Arsco23
Level 1 (12 points)
iPhone

Q: can I delete images from my iPhone if...

Can I safely delete photos from my iPhone after I have backed them up in the cloud to save space on my phone, or must I keep them on my phone as well?

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 10

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 1:17 PM

by ShagCA,Solvedanswer
ShagCA ShagCA
Level 4 (2,495 points)
iPad
A:

If you want to save space on your phone, enable iCloud Photo Library. Take look at this article:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264

 

Pay attention to this section:

 

Save space on your device

iCloud Photo Library keeps all of your photos and videos in their original, high-resolution version. You can save space on your device when you turn on Optimize Storage.

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Tap iCloud > Photos.
  3. Choose Optimize [device] Storage.

If you turn on Optimize Storage, iCloud Photo Library automatically manages the size of your library on your device. Your original photos and videos are stored in iCloud and space-saving versions are kept on your device.

 

If you enable Optimize iPhone Storage, your photos will be stored in iCloud storage. (Much) Smaller versions of your photos are stored in the iPhone.

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 3:32 PM

Close
Arsco23

Q: can I delete images from my iPhone if...

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Carolyn Samit,Helpful

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Sep 21, 2016 2:04 PM in response to Arsco23
    Level 10 (123,891 points)
    Apple Music
    Sep 21, 2016 2:04 PM in response to Arsco23

    Yes >   iCloud: Delete photos and videos to save storage

  • by Arsco23,

    Arsco23 Arsco23 Sep 21, 2016 2:21 PM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 21, 2016 2:21 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

    Hi, thanks for your quick response and maybe I missed it somehow, but I'm really asking if my photos are safe on iCloud and available for me to access specific photos at a later date if I delete them off my phone after backing them up. I was under the impression that in backing them up to iCloud I would then be prompted to remove the photos from my phone, to save space on the phone itself, but that I would have access to all the photos as long as I didn't delete them from my iCloud account. When I try to delete them from my phone now it says, "photo will be deleted from iCloud photo library and all your devices"...I just want them all off my phone for space, not deleted completely. I want to be able to pull in specific photos to my phone as needed. It use to be, when I backed up my photos to the computer it would offer me the choice of removing them from my phone or not...is that option still available without losing my photos?

    So sorry if this is long-winded. I couldn't think of a shorter way to explain it.

  • by ShagCA,Solvedanswer

    ShagCA ShagCA Sep 21, 2016 3:32 PM in response to Arsco23
    Level 4 (2,495 points)
    iPad
    Sep 21, 2016 3:32 PM in response to Arsco23

    If you want to save space on your phone, enable iCloud Photo Library. Take look at this article:

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264

     

    Pay attention to this section:

     

    Save space on your device

    iCloud Photo Library keeps all of your photos and videos in their original, high-resolution version. You can save space on your device when you turn on Optimize Storage.

    On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:

    1. Go to Settings.
    2. Tap iCloud > Photos.
    3. Choose Optimize [device] Storage.

    If you turn on Optimize Storage, iCloud Photo Library automatically manages the size of your library on your device. Your original photos and videos are stored in iCloud and space-saving versions are kept on your device.

     

    If you enable Optimize iPhone Storage, your photos will be stored in iCloud storage. (Much) Smaller versions of your photos are stored in the iPhone.

  • by Arsco23,

    Arsco23 Arsco23 Sep 21, 2016 3:35 PM in response to ShagCA
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 21, 2016 3:35 PM in response to ShagCA

    Thanks for the info and taking the time to respond to my question! I had already tried optimizing my photos, but it didn't clear a lot of extra space. I did find the article rather helpful though and I did find an answer to my question overall. It seems you really can't clear the images off of the phone and just access them from iCloud. You must keep them on your device as well...even if optimized.

     


    Make sure that you have enough storage

    The photos and videos that you keep in iCloud Photo Library use your iCloud storage and your device storage. And as long as you have enough space in iCloud and on your device, you can store as many photos and videos as you like.

     

    Seems it could be better utilized and more intuitive if you could actually just keep the images in iCloud and access them across all your devices without having to use up storage space on the device itself.

    Thanks again!

  • by ShagCA,

    ShagCA ShagCA Sep 21, 2016 3:55 PM in response to Arsco23
    Level 4 (2,495 points)
    iPad
    Sep 21, 2016 3:55 PM in response to Arsco23

    There are other (free or paid) cloud storage services out there that you may be able to use if you really don't want to keep the photos on the phone. I'm using Google drive. You get 15GB free space. That's 3x larger than Apple iCloud (5GB) free storage. Anything larger than 15GB costs __dollar/month. You can move all your photos to Google drive if you'd like to. You can also access them from any device, Windows and Mac computers, Android, iOS.

  • by Arsco23,

    Arsco23 Arsco23 Sep 21, 2016 5:50 PM in response to ShagCA
    Level 1 (12 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 21, 2016 5:50 PM in response to ShagCA

    Thanks, that's awesome. Since I use Apple across the board I have been reluctant to change because I thought it would just be easier sticking to one format, but I'm beginning to see the positive aspects of switching it up a bit.

    I'm going to look further into it for sure...thanks for the head up.

    cheers!