How do I permanently delete photos from iPhone while keeping them in iCloud?

I recently bought more iCloud storage to get back more storage on my iPhone. I turned on sync this phone to make sure all my photos went to the cloud and then once that was completed I turned off sync to delete the photos off my phone. However when I turned sync back on for new photos all of the pictures I had deleted came back from iCloud. How do I permanently delete them from my phone with them still being in iCloud?


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iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Feb 15, 2025 5:51 AM

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Feb 15, 2025 6:07 AM in response to AS16_20

It is not possible to keep the iCloud Photos completely off the iPhone, as long as iCloud Photos is enabled on the iPhone. The iCloud syncing will keep the photos library in iCloud identical to the libraries on all your synced devices.

To save storage on the iPhone enable the option "Optimize iPhone Storage" in the Settings > Apps > Photos. Then the iPhone will store only smaller, optimized versions of your photos, if the storage is getting low.


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How do I permanently delete photos from iPhone while keeping them in iCloud?

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