If I delete photos on iPhone camera roll do they also delete on my MacBook Air computer?

I am going to try to be a little clearer on this.

If you actually have an album called Camera Roll, then the answer is No. You can delete the photos from the camera roll without affecting the photos on the Mac.

If you are using iCloud Photos or iCloud Photo Library, and you have an album called All Photos, then the answer is yes. If you delete photos from there, they are deleted everywhere you are using iCloud photos.

ilenefromkatonah wrote:

Thank you for your reply! My iphone has a folder called Camera Roll. My Mac does not. I just downloaded recent photos to my photo account on the Mac. I want to delete some of them off my phone.

The term downloaded to me means that this action was done over WiFi. If you IMPORTED the photos to your Mac using the cable that is not what I term downloading. Did you import the photos using the cable to the Mac or did you actually download them over Wifi? If you imported them you can delete them from the camera roll and you will be safe. In any event, if you have a Camera Roll album on your phone, that implies that you are not using iCloid Photos or iCloud Photo Library.

l do also have an icloud account. But I'm ok if they delete from there as I also have a passport backup. Does the same apply for deleting in my phone's photo stream?

I have a iCloud account as well but I do not use iCloud Photos. However, if you have all of the photos backed up on a WD Passport External Drive, you can safely delete them from the phone.

If you delete a photo in Photo Stream, it is deleted everywhere, unless you download them to the Mac. This is actually downloading over WiFi when you use Photo Stream.

ilenefromkatonah wrote:

If I delete photos on iPhone camera roll do they also delete on my MacBook Air computer?

if you're using this Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support then yes.

Then you are good to go. BTW, I have a WD Passport that I use for my Time Machine backups. If you backup with Time Machine then you have another backup for your Photos.