How to remove iCloud photo backups without deleting them from my iPhone?

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Level 1

4 points

How to remove iCloud photo backups without deleting them from my iPhone?

Hi! This has been stressful for me a bit so if anyone can offer help it would be appreciated greatly. My family has run out of iCloud storage (to be honest I take up most of it) and I’m struggling to clear it up. Most of what I have is my photos previous backups, but I don’t know how to remove those. I’ve already deleted photos that I have no use for anymore but it didn’t change anything! Again, any help is appreciated, thank you so much.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 13, iOS 18

Posted on Jun 27, 2025 07:55 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

199,927 points

Jun 27, 2025 11:30 PM in response to aepark07

While you are signed into iCloud Photos on your iPhone, it is not possible to remove photos from iCloud without deleting them from the iPhone as well. The main purpose of iCloud Photos is sncing to keep the library in iCloud identical to the libraries on your synced devices. To save iCloud storage, make your iCloud Photos Library as small as necessary, using these steps.

Save all photos you do not want and need in iCloud outside of iCloud, for example, on a computer.
After saving a photo somewhere else, delete it from your iPhone and the Recently Deleted album. It will be removed from iCloud as well.

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