I need to remove all photos from my iPhone and put them safely on another drive to store and be used later.
I do not want to delete everything on my phone only to have it repopulate with the same photos from iCloud.
You can certainly transfer your photos to a computer and then, if you want, back them up to an external drive. In fact, this is an excellent idea.
Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC - Apple Support
I would recommend exporting the photos out of the Photos app before going any further.
Step 1 is to move all of the photos to a computer. Step 2 would be to delete the photos you dont want on your phone from your phone. Anything deleted from the phone will also be deleted from iCloud and will not come back.
You can certainly transfer your photos to a computer and then, if you want, back them up to an external drive. In fact, this is an excellent idea.
Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC - Apple Support
I would recommend exporting the photos out of the Photos app before going any further.
Step 1 is to move all of the photos to a computer. Step 2 would be to delete the photos you dont want on your phone from your phone. Anything deleted from the phone will also be deleted from iCloud and will not come back.
how can I make sure it does not delete all the files from my hard drive as well? Sorry lost 10 years of photos when Iphoto became photos and don't want that to happen.
There is no reason you should have lost photos when you changed from iPhotos to Photos. Millions of people did it without incident. But, water under the bridge.
You will note that I suggested that you export your photos out of the Photos app. And that is why. If the photos are not in the Photos app and not synced to iCloud, deleting them from your phone will not delete them from your computer.
iCloud Photos is for syncing. This means if you delete pictures and videos from the iPhone, they will also be deleted from iCloud, and vice versa, permanently.
save photos and video on an external drive and free up storage on iCloud and iPhone photos
