How to delete photos from iPhone 15 but NOT iCloud?

I want to save space on my phone by deleting photos, but I want to make sure they are not deleted from my iCloud. I want to save all my photos ever taken in iCloud and am very scared of losing any of them by making any changes.


I read that turning OFF "Sync this iPhone" in iCloud Photos will prevent anything from iCloud being deleted. However, will my new photos taken on my phone be uploaded into iCloud?


Thanks!

iPhone 15 Plus

Posted on Sep 27, 2023 11:17 AM

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Posted on Sep 27, 2023 11:24 AM

If you turn off syncing, your new photos will not be uploaded to iCloud.


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.



1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Sep 27, 2023 11:24 AM in response to YooFin

If you turn off syncing, your new photos will not be uploaded to iCloud.


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.



How to delete photos from iPhone 15 but NOT iCloud?

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