Delete photos on iPhone, keep on mac using ICloud?

No, as far as I know, there's no way to do that using iCloud, they're always kept in sync. You can either:

• Ask Apple to change this behaviour: http://www.apple.com/feedback/
• Use a different cloud service, e.g. OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive, they all provide a way to backup your photos and sync them for offline viewing when needed.

Okay, here is a complete way to solve this issue. Once you understand it, it should make some sense. I will explain the behavior, then give the solution(s). Please understand everything here or you could risk loosing your photos.

On the iPhone, under Settings -> Photos & Camera there are two settings:

1. "iCloud Photo Library" - If this is on, then iCloud and iPhone will make an exact mirror of each other. If the photo is deleted in one, it is removed from the other. The iPhone and iCloud would be in perfect sync. This setting is designed for people who:

a. Want ONLY want this mirroring of their iCloud photos on their iPhone because they don't care about iPhoto OR

b. People who only have an iPhone and would like iCloud to be their backup because they have no OSX iPhoto.

2. "My Photo Stream" - If this is on, all NEW photos from the iPhone are automatically loaded to iCloud to be mirrored on all your devices/applications. This really only matters if "iCloud Photo Library" is off. If "iCloud Photo Library" is on, then all photos are mirrored regardless if they are new or old.

On OSX's iPhoto, in Preferences -> iCloud there are the exact same two settings:

1. "iCloud Photo Library" - If this is on, then iCloud and iPhoto will make an exact mirror of each other. If the photo is deleted in one, it is removed from the other. The iPhoto and iCloud would be in perfect sync. This setting is designed for people who:

a. Want ONLY want this mirroring of their iCloud photos on iPhoto because they don't care about the iPhone OR

b. People who only have OSX iPhoto and would like iCloud to be their backup because they have no iPhone.

2. "My Photo Stream" - If this is on, all NEW photos from iPhoto are automatically loaded to iCloud to be mirrored on all your devices/applications. This really only matters if "iCloud Photo Library" is off. If "iCloud Photo Library" is on, then all photos are mirrored regardless if they are new or old.

When your phone is plugged into your OSX, if iPhoto loads and starts importing, this is because you have the checkbox set for iPhoto to do your imports on that device. Note this setting...

Now, how to get all your new photos into iPhoto and keep a user defined subset of photos on your iPhone. This will require iTunes, so make sure this updated.

1. In iPhoto, under Preferences -> iCloud, uncheck "iCloud Photo Library" and check "My Photo Stream". Then close the preference box. This will not remove any photos from iPhoto, but will stop iPhoto from synchronizing every photo in your library with iCloud. It will also allow iPhoto to pull down new photos, or share these photos with other devices if the image originated from iPhoto. Because you have your iPhone connected to iCloud, the photos will still be in iCloud.
2. Plug the iPhone into your Mac OSX with iPhoto running. Make sure to do a full import of all photos on this device to iPhoto... this is critical, because we are going to remove all the iPhone photos. Don't worry, they will be on your iPhoto machine IF you import them all at this step. At this point they are also in iCloud because of the iPhone settings.
3. Uncheck the box to have iPhoto load if this devices is plugged in. We are not using this feature but will be using iTunes.
4. Backup your Mac OSX using TimeMachine, or manually copy the contents of your Picture folder to a backup disk. You should have backups occurring anyways, and if your photos mean anything, you should back them up. Internet backup solutions are also good. It doesn't matter how, backup your Mac before the next step.
5. In the iPhone, under "Settings -> Photos & Camera", turn off "iCloud Photo Library" and turn on "My Photo Stream". At this point, if this is the only iDevice on your iCloud account, iCloud will start removing any photo from iCloud which is not new or shared. New/shared photos will remain in iCloud until all connected devices have pulled them down AND there is no iCloud sharing of the photo. You have been warned about backups in step 4. Click on Settings in the top right to make these changes go into effect.
6. Now, if the iPhone is on internet WiFi, your iPhoto is running on internet WiFi, you could take a new picture and in a brief moment, depending on internet speed, you should see that new photo appear in the "My Photo Stream" on iPhoto. It took a little while for me, but if you are patient it should happen. YMMV. If this does not happen, verify that both devices are set correctly, and WiFi is on. You may need to verify your iCloud settings on both devices.
7. Now, open up iTunes. For the first time you do this, you will want to have the iPhone connected to the Mac with a USB cable. The iPhone should come up as a device to manage under File -> Devices. On the "Summary" screen, you may want to turn on WiFi syncing, that is your choice and beyond the scope of this. However, the tab you are looking for is "Photo". Click the box to Sync Photos From and select your iPhoto library. You will want to switch from "All Photos" to "Selected Photos". You will see a variety of selections including certain Albums, favorites, or the Past X number of days/months/etc. Your choice. Then click Apply. Your iPhone will first remove all photos not on your selections, then synchronize new photos. This may take some time. For me, the first time, this took 8 hours. Don't worry if you have to stop it, you can resync later with iTunes and it will clean it up.

