Delete Photos Just Off iPhone, Not iCloud

Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I've submitted to this hundreds of times. Bugs mostly, for all their software that doesn't work like they say it does - you know, iCloud, the App Store, Siri, and so on. Pretty sure it submits whatever you type in into a black hole, since years go by and the same dumb bugs are still there.

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem or a suggestion for change. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem/suggested change solved sooner.

Feedback

I totally agree with you. What is the point of having an icloud storage if I cannot delete the pics from my phone to save space and still have to keep them??? it defeats the whole purpose of icloud. Apple needs to find a feasible solution to this problem.

Since this still seems to be a fairly active post and in reading through the thread I'm still at a loss, here is my dilemma:

I LOST MY PHONE

My phone has said it's Offline since I lost it and I'm worried that clicking that Erase iPhone button on Find My iPhone is going to remove everything I have synced in the iCloud. Is it safe to assume, based off how the iCloud works that this would in fact be the result?

If so, what the **** am I supposed to do to protect my privacy on my lost phone AND keep my synced info?

"Keep every last shot" implies that you can keep a lifetime's worth of photos. Obviously, if you eventually top out, but can't delete from your phone without also deleting from the cloud, well... you *cannot* "keep every last shot." Just saying'...

I own many Apple devices and use iCloud. I just received an iPad Pro for Christmas that I want to use as a dedicated music reading device. I have stripped out unneeded apps, but have not been able to delete the photos. I have about 60k stored in iCloud and even the compressed versions that were added to my iPad Pro photo library (without my permission) take up a lot of room. How can I delete all photos from this device without touching iCloud or my other devices? This is a 32Gb iPad Pro, so I need the space. This seems ridiculously complex and very un-Apple like.

techgeekguru wrote:

I totally agree with you. What is the point of having an icloud storage if I cannot delete the pics from my phone to save space and still have to keep them??? it defeats the whole purpose of icloud. Apple needs to find a feasible solution to this problem.

The purpose of iCloud is to keep all your photos in sync across all of your devices. It is not designed to be simple storage. You might wish that Apple had made a different choice but they didn't. If you want cloud storage that will allow you to delete the photos from your device but keep the store on the cloud servers, consider Google Photo.

You can also submit your feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

now wondering what the point of icloud is at all

It is a synchronization service.

thank you. not sure why so many people (myself included!) think of it as backup storage.

I have wondered that myself.

Agreed!

lohmdj1 wrote:

And what if you already have photos on the phone that you want to save, but want to take off the phone to make room for more?

Stop using iPhoto (cloud) Library and use one of the other cloud storage/backup options. (e.g., I use Box.)

Copy your photos to a thumb drive or external HD.

And you're telling me this because...?

If you have submitted 100s of times, then you know Apple will not answer here. having said that, I will suggest some of the iOS 11 changes coming in the fall were as a result of customer feedback.

A filesystem of sorts. Shared iCloud storage.

since years go by and the same dumb bugs are still there.

Perhaps it's time to move on.

No one at Apple can talk to normal people so that they can understand how to use their iPhone and Macbook Pro efficiently. That's sad.

I followed the directions on my cell phone to Optimize photo storage and it does nothing.

The FACT IS, I have so many photos on my iPhone that are already stored on iCloud it's eating up my cell phone space making my iPhone USELESS ... I have to consider buying another phone just so I can use other options ...

But maybe that's the point. They want me to spend money not find ways to make their products work for me.