Is there a way to delete photos from your iPhone, without deleting them in the cloud? I really have little need for them to remain in my phone, when they are stored in the cloud. I just don't know how to keep them in the cloud without keeping them on my phone.
iPhone 12 Pro
This is so strange that Apple recommended that comment!!! It’s wrong. Of course there is a way. I’ve been talking with Apple Support for the last 3 days preparing to do just this. The tricky part is you want to make sure you are fully synched to iCloud before. It is taking forever and seems like it’s not even working. Once synched you can simply turn off iCloud on your phone and delete all photos on your phone. They will still remain in iCloud. Then you can turn back on, but iCloud will not download them into your phone unless you prompt it to.
This is so strange that Apple recommended that comment!!! It’s wrong. Of course there is a way. I’ve been talking with Apple Support for the last 3 days preparing to do just this. The tricky part is you want to make sure you are fully synched to iCloud before. It is taking forever and seems like it’s not even working. Once synched you can simply turn off iCloud on your phone and delete all photos on your phone. They will still remain in iCloud. Then you can turn back on, but iCloud will not download them into your phone unless you prompt it to.
The fact that you spent 3 days with Apple Support should give you an indication that it is not recommended by Apple. They have clearly stated that iCloud Photos is a syncing service for photos to be available on all devices. Before turning off iCloud, Apple recommends downloading all photos to your device first. If you wanted to incrementally add photos to iCloud and delete them from your device, you would need to download all of your photos again to your device before turning off iCloud, then delete all the ones you don't want again.
The solution Apple provides to limit storage on your device is to use the "Optimize Storage" option. This is the way to go to keep full resolution photos in iCloud, while limiting the storage space on your device. In addition, if you had to restore your device, you would have to repeat your process all over again for every photo you have in iCloud.
The best way to keep your Photos safe now and in the future with OS updates is to use the service as recommended by Apple. It is to be used as a syncing service for Photos to be available on all devices and not as a backup storage service.
If using Optimized Storage to automatically manage your photo storage space on your iPhone is not what you want, then I would recommend what you planned to do. Shut off iCloud syncing on your iPhone and import the Photos to your Mac to have them synced in iCloud. There is no need to risk losing photos by using the service in a way that is not recommended by Apple. You will constantly be doing the iCloud off, delete photos, iCloud on, don't download photo trick even though Apple recommends downloading all your photos to your device first and if you delete the photo before turning off iCloud, it will be gone for good on all your devices.
There is no way. iCloud is a syncing service that keeps the photos the same on your iPhone as it is in iCloud.
You should take a look at this before you turn off iCloud Photos.
How to turn off iCloud Photos - Apple Support
That sucks.
Thank you for replying!
If for any reason this is true and the last two people I’ve talked to are wrong, you better get with Apple Phone Support and get on the same page!
Thank you!! I was actually thinking about trying this…my plan going forward was to keep the cloud off on my phone for pics and just upload them to my Mac, so they can go to the cloud from there.
Is there a way to delete photos from your iPhone, without deleting them in the cloud?
