Does deleting photos from iPhone delete them from iCloud?

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Level 1

22 points

Does deleting photos from iPhone delete them from iCloud?

I'm going to be in Europe for a month, and will take loads of photos and video. I've got an iPhone 5 with only 32 GB space. I bought extra space on iCloud thinking that I could delete my photos on the phone daily, and that the photos would remain on iCloud; but it seems that as soon as I delete them on the phone, they are deleted from iCloud. There is a "recently deleted" folder on iCloud, but how large can this folder get and for how long will it hold the photos?

Is there no way to get iCloud to keep the photos I delete from the iPhone so that I can download them to my Mac once I get home? There's an iCloud drive on which almost any file from the Mac can be stored, so I don't understand why it seems I can't accomplish this with photos and video from the iPhone.

Thanks for your help.

Apple TV (3rd generation), iOS 5.1

Posted on Jul 14, 2016 5:50 PM

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Answer 1

FoxFifth

Level 10

476,629 points

Jul 14, 2016 6:09 PM in response to yoel69

If you have iCloud Photo Library turned on, any photos you delete from the phone will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other devices connected to that iCloud Photo Library. iCloud Photo Library is designed primarily as a method of syncing all of your photos among your devices. The most you can do to reduce the storage space required on the phone is to turn on Settings > iCloud > Photos > Optimize iPhone Storage. That can be quite effective in reducing the space required on your phone.

Apple does not currently offer any cloud-only storage options. You can suggest that more options be offered via http://www.apple.com/feedback/icloud.html

The other thing you may want to do is explore 3rd party cloud services which may have cloud-only photo storage options.

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Answer 2

Oct 17, 2017 5:55 PM in response to yoel69

I can accomplish what you want in a different way.

Log on to your icloud account through laptop.

And then download all the photos you want to your local hard drive.

And then empty the icloud photos , which will automatically free up the device and icloud.

The fact is you are still limited by your device storage limit.

Apple just advertises its sync mechanism as cloud storage and we pay for that !

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,763 points

Jul 15, 2016 10:05 AM in response to yoel69

The recently deleted folder is supposed to remain for 30 days, but if you empty it on the iPhone, it will delete them from iCloud.

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