Will pictures be deleted from my phone if I turn off icloud photo library?

The only apple device I have is an iPhone (6s). Many of the pictures currently on my phone were taken with my old iPhone - once I got this one, I backed everything up to iCloud so everything from my 5s would go to my 6s. Since then, I've taken more pictures on my current phone. I recently turned on iCloud Photo Library, and had the setting as "Optimize iPhone Storage." I realized how much space my pictures were taking up in iCloud. So, I switched it to "Download and Keep Originals." Then, I clicked "Disable and Delete iCloud Photo Library." Am I going to lose all of the pictures on my phone after 30 days past the disabling of photo library? Or are the pictures going to remain? I turned it off because I assumed all the pictures that were from my 5s aren't just in iCloud, but are actually downloaded to my phone because when I got the 6s, I clicked "restore from backup." Also, I assumed the pictures taken on my 6s are still on my 6s in ADDITION to being on iCloud. With those assumptions, my photos would all remain on my iphone. However, I don't know if the original enabling of iCloud Photo Library meant Apple transferred the pictures from my phone to iCloud, leaving them only on iCloud, or if they are stored on my phone AND in iCloud. Can someone clarify for me? I'm sorry if any of this is confusing!

Posted on Jun 24, 2017 5:22 PM

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1 reply

Jun 24, 2017 11:59 PM in response to uschappycows

When you enable iCloud Photo Library, your photo library will be automatically backed up on iCloud. When you turn it off, there will no longer be automatic backups. The photos in your Photos app won't be deleted, just the ones on the iCloud Photo Library if you choose to delete the library. If you want to keep photos on your phone but maximize iCloud storage space, then I'd make sure all photos on the iCloud library are downloaded, then disable and delete iCloud Photo Library.


In other words, if you turn iCloud Photo Library off, the iCloud library will be deleted, but not the photos on your phone.


Hope I helped 🙂

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Will pictures be deleted from my phone if I turn off icloud photo library?

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