Delete Photos Just Off iPhone, Not iCloud

What I did was something a bit different...I emailed the photos from my iPhone to myself...put them on my desktop and then dragged them to a Photo album where I wanted those photos. Then I deleted them on my iPhone and those photos that I wanted to save were still there in the Photo album.

This is eactly, 100% how I feel. Cloud storage "should" take the burden off the user from having to store content on their device. It does not presently do that in any type of seamless fashion. Google is far more progressive than Apple in this realm. It feels like Apple is forcing its customers to pick up a new device every 1.5 years just to enjoy normal usage. It's a shame.

The only reason I bought extra icloud storage was precisely for this reason. I now have loads of EMPTY icloud storage but I am unable to send my photos to the cloud and delete them from the phone. If there is a way to do this, it is not very obvious as I have wasted hours trying to figure out how to keep photos in icloud storage as well as DELETE them to free up space o n my iPhone. Apple makes life simple in so many other ways. Why is this so complicated?

anndorie wrote:

The only reason I bought extra icloud storage was precisely for this reason. I now have loads of EMPTY icloud storage but I am unable to send my photos to the cloud and delete them from the phone. If there is a way to do this, it is not very obvious as I have wasted hours trying to figure out how to keep photos in icloud storage as well as DELETE them to free up space o n my iPhone. Apple makes life simple in so many other ways. Why is this so complicated?

It’s only complicated if you try to make it do something it wasn’t designed to do. You want cloud storage. Apple‘s system is not that. It’s designed to keep everushing in sync across all of your devices. It does that very simply and easily.

Google Photos will do what you want.

Erasing the phone will not result in losing iCloud content. The erase function just trashes the encryption key, making the phone's contents unreadable. It does not methodically go through apps and delete content.

There is NO WAY to both delete photos from iPhone and also save to iCloud, yet another example that demonstrates how fully incompetent the iCloud team is. Apple literally forces its users to go to their competitor. Amazon's photo-sharing app is perfect if one wants to store photos in the cloud and also delete from their iPhone.

There is NO WAY to both delete photos from iPhone and also save to iCloud

Yes, that's exactly the way that most of us want it and furthermore, we also don't want to have to fiddle or even think about settings that will change it to the way you want it. If you don't like the Apple way, choose another service, there are plenty out there. You already mention Amazon, use it then, I wouldn't entertain it, so we would both be happy if you did.

A smart and well thought out product would automatically sync your files to iCloud, with the ability to "save" the files in iCloud so that one can delete images on their iPhone to free up space. The fact that one cannot both save files to iCloud and delete from their iPhone only exemplifies the utter incompetence and arrogance of the Apple team and their fanboys.

kaolynfromboulder wrote:

A smart and well thought out product would automatically sync your files to iCloud, with the ability to "save" the files in iCloud so that one can delete images on their iPhone to free up space. The fact that one cannot both save files to iCloud and delete from their iPhone only exemplifies the utter incompetence and arrogance of the Apple team and their fanboys.

Or, to phrase it another way, "Anything I don't agree with is bad".

It is very well thought out. And documented. iCloud is a syncing service. All devices logged in to the account can sync contacts, calendars, bookmarks, Wi-Fi passwords, app passwords, phone history, notes, reminders, news preferences, Apple Home access, Health data, Wallet, Game Center, Siri options - and photos. If photos worked any other way they would be the sole exception to the sync model. If you delete a contact, it is deleted from all devices. Likewise for calendars, notes, reminders...and photos. Perfectly logical.

There are plenty of cloud storage services that don't sync: Google, Amazon, upthere.com, dropbox, box.com, shutterfly. So if you don't want to sync use one of them. There are no full syncing services like iCloud. Why do you think Apple should simply duplicate what is already available?

"And attack anyone who disagrees with me on a personal level"

It's well established that an ad hominem attack is an admission that you are wrong and you know you are wrong. If you truly believe that you are right there is no need to attack someone who disagrees with you.

It just seems worse than usual lately. Way to many of the "Anything I disagree with or don't like is bad. Anyone who disagrees with my preference is stupid. And it's not a "preference" because I know it's the only right way to do things" sort of posts. I got accused of having Stockholm Syndrome because said that I didn't think that the change in the way dictation works is a big deal.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

Perhaps a reflection of the current political climate?

Yes, I think so. This sort of behavior has always existed but it didn't used to be something one took public pride in displaying. It makes me very sad.

kaolynfromboulder wrote:

It makes no sense to offer a paid service that prohibits the user from the ability to delete data on their device. Period.

Or, to rephrase, "It makes no sense for Apple to offer a service, that while other people might find it useful, doesn't do what I want because only what I want is important".

That's what I am doing. Just disappointed that the Apple is forcing their users to go to their competitor and don't offer the ability to backup data on the cloud. iCloud team should be fired as I am sure there isn't a CEO who would be okay with this.