How to backup photos to iCloud without deleting them from the iPhone?

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How to backup photos to iCloud without deleting them from the iPhone?

My main method of backup is Google Photos and I do not plan to change that. I bough a subscription for iCloud as a secondary service to back up my photos and videos to.

Is there a way to backup photos to iCloud without deleting them from my iPhone? All the documentation I found online points me to the optimize storage option. This option doesn't seem to have a manual control and I'm afraid that iCloud will upload a photo and leave only a reduced file size copy on the phone before Google Photos backup picks it up. Is it possible to disable the optimize storage option? If yes, where do I need to go to do that?

If I manage to upload my photos from the phone to iCloud without deleting them at first, but come back and delete them later when my storage fills up, will that remove the photos from iCloud?

All these questions are coming from Google Photos allowing manual control of uploading and deleting the photos when my storage fills up. The app will guide you through how to make sure all your photos are backed up online before they are removed from the device. After you remove them from the device, they stay online, you can download them to the phone again, or via computer, delete them again, etc. You have a full manual control over your photos and videos, and nothing is removed unless you explicitly told the service to do so. I tried selecting the photos on my iPhone and manually pushing them to iCloud but seems like there is no such option, or I wasn't able to find it.

Just to clarify:

I want to keep using Google Photos as my primary backup method, please do not suggest to stop using it and switch to iCloud exclusively.
I'm using a PC laptop so unfortunately iCloud allows me to only upload JPGs via the browser. Can I use any of the iCloud Windows apps to back up my photos and videos to iCloud Photos instead?

iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 26

Posted on Nov 2, 2025 7:28 AM

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Answer 1

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Richard.Taylor

Level 6

16,645 points

Nov 3, 2025 10:04 AM in response to 2ndlaw

2ndlaw wrote: … Is it possible to disable the optimize storage option? If yes, where do I need to go to do that?

Settings>[name]>iCloud>Photos:

Check Download and Keep Originals.

It sounds like you have read some weird stuff about iCloud, and you may have misunderstood the point of iCloud. iCloud provides two services for pictures

ICloud synchronizes your photos with your phone, Mac, iPad, and iCloud.com so you can see them and edit them on any device that's connected.
iCloud allows you to "Optimize Storage."

You say that you don't want Optimization. And if you are not interested in synchronizing these files with other devices, then iCloud Photos may not be a good choice. iCloud is not a backup service. iCloud a synchronization service. If you make mistakes in editing your pictures, or if you delete some, even accidentally then those changes will be automatically and immediately copied to iCloud. There's no backup to mistakes. A backup, like you keep on an external drive, is supposed to not ever change, so you can go back to it if something goes wrong. But iCloud Photos changes all the time. It makes exact copies of your pictures, and it makes exact copies of your mistakes.

This is an amazing and valuable service for people who regularly work from several different devices. But it shouldn't be confused with static cloud services or another place of external storage.

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