Can I delete photos off my iPhone To free up capacity but keep the on iCloud and my iPad ?

Yeah, **** that autocorrect. I still don't get the difference between Photostream and iCloud Photo Library. Is it two different things? It sounds like it is, yet basically the same thing. My goal is to have access from all devices, AND have files actually stored ON my Mac (not just in some nebulous "cloud, nevermind the acrobatics one has to go through to find where the actual files are stored on the hard drive). Then there's iCloud and iCloud Drive. Same? Different? I pay X per month for storage so I can (seemingly) have my 10s of thousands of photos available on all devices and my Mac. I'm logged into iCloud on all of the above. However, lately, I take a photo with iPhone 7s+ and it doesnt show up on iPad or Mac unless I hook iPhone to the Mac via USB and import using Photos. Didn't use to do that...a pic taken in phone would show up almost immediately on iPad. I've rebooted the phone, made sure I'm logged in to iCloud, I'm on same wifi network at home, but it still doesn't work.

Then, when I synced my iPad in iTunes a couple days ago, it shows a large chunk of storage taken up by photo files. Huh? I thought that's why I was paying for iCloud storage so the files would be in the nebulous cloud and not taking up space on my device. I don't take many photos with my iPad, so there really aren't many files that originated on the device....it doesn't make sense that image files would be taking up so much space on the iPad. But with Photos app turned on in iCloud, I can't tell whats on the device and what's in the cloud. If I delete something it says it's deleting it on all devices. I just want it off my iPad (that's how I ended up in this support page). Synching didn't help. I gave up and deleted a bunch of apps, reducing the documents and data storage amount enough to have more than 4 MB available on the iPad.

So, yeah, I've read a ******** of support pages and community forums (and Cnet, MacWorld, etc) re: Photos, as well as iTunes (sneaky of Apple to recently remove the Apps tab in an update, requiring more googling to understand *** is going on) and confusion still reigns. Apple's days of user-friendly intuitiveness are long over, the pooch has long been screwed (but they still beat other products on many fronts, hence my brand loyalty). An infographic or diagram detailing the similarities and differences of the Photos with CLEAR instuctions would be a godsend. But I'm not holding my breath.

Gail,

Thank you soooooo much for this thorough reply. I’ve been offline (more or less) for the last few days, so I have yet to suss it all out, but I want you to know how grateful I am for your help.

Shann

Me again...... I just read through your reply rather quickly and I *think* I get it now! Will sit with it and drill down more closely on Photo Stream vs iCloud vs iCloud Drive vs iCloud Photo Library vs Photos vs All Photos etc etc...... as infinitum! Ya know, that really threw me, in Photos app on my iPhone or iPad for instance, where at the bottom there’s “Photos” AND when clicking “Albums” there’s “All Photos.” But the numbers don’t match...... I’ve got 13,449 in “Photos” (left button at bottom of Photos App), but 13,561 in “All Photos” within “Albums” (right button at bottom of Photos App). Sounds like one is Photo Stream (left button) and the other is iCloud Photo Library (right button). Whew... well if there’s any consolation, I suppose it’s that I’m not the only rube that’s ever been confused by so many similar things in the Applesphere being called by pretty much the same or very similar terms!

BTW, it still drives me mad that it’s so hard to get to the raw files buried in the /Library structure. I used to keep copies of my files on an external drive (and on Flickr) for peace of mind but now everything just lives wherever Apple decided to store the files on the Mac. I do back up the Mac to external w TimeMachine, but even a passing glance at the file structure on the external ...drilling down to folders containing my photos, gives me a migraine. Plus, my image files pre Mac desktop are stored “the old fashioned way” (as described), but when I migrated from an old iBook laptop (still have it!...... I can run Pagemaker on it!), all that changed with ...... what was it, Yosemite? Of course Photos was iPhoto back then! I don’t know how you keep up with all the changes ! Power User? Do they even say ::that:: anymore? 😉

At any rate, thanks again!!!!! This iinfo is super helpful!

