bennac

Q: Deleting photos from iPhone but not iCloud

I know this question has been asked and answered before, but my situation seems slightly different.

 

I ran out of space on my iPhone, so I uploaded all of my photos from my iPhone to an iPhoto library, and then deleted many of the photos from my iPhone. I am now uploading all photos from the iPhoto library to iCloud Photos. Once that's done, I want to start syncing my iPhone to iCloud Photos (which contains all of the old photos from iPhoto) so that new photos I take show up in iCloud, but I don't want it to delete the old photos that are currently in iCloud but were deleted from my phone. Is that possible?

iPhone 5s, iOS 7.1.2

Posted on Jul 2, 2015 3:54 PM

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Q: Deleting photos from iPhone but not iCloud

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  • by LarryHN,Helpful

    LarryHN LarryHN Jul 2, 2015 5:24 PM in response to bennac
    Level 10 (84,217 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jul 2, 2015 5:24 PM in response to bennac
    I am now uploading all photos from the iPhoto library to iCloud Photos.

    Is this iCloud Photo Library? If so then on your IOS devices check to optimize photos for them and they will have smaller versions - but any change (edit, deletion, etc) made from any device will be reflected on all devices

     

    LN

  • by Bullyboy,Helpful

    Bullyboy Bullyboy Jul 13, 2015 6:08 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Jul 13, 2015 6:08 PM in response to LarryHN

    OK, LarryHN - I'll go ahead and show my stupidity, but I'm running out of space on 2 iPhones and an iMac and have to figure out something pretty quick. Deleting a few junk photos which were created by and still resident on one of my iPhones resulted in the deletion of those photos from iCloud. How can I delete the iOS device-resident photos and keep them on iCloud?


    I'd appreciate any bone you can throw me.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Jul 13, 2015 6:16 PM in response to Bullyboy
    Level 10 (84,217 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Jul 13, 2015 6:16 PM in response to Bullyboy

    If you use iCloud Photo Library then you can not - that is the whole purpose of it - any change made anyplace is reflected everyplace - as I previously said to reduce storage you select to optimize storage in the devices that are short of space

     

    again

     

     

    Is this iCloud Photo Library? If so then on your IOS devices check to optimize photos for them and they will have smaller versions - but any change (edit, deletion, etc) made from any device will be reflected on all devices

     

    It that simple

     

     

    LN

  • by Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac,Helpful

    Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac Jul 13, 2015 6:47 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (34 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 13, 2015 6:47 PM in response to LarryHN

    As a long time Apple user, this is the first time I've had trouble understanding something with apple products overall. I'm an avid aperture user, serious hobbiest with photography, working on transitioning everything to Lightroom, but...

     

    photos.app and iCloud, this combo...well, it is driving me nuts to grasp. I'm not sure why. I've been reading up on it like crazy, think I get it, but then I keep having this nagging uncertainty I'm going to compile my photos into photos.app and take a chance of losing them. iCloud isn't bringing me this sense of security, but the opposite.

     

    I feel I understand the idea on one level, seems simple enough. I guess where I get lost is the same basic idea that I think others are getting at and I'm trying to also sort out, which is basically the safety of my photos on my mac.

     

    I have plenty of storage on my laptop. I have the max storage purchased with iCloud, plenty of room left on it for the moment. However, the Aperture debacle is causing a domino effect where I'm trying to decide where my photos should reside in the future: lightroom or photos.app. The videos run me into some problems, but what I'm doing there is uploading them to final cut pro like I've always done and then simply deleting off my phone when I'm ready to free up room on my phone.

     

    The point where I have no peace, which I think is the point of this thread and many like it, is the idea of "are my photos ultimately safe that are on my mac?" For me, this includes the question of all the older photos I'm loading into photos.app. I'm well underway, but that library is going to bloat quickly.

     

    I would really like it if apple would put a huge switch/option prominently on photos.app that says something to the effect of "one way safety". The idea would be that if a photo or video reaches my mac and I don't want to lose it, then I could turn on this safety feature and my photos would be safe on my mac, irregardless of what happens on iCloud, other devices, and so forth. Lots of storage and external storage for my mac, so that isn't an issue. But of course, 200 gigs when video gets involved, is an issue. Also, as I'm importing quite a few older iPhone (former photo stream saves from Aperture) pics into the new photo.app, I would like to think those photos will always be on my mac just like photo stream did with Aperture. I never feared losing them with photo stream, but can't shake the fear I'm going to set myself up for some quick loss of photos if I'm not careful with how I do this.

