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Delete photos from one device

With help from this group I have finally been able to transfer photos from my iPhone to iCloud.


Now, I want to delete the photos from my iPhone to free up space but it seems that if I do that those photos will also delete from all of my devices. How can I keep photos in iCloud while clearing my phone


Feel free to dumb down the answer.


Cheers!

Posted on Sep 25, 2022 2:47 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 25, 2022 3:43 PM

You can't delete them but you can use the Optimize option to reduce the storage needed.


iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.



1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 25, 2022 3:43 PM in response to BABUSHKA1

You can't delete them but you can use the Optimize option to reduce the storage needed.


iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.



Delete photos from one device

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