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I just got a new phone and I want to delete all the photos on it. How do I do that to make them go in my iCloud?

I just received a new iPhone and I want to erase all my photos on it but I want them to be transferred to iCloud. How do I do that? And do I just log into iCloud to retrieve them when I want to see them?

iPhone 12, iOS 14

Posted on Oct 12, 2021 11:58 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 12, 2021 1:34 PM

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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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 12, 2021 1:34 PM in response to Nhiinc1

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.

I just got a new phone and I want to delete all the photos on it. How do I do that to make them go in my iCloud?

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