I want to free up space in iCloud because I use it to sync photos and videos from iPhone to Mac but now iCloud is full. I think most photos have also got saved on Mac. Now how do I make sure that if I delete photos from iCloud, they will not get deleted from my physical devices?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.14
You can have several Photos Libraries on your Mac. only one of them can be syncing with iCloud. iCloud is keeping the local iCloud Photos Library identical with the library in iCloud. Any item you delete there will be deleted from the mac and iCloud. But any item you are saving in additional Photos Libraries is safe and will only be stored locally.
You can have several Photos Libraries on your Mac. only one of them can be syncing with iCloud. iCloud is keeping the local iCloud Photos Library identical with the library in iCloud. Any item you delete there will be deleted from the mac and iCloud. But any item you are saving in additional Photos Libraries is safe and will only be stored locally.
iCloud contains your computer's "Desktop" and "Documents" folders (and their contents). (Unless you uncheck the box for Desktop and Documents in iCloud settings.)
I would make sure that you do, indeed, have backups of your important photos and videos. I would make sure that those backups are contained elsewhere in your computer, i.e., not on your Desktop and not in your "Documents" folder.
Export the images from the Library on your Mac - either to folders in the Finder or to another library.
File -> Export
Deleting photos from iCloud but keeping them offline
