I have my photos stored in icloud and I have deleted all photos from my desktop, but I saw it still using ~9 gb of my computer storage space, is that normal?

I have my photos stored in icloud and I have deleted all photos from my desktop, but I saw it still using ~9 gb of my computer storage space, is that normal?

Posted on Nov 20, 2022 9:25 AM

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Posted on Nov 20, 2022 11:45 AM

I'm not sure why you still have 9GB of space used but the following caught my attention and may cause loss of your photos unless you have done something very unusual:

"I have my photos stored in icloud and I have deleted all photos from my desktop..."


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 the following Apple article for more information: 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.



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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 20, 2022 11:45 AM in response to hsu-ching

I'm not sure why you still have 9GB of space used but the following caught my attention and may cause loss of your photos unless you have done something very unusual:

"I have my photos stored in icloud and I have deleted all photos from my desktop..."


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 the following Apple article for more information: 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.



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I have my photos stored in icloud and I have deleted all photos from my desktop, but I saw it still using ~9 gb of my computer storage space, is that normal?

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