How to delete “recently accessed files downloaded to my device” but KEEP them in iCloud?!?!?!

I’ve run out of storage I’ve run out of storage on my iPhone 12 Pro Max AGAIN. I’m trying to clear up some space in my phone, so I’m going through my photos/videos and saving the large files (up to ~14Gb) to iCloud so that I can delete them from my device. I then go to the iPhone Storage in Settings, go to Photos, and Empty my Recently Deleted. I feel like it used to work, but now, as I save the videos to files, delete the videos, and clear my recently deleted ones, it seems that the storage is just switching from Photos to iCloud!!!! iCloud wasn’t even anywhere I remember seeing in my iPhone Storage app list, as it lists the apps that take up the most space first.


Now, my Photos app has gone down to Photos—388.99Gb (from just over 411Gb), but iCloud is now, iCloud—20.35Gb!!!! WTF?!?! What good does that do me?! When I click on iCloud in the iPhone Storage in Settings, it says this, “Your most recently accessed files are downloaded to this device for quick access. The original files remain safely stored in iCloud.”


I’ve looked everywhere I can think of, but I can’t seem to find a way to delete the automatic (and sooo unappreciated) downloaded iCloud files from my DEVICEas I was freaking trying to do by saving them to iCloud and deleting the videos from the Photos appand still KEEP them IN iCloud!!


I NEED TO FIND A WAY TO DO THIS QUICK, OR I AM IN DANGER OF LOSING A THIRD APPLE DEVICE TO NOT ENOUGH STORAGE/MEMORY TO BE ABLE TO TURN BACK ON!!!


That first happened with my iPhone XS Max, which is still sitting in my room unable to turn on. ALL OF MY PHOTOS AND VIDEOS (including ALL of them from my first—and second—Panic! at The Disco concerts) TOTALING WELL OVER 300Gbs, WERE SAVED TO THE DEVICE, NOT iCLOUD, and so I WILL NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, RESTORE THE PHONE so that it will be able to turn on, bc in so doing, it would—with 100% certainty, DESTROY FOREVER ALL my precious Photos and Videos!! It’s literally NOT an option.


Unfortunately, the same thing happened to my current iPad Pro 12.9 3rd Gen (1TB). Sadly, I was in the process of getting the equipment necessary to transfer a ton of stuff to an External Solid State Drive, but before I could get all of it, it randomly shut off in the middle of me searching the web, and has NEVER turned back on. I hadn’t thought of saving anything to iCloud before that happened, although I imagine I would’ve encountered the same problem I am now, with the storage just basically switching between Photos and iCloud. Ughhh and I have (had 😣😥🙆🏼‍♀️) OVER 900Gb Photos+Videos on that!!!



So I no longer currently have an iPad, I CANNOT lose my phone too!!


If someone knows how to DELETE the recently accessed iCloud files from my device, but 100% KEEP them in cloud, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME!!


And if anyone knows a way TO STOP “recently accessed iCloud files” from being “downloaded to my device for quick access” in the first place, that info would be greatly appreciated!!


And APPLE, IF YOU’RE SEEING THIS, PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT SO I DON’T CONTINUE TO LOSE DEVICES!!

iPhone 12 Pro Max

Posted on Jul 31, 2023 12:39 PM

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Posted on Feb 20, 2024 12:33 PM

hey i just found how to manage it, firstly tap to your apple id then tap i cloud-in the app using cloud tap show all- tap i cloud drive-nonactive sync this iphone- and then u can check ur iphone storage, after that sync ur iphone again.

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11 replies

Jul 31, 2023 12:57 PM in response to mand2356

If you sync with iCloud, all data remains on your device and is synced to the cloud. You can free up space by optimizing your photos (settings > photos) which will keep originals ion iCloud and optimized versions on device. Simply deleting data from your device will not work as it will also delete the synced data in iCloud.