     

    Yet I have this nagging fear that as my photos.app library grows, which it is now growing quickly as I'm moving things around due to the issue that Apple caused by killing Aperture, I want to use photos.app for all my iPhone pics and previous photo stream pics. But the library is growing.

     

    Get the gist? Hoping Apple will somehow allow a safety feature that things on the hard drive don't have to be deleted but could be given a safety setting, like never delete these pics.

     

    If the library continues to grow, as it will, 200 gigs isn't going to cut it and then what, will I have to start deleting pics on my mac also because iCloud can't handle that many photos? I'd like to have some peace about this topic, but haven't found it yet.

  • by Tiemuer,Helpful

    Tiemuer Tiemuer Aug 30, 2015 2:50 AM in response to Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 30, 2015 2:50 AM in response to Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac

    it seems there isn't any good solution for this by apple and my solution is to disable iCloud photo upload and use OneDrive instead. with OneDrive, you can keep all your photos and videos uploaded to cloud and delete them from your iPhone when the storage is full. Your photos and videos will stay intact on the cloud and you can sync one drive to your local hard disk and save a backup copy there.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 30, 2015 8:59 AM in response to Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac
    Level 10 (84,217 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 30, 2015 8:59 AM in response to Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac

    Suggest to Apple - https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

     

    And they do supply a simple solution to that - it is called TimeMachine - a good current backup(or better yet two) is the only solution to not losing data

     

    And as to the rest of your rambling lost - it really makes no sense - nothing in this thread indicates anything except user error - and no one, not even Apple, can stop user error - unfortunately ugly is skin deep but stupid goes all the way to the bone

     

    LN

  • by Katrina B,Helpful

    Katrina B Katrina B Sep 11, 2015 6:07 AM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Sep 11, 2015 6:07 AM in response to LarryHN

    I understand the frustration--stuff in the "cloud" should stay in the "cloud," regardless of what you do on your devices, especially since hard drive storage is being reduced on devices. Even Dropbox offers that feature. I've put my entire photo library on an external hard drive to guard against inadvertent deletions, and I've had three one-on-one sessions at the Apple Store trying to get a handle on Photos and other Apple "upgrades" after 22 years of Mac experience. So I get the frustration factor. Calling our all-too-common frustration "user error" really doesn't advance the discussion!

     

    <Edited by Host>

  • by Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac,Helpful

    Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac Texas_Man_Luvs_His_mac Sep 11, 2015 5:47 AM in response to Katrina B
    Level 1 (34 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 11, 2015 5:47 AM in response to Katrina B

    Thank you Katrina. I have found myself not wanting to ask any further questions, considering the harsh comments.

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 11, 2015 6:14 AM in response to Katrina B
    Level 10 (84,217 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 11, 2015 6:14 AM in response to Katrina B

    Sorry - no one informed me that you were the final expert who decides who should talk and what they should say and what all software should be

     

     

    stuff in the "cloud" should stay in the "cloud," regardless of what you do on your devices,

    what ever - it does not work that way at all - in fact as advertises and documented the cloud is your library and all changes made to it by any device are reflected io all devices - even the you know what "should" be what Apple implemented is what most people want and is optional so you can choose to use it or not - but in no case is there any reason for you to attack people w=for explaining how things actually work even though you are so smart that you know how it "should" work

     

    but then again even though you now everything you do not even understand the purpose of this forum - it is not to RANT. to attack people as you are doing or to tell Apple how to run their business - it is only for experienced users to help inexperienced users use the software the way it is - and unless inexperienced users state fats and clearly explain their problem then it is impossible to help them so it is actually important for them to clearly and concisely explain their problem and rambling RANTS hurt that process

     

    Have a great  day and go out and share your amazing intelligence about everythitn with the rest of the rworld - it is not needed here

     

    LN

  • by RoWa87,Helpful

    RoWa87 RoWa87 Sep 13, 2015 9:20 AM in response to bennac
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Sep 13, 2015 9:20 AM in response to bennac

    There is another way to stop you from losing photos when you delete them from your device, but its not the most ideal and involves not using iCloud for photos/videos.

