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If I have been using iCloud photos to synch with my various devices, and then shut off sync for all those devices, what happens? Are all the photos deleted form iCloud after 180 days of sync being turned off?
That is helpful, but I still think the time period until the originals are lost from iCloud is 180 days, not 30. The related article says:
"You can delete old iCloud backups for the device you're currently using, or older devices you may not use anymore. iCloud backups are available for 180 days after you disable or stop using iCloud Backup. Backups that are currently being used to restore a device can't be deleted."
I always keep originals on my devices. My purpose is to know if iCloud will maintain a backup of these photos after I stop synching. It seems that either 30 or 180 days after I stop synching, iCloud will forget those photos and I have whatever is left on my devices.
Hey again!
No worries. So the iCloud backup is a different story.....
When you have iCloud Backups enabled in Settings > Name > iCloud......the backup files themselves contain anything that is stored ONLY on that device, and does not backup the items that are already stored in iCloud, (Such as everything you see turned on in Settings > Name > iCloud).
The backups themselves do not contain this information because the data is already saved to your iCloud account separately.
On the flip side.....anything you have turned OFF in those iCloud Settings WILL be stored in the backup itself (Unless excluded intentionally).
Hope that makes sense....they are two separate services.....a sync service and a backup service. The backup itself, you cannot view the contents, until you’ve restored that backup to a new or other phone, as opposed to if the data is already stored in iCloud, no matter if you restore the backup or not, you can download the photos just by signing into your Apple ID.
So, in other words, if you do turn off iCloud syncing, and keep the data on your phone or Mac etc. the saved backup will not affect the photos on your device at all once that backup is removed from iCloud, (As any other data saved to your device). 🙂
Hi Engineer Ted!
Good question! A few things to point out:
The answer to your question does depend on a few factors.
First:
Typically if you turn off iCloud Photos, you would be asked if you want to download a copy of them to your device, that way when you turn off iCloud, they are still on just that device.
Likewise, it depends on the storage and settings of your devices:
There are two main options for using iCloud Photos as for storage:
Download Originals, or Optimize Storage.
Keeping Download originals Enabled, as long as your device has enough local storage keeps all of the photos on that device.
Optimize Storage tries to save storage on your device by keeping the higher resolution photos in iCloud, not on your device, yet still lets you access them. In this scenario, if it was turned on, you wouldn’t be asked if you want to download these photos when turning off iCloud Photos.
If you DON’T have these photos stored locally or on any of your devices and disable iCloud Photos and don’t keep a copy.....the photos are still in iCloud, but would be deleted after 30 days unless you recover them before that time.
Here are a few articles that may explain it better than myself:
Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support
Manage your photo and video storage - Apple Support
Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support
Get help with iCloud Photos - Apple Support
Hope something here helps!
Are photos deleted after 180 days of not synching with photos on my Mac desktop?