At this point, your iPhoto library will have all your photos, and your iPhone will have just those that you sync. All new photos will eventually go into iPhoto.

Remember, you will need iPhoto running on the internet and connected to iCloud for new "My Photo Stream" photos to appear in iPhoto.

Remember you will need iTunes running on the same WiFi as your iPhone (or use the USB cable) to sync your selected photos back to your iPhone.

I hope that helps.

I'm sad to say it but the easiest and most straightforward automatic cloud backup I have found can be done via Google Photo. 15gb of free storage. The app has a function called "free up space" where it will delete all backed up images from your phone but keep them safe in your Google Photo cloud. Apple are more than capable of providing an easy to use service like this so hopefully they can do it for a future iOS update. Everything on Apple devices is normally more straightforward than android.... apart from this.

Thank you! This seems to be the only real solution, yet it feels like a workaround. Apple should provide an obvious way to do this, since photos/videos is the first suspect when one's running out of space.

Thank you, AirDuster!! Right!! I do not want to carry another camera around. This is the very reason I got an iPhone. Deal breaker for me. I do not need or want a more expensive phone with a huge memory just to solve this problem. Apple, please fix. I want to keep all my photos on my iMac and external storage.

Yep --- same thing I finally had to do. Installed Google Photos on my iPhone, and it backs up my iPhone photos to Google Photos, then I delete them from the iPhone to free up space.Way too much trouble import photos to my Mac from the iPhone in order to keep them. Limited space on my Mac, too.

I don't care how Apple thinks about "iCloud" and photo backups across devices. They go this wrong. It's non-sensical and not "Apple-like" at all. If I choose backup to iCloud on my iPhone, I would expect it to back the photos up, and thereby allow me to delete them from my phone and free up space.

Instead, the way Apple handles this forces me to use a competitor's product to handle things in a logical, common-sense manner!

It sounds like you have iCloud photo library enabled. If so, this is why you cannot import your photos. You can turn it off, then choose download and keep originals to download them back to your device, then import them to your Mac. iCloud is a backup solution, not a storage solution and it's not designed to store your content without it also being on your device.

This is a very frustrating problem with Apple and especially iCloud, but I have a solution that does work.

I use Dropbox. Dropbox is a very safe and user friendly cloud service that actually works faster and more effectively than iCloud on a Mac or any Apple device. It also has very effective security features that iCloud lacks.

When using Dropbox I "enable automatic back-up" of all photos. When I sing using a USB cord, or if I am on WIFI, it will upload all new photos and videos. The upload speed is noticeably faster than the upload to Photos. If I am WIFI connected, and I open Dropbox, it will automatically ask me if I want to upload photos to the Dropbox folder, "Camera Uploads." I can then move them to any folder to organize them. I can even move the photos into Apple Photos if I want. It works, is easy and very safe. Yes, I did purchase the upgrade of Dropbox to 1TB. The price is similar the iCloud.

When using my iPhone, I cannot open Dropbox without using a second security code. Apple iCloud lacks that level of security. It also quickly identifies any computer, and it's location, if an attempt is made to log on to DropBox.

I have the same love-hate relationship with Apple as anyone, and cannot, for the life of me, understand why Apple does not listen to user needs.