This is absurd. I spent an hour on the phone with Mac support with no luck with these iCloud issues. Where is Mac support on this Forum?!?!?! I have been chasing FAQs all over this site regarding the same questions of users experiencing difficulties with a service they are paying for and not receiving. I ran out of storage so I bought 200GB, and guess what, like everyone else on here, my phone is still full, and photos are not uploading to iCloud. iCloud also took only SOME, and deleted about 400 photos from my iPhone, yet kept them on the server, but there is no answer as to how to get them back. The iCloud server site has 5 TABS - upload to hard-drive/ folder in Mac, Add an album, Share w social sites, Download (Original file to unspecified loc.) to God knows where, and Trash!! And not a single tab to add to your iOS device (over WiFi or even when USB connected). Airdrop doesn't work. And I shouldn't have to go to iTunes and auto-sync my ENTIRE photo album to get back the 400 that iCloud deleted. Plus I'm seeing people post things that if you sync via iTunes now you have to delete through iTunes??? I don't need this headache. Almost every Apple response in troubleshooting starts with these roundabout answers and steps as to "how to turn on iCloud"... we already know how to navigate settings, THAT ISN'T THE ISSUE. Mac doesn't seem to know how their own stuff works that they're selling. Get to the point, We need a simple answer to a simple question, can we delete photos off my iPhone to free up capacity, but keep them on iCloud? Otherwise, if I purchase 200GB of storage in order to free up my phone AND keep my photos/files, but if I delete a photo in photos it deletes in iCloud, and if I delete in iCloud it auto-deletes in Photos- then you are selling us an oxymoronically literally useless feature - a.k.a. a scam. THE PURPOSE of buying what you're advertising is to move files TO iCloud, to free up space, to take more photos on phone/have more apps on phone, etc.... but if its moved to iCloud just to have dual redundancy stored on phone AND server, and if a file is deleted on one (locally on phone or server) it is deleted on the other, then this is literally a useless waste of money.

Some peoples' responses and even Apple suggestions are that you can offload photos to your MAC, and then delete them from your phone... to keep the photos. . . and free phone space....... . . . . . . . OMG... THAT IS LITERALLY THE PURPOSE of why we bought iCloud in the first place - THE PURPOSE OF BUYING STORAGE on iCloud is because YOU DON'T WANT any more space taken up on local (iOS or MAC) storage drives. THAT IS LITERALLY THE PURPOSE of iCLOUD. THAT is the #1 Selling feature. WE don't need advice on how to delete unused apps and unwanted photos/videos to make more room [Apple suggestions]...or when your iPhone is running out of space, to transfer photos/vids/files to your MAC's hard drive, which is also running out of space. That's WHY we purchased an iCloud plan!! 😮 So to troubleshoot iCloud by saying to NOT use it [iCloud], is insane.

It would be SO much safer for control purposes of info storage AND SIMPLER, to just buy a micro SD 120GB + card to increase memory. I have loved everything about Apple and iPhone up until this point. There is review after review of people experiencing issues with this. Where is MAC support on this for real cut-through-the crap, direct answers?

If you want Mac support, why are you on the iPhone forum? Click "Support Communities" at the top of this page, and find the community that best fits your needs

Also, you may be frustrated, but this is a user to user forum, and we simply want to know what specific problem you are having? If you purchase a billion TB of space on iCloud to store your photos, and you turn on iCloud Photo Library on your iOS device (which has limited storage), it is highly possible that you will bet to a point where even storing all of the photos as thumbnails on your device will simply not be enough room to store them all.

iCloud Photo Library is a sharing service, not an archival one like Dropbox or Flikr.

You have a few options for using iCloud Photo Library that takes advantage of having all of your photos in iCloud without overwhelming your devices, and that would be to use your Mac as the "device" iCloud Photo Library repository. By turning on Photo Stream on your iOS devices, your photos will be regularly uploaded to your Mac, and subsequently, to the iCloud Photo Library.

