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iCloud photos on Mac and iPhone

I have a Mac and an iPhone. Pictures that I have saved on my Mac from previous phones are also on my current iPhone, but I don't want/need all of them on my phone. Is there a way for me to delete the pictures off of my phone without permanently deleting them from iCloud or my computer?

iPhone 6s, iOS 12

Posted on Aug 2, 2022 1:42 PM

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Posted on Aug 2, 2022 2:42 PM

Not if you have iCloud Photos turned on.

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: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


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

Aug 2, 2022 2:42 PM in response to stefani103

Not if you have iCloud Photos turned on.

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: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


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.


iCloud photos on Mac and iPhone

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