G'day Julievite,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

I see that you'd like to delete photos from your iPhone, but still keep the photos on your Mac. Use the article Import photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to import all photos from your iPhone to your Mac, specifically, this section:

Import to your Mac

You can use Photos for OS X to import photos from your iOS device to your Mac without using iCloud Photo Library. These steps also work for importing images from digital cameras and SD cards.

1. Connect your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or digital camera to your Mac with a USB cable. If you're using an SD card, insert it into the SD slot on your Mac, or connect it using a card reader.
2. You might need to unlock your iOS device using your passcode. You might also see a prompt on the iOS device asking you to Trust This Computer. Tap Trust to continue.
3. On your Mac, the Photos app automatically opens. If it doesn't, open the Photos app.
4. The Photos app shows an Import screen with all the photos and videos that are on your connected device. If the Import screen doesn't automatically appear, click the Import tab at the top of the Photos app, or click the device's name in the Photos sidebar.
5. To import a selection of photos, click the ones you want, then click Import Selected. To import all new photos, click Import All New Photos.
6. 
7. When the import is complete, a message box asks if you want to delete or keep the photos on your device. Click Delete Items to remove the photos, or click Keep Items to keep them on the device.
   If you select Keep Items, you'll have to delete them directly from your device when you want to remove them.
8. You can now disconnect your device from your Mac. If you imported photos from an SD card or other USB device, safely eject the device first.

Imported photos appear in the Photos app's Last Import album.

Photos and videos that you sync from your computer to your iOS device using iTunes can't be imported back to your computer.

Learn what to do if you can't import photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your computer.

Once you've made sure that all photos have been imported to your Mac, you can then safely remove them from your iPhone. The iPhone User Guide has the steps to delete photos from your iPhone, specifically, this section:

Delete a photo or video from Photos. Tap the Photos tab, tap the photo or video, tap , then tap Delete Photo or Delete Video. Deleted photos and videos are kept in the Recently Deleted album on iPhone, with a badge showing the remaining days until the item is permanently removed from iPhone. To delete the photo or video permanently before the days expire, tap the item, tap Delete, then tap Delete Photo or Delete Video. If you use iCloud Photo Library, deleted photos and videos are permanently removed from all your devices using iCloud Photo Library with the same Apple ID.

Cheers!

This does not answer the question, and I have the same problem. The Photos are already in iCloud and in iPhotos on my Mac (multiple Macs actually). If I delete from any one place, the photo gets deleted everywhere. The goal is to delete ONLY from the iPhone. Plugging in the iPhone to the Mac to move the photos is not a good solution. Why even use iCloud if I have to plug in? I could use any means to backup. The goal of simplicity seems to have been overlooked.

I've given up trying to figure out Apple photos. I back everything up to Google now, soooooooo much easier!! Love Apple hardware but sometimes their software leaves me scratching my head.

I'm trying to do the same thing - as a newbie to iPhone photos, it's more confusing than spacetime. Although using iCloud means the pics on the phone are low res, I can't seem to find a way to delete them from ONLY the phone. In time, even low res will fill up memory.

Any suggestions Apple?

I'd love to know this answer 22gb of pics that if I delete on my iPhone will remove also from iCloud

The goal is to delete ONLY from the iPhone. Plugging in the iPhone to the Mac to move the photos is not a good solution. Why even use iCloud if I have to plug in? I could use any means to backup. The goal of simplicity seems to have been overlooked. I just want to keep the photos from multiple phones on the Mac - and remove them from the iphone. There must be a simple way to do this?

Thank you for articulating this issue, the answer to which, I suspect, many of us are still looking for. I have scoured the discussions for a straightforward solution without success, and it's almost impossible at the moment to get a genius bar appointment. Two sources mention a fix using Image Capture on a mac. I hit the buffers with this when it they both mentioned clicking on a little "no entry" button at the bottom of the screen. I see no such button so can only guess that a recent system upgrade has taken away this function. All of which leaves me frankly despairing with Apple. It should be so simple: We want to be able to access all of our photos on iCloud and on our desktop computers, but we don't want them all on our iPhone all of the time taking up too much space. It seems a perfectly reasonable wish.