You can use Photo Sharing from your Mac to share albums back to your iOS device, or you can go the old fashioned way and sync albums back to your iOS device if you wish. The one thing you would still have to connect your device to upload to the Mac, and subsequently iCloud Photo Library would be videos as they are not included in the Photo Stream.

If you would like to specify what issues you are having, and how you would like things to work, then that would go a long way to helping to find some solutions. But I do recommend that you find the proper forum for your query.

Cheers,

GB

Thanks for the smarmy remark about finding the right forum for my query.

But uh... I am on an iPhone forum because I have been having an issue with my iPhone, as I already stated. I stated multiple times issues regarding iPhone and photos on iPhone to iCloud throughout my initial post. The issue being trying to recover photos that iCloud took and deleted from my iPhone, back to my iPhone. That's why I am on an iPhone forum.

I have been logging into iCloud via my MAC, to see what photos from my iPhone have successfully made it to this iCloud server. Since they are viewable on my MAC, and you have user interface (function controls.. like uploading/downloading files) on the iCloud, accessible from the MAC, and you have a USB port on the MAC which connects to the iPhone... and you can supposedly sync photos from iTunes (on MAC) to iPhone...and a variety of other transferability possibilities... I really don't think it is that offensive, nor inaccurate to have suggested MAC support - for what can quite possibly be a iPhone and/or MAC and/or iCloud or any variety of the 3, possible solution.

Did it ever occur to you that maybe I already scrolled through the various support communities, and I am not finding what I am looking for on iCloud, on MAC or the other numerous communities. You specified and said it yourself... "iCloud is a sharing service." That de-isolates (broadens) your possible points-of-failure for troubleshooting when you have opened up to a file sharing service, versus a standalone, locally contained device. So I hope you can forgive me, for using the word "MAC" on an iPhone forum, when uh.. I can both access the files I was looking for and can plug in my phone, from my MAC (and the issue is getting them back on the phone), when they're all made by Apple and all file sharing networks anyways.

Maybe Apple should advertise iCloud a little more accurately. The selling feature, and the reason I, and probably many others bought it, was to free up storage on my iPhone. Because on multiple forums, I am seeing numerous people who JUST wanted to free up space on their iPhone, thats how Apple advertised iCloud to the customer, and that's what the customer bought... and now they are on here (forums) all trying to figure out syncing issues, sharing, photo stream and photo sharing, when all they wanted to nothing more than to free up space on their phone, by "automatically uploading their photos to iCloud." A majority of forums reflect the fact that this was not an automatic process, many people having the sync upload stuck at 1% for days, resetting network settings on their device, waiting hours on customer support, finding unreliable troubleshooting advice on forums... which is rather frustrating and disappointing, when we (I) supported Apple, and figured if this is their external expanded storage feature then who has it designed better than Apple, right? You can criticize my writing if you wish, but you cannot invalidate the legitimacy of people's frustration with purchasing iCloud storage plans.

I appreciate the point you made - iCloud is a file sharing service, not an archival one. That's not the pretense I bought it under when my iPhone says "your storage is almost full - upgrade iCloud storage plan to automatically upload your photos and free up your device." I'm not an English major, but that is advertising storage to me. Period. Instantaneous, "automatic", simple increase of storage, that many people wanted - NOT a complicated, lagging file-sharing service... that many people (evidence all over these forums) didn't want. So I do recommend that Apple is a little more transparent before suckering new and unfamiliar iCloud users into the simple "expand your storage"/ external storage sell, because not everyone wants nor needs file sharing, and maybe there won't be so many queries in the first place.

I wanted to simply purchase more space, to free up my photos and recover a good deal of space on my iPhone. While that is what iCloud offered, I am finding out from others that Google photos, Amazon Prime photos, Dropbox, etc. are more accurate at accomplishing that simple task.

