How do I delete photos from my iPhone without deleting them from iCloud Photo Library?

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Level 1

5 points

How do I delete photos from my iPhone without deleting them from iCloud Photo Library?

My iPhone is full and I'd wanted to delete some photo to free up some spaceso I backed them up to iCloud and I started to delete photos. ***? They're disappearing from iCloud! Now they're just gone. This is crazy! Image capture can import them to wherever, but the "delete after import" feature seems to have disappeared. I'm sure this question has been beat to death, but how does one delete photos from their phone without deleting them from their iCloud photo library?!!

So frustrating.

Does anyone know of a solution to this?

iPhone 5s, iOS 9.3.2

Posted on Jun 3, 2016 12:06 PM

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Answer 1

javaliga

Level 10

120,179 points

Jun 3, 2016 12:31 PM in response to Ryan Patton

iCloud is a syncing system, not simply external storage. Once you turn on Photo Library anything you do with a photo gets done on ALL of your devices (including deleting them). See the last section of this article on how to recover photos you inadvertently deleted:

iCloud: Use iCloud Photo Library on your iOS device

It is also explained here:

Get help with your iCloud Photo Library - Apple Support

How do I delete photos and videos from a device using iCloud Photo Library?

If you want to remove photos and videos from all your iOS devices, Mac, and iCloud.com, you can delete them in the Photos app.

When you delete a photo or video from your Photos app, it will also delete from your iCloud Photo Library and iCloud storage. You can recover your photos and videos from the Recently Deleted album for 30 days.

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