This will try to manage your local storage intelligently that will be aware of your iCloud storage too. It does what it does and should be a space benefit for your local device. With that said, I believe iCloud photos will still still take up some storage on your iPad/iPhone storing a low resolution image. I believe -- that means I think it will but I don't know it will -- you don't need to worry as much about the local storage. Optimize will offload to iCloud if you are adding locally saved photos/videos/files.
Just to be clear, if i deleted all photos on the iPad, can I then download a working album from my Mac via the cloud? As it is now, I can remove photos but the cloud backfills any empty space. I’m not managing this iPad, the cloud is in control. It’s very frustrating.
Thank you for your assistance!
Managing Photos on an iPad
