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Pmac4706 Author

Level 1

8 points

iCloud Syncing Question

This may be a stupid question, but I just wanted confirmation that there is no way to unload (delete) old photos from my iPhone but keep them backed up on the iCloud?

I just upgraded my iCloud storage amount and am baffled by the fact that you can’t have separate offline storage.

You’re basically paying to doubly backup whatever is on your iPhone. I was hoping iCloud would help me delete things from my phone to free up space but it looks like it’s just a back up and not an offline storage space like how Amazon Photos or Google Photos functions.

iPhone XR, iOS 13

Posted on Jun 26, 2020 5:04 PM

Top-ranking reply

FoxFifth

Level 10

472,233 points

Posted on Jun 26, 2020 6:10 PM

Not a stupid question and one that is commonly asked here.

iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264

Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.

Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.

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