Jul 31, 2023 12:50 PM in response to mand2356

Sorry that was so long, I just wanted to provide ALL of the details, bc I feel like there are soooo many questions on here where you (or at least I) think pertain, but then when people [start] replying and the OP comments back and more details are provided, you realize that it’s actually not your problem, or related to the info you were looking for. Also, instead of posting a separate question, which I wasn’t planning on doing, I figured if anyone happens to have any knowledge or info on my other related issue of devices not turning back on bc there’s not enough storage/memory, I—and possibly anyone else who also is looking for or just interested in that info—could benefit from that too.

Jul 31, 2023 12:58 PM in response to mand2356

And on that front, I was told by Apple support that when you boot your device into recovery mode, where it says to plug into a computer, when you are connected to a computer, apparently you can choose to restore it OR update it. And if you are able to successfully update it, then no settings would change and you wouldn’t lose anything.


Actually, here is the message, I just found it:

Apologies for the delayed response, but we'd certainly like to provide some clarification about your options. For an iPad Pro that turns on but gets stuck during startup, you would need to boot it to recovery mode while connected to a computer, then choose to update or restore it. If you're successfully able to update it this way, your current settings and content would be preserved. If that doesn't work, we definitely understand your hesitancy to restore, especially with so many photos stored only on your iPad Pro, but restoring may be the only path forward. You can find guidance on that process here under "If your iPad turns on but gets stuck during startup:" https://apple.co/3oXmjfo

Jul 31, 2023 01:11 PM in response to muguy

My brain is very literal, and so I’m not sure if by syncing them to iCloud you mean saving them to iCloud. From the rest of your comment it sounds like that’s what you’re referring to, and if that’s the case, I’m not interested in saving my photos to iCloud. I don’t like having them there—I don’t trust it, I don’t like that ALL photos are on ALL devices (I have over 30,000 on my iPad, well, had o guess), and when using a family members device who has them saved to iCloud, and actually with my own iPad bc when it needed to be updated and I said it could remove apps and then put them back (which I have a big problem with bc besides what happened to me, how do we know they won’t remove an app no longer available, so that it won’t be able to be put back) alllllll of my Photos+Videos were moved to iCloud even though I did NOT select or approve that, and when trying to send a video to my mom there were so many issues, and the video didn’t actually load to send – it was like a link or something? I can’t remember, but I didn’t like it. So while I know that you can just save them to iCloud, that’s really not the I’m looking for.


As for your last sentence, the data was already deleted from the device and saved to iCloud as a file, since the items saved to iCloud are not supposed to take up space on your device. That’s like literally one of the main points of iCloud. My problem is that it says, “recently accessed files are automatically downloaded to your device for quick access” – which is outrageous to me and means then, that I can’t access a large amount of my iCloud files at all bc there’s not enough memory for them to be downloaded, so what WTH good is iCloud??

Jul 31, 2023 02:41 PM in response to mand2356

Photos:

iCloud is a syncing service, not offline storage. iCloud photo syncing is an all or nothing proposition. If enabled, all of your photos will sync to iCloud and remain on your device. You can free space by optimizing storage at Settings > photos. That will keep the originals in iCloud and optimized versions on your device. Photos cannot simply be offloaded into iCloud only. If you do not sync with iCloud, you can offload your images to your computer or other storage media.


Files:

As for your last sentence, the data was already deleted from the device and saved to iCloud as a file, since the items saved to iCloud are not supposed to take up space on your device

In general, that's mostly true for the Files app. Documents in the files app do not automatically download to your device unless you are actively using them. you can long-press on the file to remove the download from your device.


Other:

A full device will not lock it. You can still access your information on your iPad. If not, you can easily restore from your backups.



Mar 21, 2024 10:06 AM in response to mand2356

I had the same issue with me. I almost had a panic attack. What I did was go to the setting and set optimize this phone instead of download everything. Then I restarted my iPhone. When I check the iPhone storage again after restarting. The number of the iCloud Drive was decreasing until it’s all gone. It took about 5 -10 mins to decrease from 135 gb to gone. I hope this is the way how to fix it. Or I just got lucky.. Hope this helps you as well.

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How to delete “recently accessed files downloaded to my device” but KEEP them in iCloud?!?!?!

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