Also, because this is a forum owned, copyrighted and overseen by Apple, I don't think it's unreasonable to think Apple itself would be involved in its forum review. A logical step in reasoning, an inference, would be that if there are "x" amount of discrepancies building up over a period of time (whether a new launch or existing service), over particular issues, discussed on Apple's forum site itself, that Apple itself would intercede with professional tech support on the matters people are having difficulties with. They advertise the latest and greatest in technology, devices, and tech support for said devices. So if you're having issues with said devices, you go to the Apple site itself for help, right? But you're saying it's a user-to-user forum. So Apple hosts it, but has no hand in it? It's just a series of trial-and-error discoveries, comments and suggestions from Apple users. While there may be some answers sprinkled in there, digging through a myriad of redundant and hundreds of forums to find them is not quality.

Thanks for your suggestions thus far, but I'm just going to go to a different service for simple, basic storage functions.

And, no, Apple does not review this forum. They review Feedback. They occasionally may obtain information for research and troubleshooting from this forum, but this is a User to User forum, and Apple has other ways of getting information from their users, so they are not spending a lot of time combing through a page here and a page there of, literally, thousands of threads a day.

GB

Max_Decimus wrote:

Thanks for the smarmy remark about finding the right forum for my query.

But uh... I am on an iPhone forum because I have been having an issue with my iPhone, as I already stated. I stated multiple times issues regarding iPhone and photos on iPhone to iCloud throughout my initial post.

Well, the first several sentences of your post certainly wouldn't have made anyone reading it think that:

This is absurd. I spent an hour on the phone with Mac support with no luck with these iCloud issues. Where is Mac support on this Forum?!?!?!

This is why extraneous remarks and rancorous observations create issues for people who are doing their best to help. As previously stated, we are all just users here, so no need to take your frustrations out on us, and then to add insult to injury by then posting a rude and unnecessarily snarky remark in response to my attempt to provide you with options.

Just because you are anonymous doesn't mean you don't have to act with civility towards others.

GB

Despite this question I have been paying attention. Does Apple provide a service where I can archive my photos from my iPhone, delete the photos from my iPhone, and retrieve said photos at a later date.

If I understand correctly iCloud Photo Library is not intended as an archive. So I am wondering if there is a service or function of photo, photo stream, or photo library I am missing.

Thanks.

I agree — I’ve been paying $2.99 a month for “ more storage “ — but then if I go to delete a photo off my iPhone [ 3/5/6/7] it says it will be deleted everywhere. I don’t want to lose videos of my grandkids — so I don’t feel like I should “delete”!!

My 2015 w/ 500 G is also almost full. I thought I was burying more storage!

well darn: Then I’ve been paying for a number of years without getting what I’d expected.

Ive been really really trying hard over the past few years to understand this issue. I even live in a town w/ an Apple store w/i walking distance. I’ve tried asking them, too.

I have a modicum of education — a Master’s degree — and yet reading all these threads leaves me confused.

So I gusss I turn to Google and Amazon. Grrrrrr.....

My answer has been to go to Google Photos. That's been great! It's funny. I bought a MacBook Pro this year bc I mistakenly thought I would have a happy Apple ecosystem. I didn't realize that Apple photos was built for sharing, rather than for storage; that uploading music from CDs I purchased transfers control of the music to Apple (unless I keep the original files); and that Apple's latest iOS updates force me to manually switch back to my preferred player for music to replace their player every SINGLE time I listen to music on my phone. Apple used to be great; now, it's just greedily trying to control content that belongs to its users. I can't imagine buying an Apple product again.

kridgeway3 wrote:

Jan 28. I apprecI ate all the work you are putting into this to try to explain it, but it’s still clear as mud.

😔

I will make it perfectly clear: If you are syncing with iCloud Photos it is not possible to delete photos from the phone without also deleting them from iCloud and from all of the devices that sync to the same iCloud account.

Is that clear?

Jan. 28 --- yes, this is clear.

AND i agree with the above writers who say that Apple has not only mis-lead us about buying "more storage"-- but also makes it very unclear about this whole issue via the multiple similar sounding names of these disparate parts of the eco-system.