delete messages on iphone but keep in icloud

You can't. iCloud is a synching service NOT a cloud storage service, delete from one and it's gone from all. The only way to prevent this from happening is to remove your iPhone from iCloud, but that's not really a viable option, because you would lose access to everything else which relies on iCloud, and. the next time you connected you phone to iCloud it would sync.

If these are messages you need to keep, the you'd be better off with a standard cloud backup service which, as I have stated, iCloud is not.

Hello sprintopinto,

Thank you for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. Deleting messages on an iPhone would clear up the storage space on your iPhone, but also remove these messages in iCloud.

However; you can make an adjustment to manage the message history to optimize the storage space. You can go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages. From here you can select 30 Days or 1 Year. By selecting either one of these time frames, messages would be deleted. This is an option that's available to you.

Best regards.

You're welcome sprintopinto!

With iCloud for Messages enabled, any messages deleted from the iPhone are deleted from iCloud as well. So yes, after 30 days the messages in iCloud will be deleted if they are deleted from the iPhone. We hope this helps you.

Take care and stay safe.

Both.