Deleted iCloud photos.

Barninski wrote:

Can anyone explain to me the logic of iCloud photo storage? I just discovered that if you are automatically backing up photos to iCloud and permanently delete photos from any of those devices (eg, iPhone), iCloud will delete the same photos from all your devices. What's the point of uploading them if iCloud is just mirroring your devise?

I was under the impression that they were being stored until I delete them directly from iCloud, which I believe the way Google storage works. The irony is that the iCloud Photo Setting states, "Automatically upload and safely store your photos and videos..."

It appears that I've lost years of photos. Can anyone help me out?

you can read here Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support

In the discussion you mentioned -

So you should keep backup copies of your library.” It also gives no solution as to how to recover permanently deleted photos.

The photos erased from recently deleted can't be recovered Delete photos on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support 

You should archive the photos Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support in Mac ( when iPhone / Mac are synced ) .

Photos can’t be transferred directly from iCloud to an external hard drive for that you need to set up iCloud photo library see the article Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple 

And its preferences Change preferences in Photos on Mac - Apple  open finder > Go > home > your user name > pictures either drag and drop Photos Library.photoslibrary to an external hard drive , the second method is right click on Photos Library.photoslibrary and click on show package contents in the upcoming column , you can also drag and drop complete masters folder to an external hard drive that is connected .

Also as per the article Back up the library in Photos on Mac - Apple 

Manually copy your library to an external storage device: Drag the Photos library (by default in the Pictures folder on your Mac) to your storage device to create a copy.See this article also

Photos library - Move your Library to an external storage device

Barninski wrote:

Thx for the reply, but that doesn't explain why photos are deleted on iCloud when you delete them from a devise. Or how to recover files from iCloud if you permanently delete them from a devise. It seems this is a huge flaw in the process. They should stay in iCloud until I go to iCloud and delete them from there, and not just mirror what a devise is doing. What's the point of storing photos on iCloud, only to have them disappear when you delete them?

Did you even bother to read the link I posted? it answer the question you just asked.