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I understand deleting photos from a device (iPhone) also deletes them from iCloud. Doesn't this seem to negate the point of online storage, or am I missing something?

I am looking for a suitable way to store photos straight from my phone while travelling, to free up space which will no doubt run out. So an online drive is the obvious choice. But I see that once photos are deleted from my iPhone, they will also be deleted from the cloud. Furthermore, it seems as though all my other photos being stored in the cloud will be added to my device. Am I missing something here? Is it safe to say that iCloud isn't really as much of a 'storage drive' as it is a 'synchronisation drive' if we can call it that? Trying to wrap my head around this...

iPhone 4S, iOS 8.4, null

Posted on Aug 27, 2015 1:16 PM

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4 replies

Aug 27, 2015 1:47 PM in response to samdeacon

Yes you are correct iCloud photo library is a tool for ensuring all your photos are on all your devices.


With iCloud photo enabled, you cannot delete a photo on one device without deleting it from every device that uses iCloud photo library. In order to save space on your mobile devices (and indeed your Mac if you wish to do so) turn on optimisation for photos on these devices (settings > photos & camera > optimise storage on your mobile device and Photo preferences > optimise storage on your Mac)

Optimisation is dynamic, it reduces the resolution of your photos as and when needed, so you may not notice it occurring at first. However when it is needed, it is very effective and users have reported libraries being optimised to much less than 10% of their original size in some cases. My own library is about 9% of its original size on my phone.

Aug 27, 2015 11:55 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Thanks for clearing this up. So lets say I have a photo library on my macbook that is 50GB large. Backing this library up in iCloud, as well as using iCloud to back up straight from my iPhone - even with the optimisation setting I will have my entire library compressed to maybe 5GB at best sitting on my phone, before even adding any new photos on my trip.


In this sense I would prefer to consider iCloud as a 'multi device content amalgamation drive' rather than purely a 'storage drive'. Would this be fair?

I understand deleting photos from a device (iPhone) also deletes them from iCloud. Doesn't this seem to negate the point of online storage, or am I missing something?

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