How to delete synced photos on iPad without affecting iPhone in iCloud sync?

Question

Level 1

4 points

How to delete synced photos on iPad without affecting iPhone in iCloud sync?

I have an iPhone and an iPad that currently have a bunch of photos synced via iCloud. I don’t want my phone photos on my iPad and vice versa. I have just turned off iCloud syncing on my iPad but I want to make sure is it now safe to delete them from my iPad? My brain tells be it’s fine because it is no longer syncing so it should not affect my phone at all..

Also if I ever decide to turn it back on on my iPad will I then loose all of my phone photos? A few threads I read elsewhere said that this would likely happen once it re-syncs.

Thanks for any insight.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: iPad/iPhone photo sync

iPad Air, iPadOS 18

Posted on Aug 13, 2025 06:17 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 15, 2025 08:58 AM in response to Nonya80

You're right-- if you've turned off iCloud Photos on your iPad, then what you do in Photos on your iPad shouldn't affect either your iPhone or iCloud.com.

But I understand your hesitation. So check it out. Do this-- delete some pictures on your iPad. They go to Recently Deleted. Then wait a bit and see if anything changed at iCloud.com or on your phone. If it somehow the iPad wasn't really disconnected, then you would see these pictures moved to Recently Deleted in those other places, and you could restore them. But, since you've turned off iCloud Photos on the iPad, the iPhone should remain unchanged.

Once you're convinced, you can delete stuff on your iPad without worry.

If you turn on iCloud Photos again on your iPad, then all the new pictures there will transfer to iCloud.com and to your phone, and all the pictures at iCloud.com will transfer to your iPad. Nothing will be lost, and Photos will do its best to avoid duplicates.

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Answer 2

rifan240

Level 1

8 points

Aug 15, 2025 10:08 AM in response to Nonya80

Recover deleted photos and videos

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