     

    I don't use iCloud to store all my photos/videos because I can't fit them all on my 16G iphone. I set up my Photos on my macbook pro so that it saves a copy of all imported images from My Photo Stream. Make sure you import any photos that aren't in your My Photo Stream (typically those older than 30 days) before deleting them from your phone/device. Below are my settings:

     

    Copy Imported Items to the Photos Library:

    Screen Shot 2015-09-13 at 11.50.25 AM.png

    My Photo Stream Enabled:

    Screen Shot 2015-09-13 at 11.50.34 AM.png

     

    The Plus side:

    • My Mac Saves Every Photo I take that is uploaded using My Photo Stream.
    • I can delete the photos from my phone without worrying about losing them forever.

    The Down Side:

    • You don't have the full functionality of iCloud.
      • It is less automated.
      • It doesn't keep your device in complete sync with the rest of your devices.
    • If I want to add any photos from other devices to my iPhone, I need to manually save them to the camera roll from my photo stream, manually import them, or send them via email/text.
    • I need to make sure my computer is on and connected to the internet often enough to import and save every photo before they are deleted.
      • Photos are deleted from My Photo Stream after 30 days, so at least once a month. (I don't use my computer much anymore since I bought my iPad).

     

    Hope this helps.

  • by timmay2time,

    timmay2time timmay2time Sep 19, 2015 5:06 PM in response to bennac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 19, 2015 5:06 PM in response to bennac

    I'm running iOS 9 and don't remember much about iCloud with iOS 7.  I have a 16 gig iPhone 6 Plus and the memory fills quickly especially when recording video. Attempts of removing physical photo and video from my iPhone without deleting from iCloud I don't think is possible even from my iMac. What I do is turn iCloud photos off once I know icloud has uploading all my photos and videos. I wait for all the iCloud thumbnails to disappear. Then you I only see the photos and videos that are physically on my phone and delete them. Memory is freed up. Then I turn iCloud photos back on. I do this about once a month. Hopefully Apple will come up with a way to delet photos from iPhone hard drive after they are safe in the cloud. iPhoto use to give you the option to delete after import but photos and image capture on my Mac won't let me delete from iPhone after import. At least I don't see how to do it.

  • by jsardi,Helpful

    jsardi jsardi Sep 24, 2015 11:07 AM in response to bennac
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Sep 24, 2015 11:07 AM in response to bennac

    This is REALLY FRUSTRATING!

    There should be an option like "remove from my device" and that it would still keep a copy on the cloud.

    Any photo that I choose to see on my iphone gets downloaded and takes space. THEN I CANNOT REMOVE IT FROM MY DEVICE, otherwise it gets removed from the entire library.

    FRUSTRATING. Disappointing!

  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Sep 24, 2015 11:33 AM in response to jsardi
    Level 10 (84,217 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Sep 24, 2015 11:33 AM in response to jsardi

    actually it should (AND DOES) preform exactly as documented - if you do not want a single library shared among all devices with all changes being applied to all devices then you should not be using iCloud Photo Library since that is what it does - You post is like buying a standard transmission car and them complaining that it should automatically shift gears -

     

    You should choose software that operates like you want rather than choose software that does not operate like you wan and then expect millions of users to live with you choice rather than the choice they made - that attitude is more than a bit arrogant as is claiming that only you know how all software "should" work

     

    You certainly can request this form Apple - https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html - but IMHO the chances a zero since that tis exactly the opposite of the purpose of iCloud Photo library and there are many other ways to accomplish it without screwing up lots of people - you can use iTunes sync, MyPhotoStream or direct import with Image Capture and not have any linkage between photos on different devices -

     

    LN

  • by Katrina B,Helpful

    Katrina B Katrina B Sep 24, 2015 11:36 AM in response to jsardi
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Sep 24, 2015 11:36 AM in response to jsardi

    I hope there will be an update that makes these options available! I'm sure Photos works well for the folks who understand its purpose and its functionality, such as Larry above, but it's clearly not the best solution for everyone. It's good that there are other options for cloud storage via Amazon and Google, and certainly lots of good options for external hard drive storage. What I take away from the general frustration expressed here and on many similar threads is that we are a bunch of loyal and longtime Apple users who have long counted on Apple's intuitive and elegant solutions. Photos doesn't seem to be either ... yet. I'm betting it will evolve! We can help by following Larry's suggestion above: Suggest to Apple - https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

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