iCloud offers users a convenient way to store photos and access them across devices. However, one concern users have is whether iCloud will delete or remove photos over time. So does iCloud actually remove your photos?
The Short Answer
No, iCloud does not automatically delete or remove photos you have stored there. The photos you upload to iCloud will remain there unless you manually delete them or turn off a setting called Optimize iPhone/iPad Storage.
How iCloud Photo Storage Works
When you enable iCloud Photos on your iPhone, iPad, or other Apple device, it automatically uploads the photos and videos you take to iCloud. This serves as a backup of your photos library and allows you to access your photos on different devices logged into the same iCloud account.
iCloud provides 5GB of free storage space. If you exceed that limit, you can purchase additional iCloud storage. The photos and videos you store in iCloud do not count against your device’s storage. So even if your iPhone or iPad is full, your photos library is safely stored and accessible in iCloud.
Full-Resolution Storage
By default, iCloud stores your photos and videos at their original, full resolution. This ensures you have high quality versions of all your photos in the cloud. You can download the original versions at any time from iCloud onto your devices.
Optimized Storage
One iCloud setting you can enable is Optimize [Device] Storage. If turned on, iCloud will automatically manage the size of your library on your device by keeping full resolution copies in iCloud only. On your device, it will replace photos and videos with smaller thumbnails as needed to save space.
The original, full resolution versions are still stored safely in iCloud. You simply need to tap the thumbnail to redownload the full size when you need it on your device. This setting just optimizes how much local storage your library uses.
Will iCloud Delete or Remove Photos?
With a proper understanding of how iCloud Photo Library works, it’s clear that iCloud itself does not delete or remove your photos.
The photos and videos you upload to iCloud remain there in the cloud unless you manually delete them, either on your device or in the iCloud web interface. iCloud acts as an online repository of your entire photos library.
Reasons Photos Can Be Removed from iCloud
There are some cases in which photos you previously had in iCloud may disappear or get deleted:
- You manually delete photos from your device or iCloud storage
- You turn off iCloud Photos or disable your iCloud account
- Your iCloud storage is full and you don’t purchase more space
- You enable Optimize Storage and the thumbnails are removed from your device
However, in all these cases, it is not iCloud proactively deleting your photos against your will. It is simply responding to manual settings or storage limits. The exception is thumbnails removed with Optimize Storage, where the originals are all still safely stored in the cloud.
Protection Against Accidental Deletion
iCloud even has a feature to protect against accidentally deleting photos:
- Recently Deleted Album – Photos you delete on your devices or iCloud are stored in this album for 30 days before being permanently deleted, giving you time to recover them.
So iCloud provides a level of protection against accidentally losing photos.
Can You Recover Deleted iCloud Photos?
If you realize photos you wanted were removed from iCloud storage, is there any way to recover them?
If you act quickly, you may be able to recover recently deleted photos from the Recently Deleted album as mentioned. However, once they are permanently deleted, is there still hope?
From Local Device Backups
If you previously backed up your device to your computer through iTunes or Finder, you may be able to recover the deleted photos from there.
Connect your device, select it in iTunes/Finder, and under backups, restore to an earlier date when you know you still had the photos.
Through Data Recovery Services
There are data recovery companies that can attempt to recover data like photos and texts even from permanently deleted online accounts. This is generally a pricey service done on a case-by-case basis.
If Deleted from iCloud Only
If the photos were deleted directly from iCloud storage itself but remained on your devices, then recovery is simple – just sync your device to the cloud to reupload them.
But if the photos were deleted from both iCloud and your devices with no backups, unfortunately there may be no way to get them back.
How Long Does iCloud Keep Deleted Photos?
As mentioned earlier, when you send photos to the Recently Deleted album, they remain there for 30 days before being permanently erased.
This 30 day period gives you a window to recover anything accidentally or mistakenly deleted.
After the 30 days, the deleted photos and videos are permanently removed from iCloud and generally unable to be recovered.
Can You Download Photos from iCloud?
While iCloud does not delete your photos without your explicit action, you may still want to download photos and videos from iCloud to store them locally or external drives.
There are a couple ways to download your photos library from iCloud:
Download on Your Devices
If you have iCloud Photos enabled, you can go to the Photos app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc and download any images stored in iCloud to the local device storage. Just tap on a thumbnail to re-download the full original if needed.
iCloud Website
You can also visit iCloud.com on any web browser, sign in to your account, and go to the Photos section. Here you can view photos, select them, and download them to your computer.
Use Third-Party Apps
There are various third-party apps that connect to your iCloud account and allow you to browse your iCloud Photos library and download the images and videos to your computer or external storage.
How to Back Up iCloud Photos
To provide an extra level of protection and redundancy for your photos, it’s smart to have backups of your iCloud library in multiple places.
Local Device Backups
You can occasionally back up your iPhone, iPad or other devices locally to your computer through iTunes or Finder. This creates a device backup containing your photos library.
External Drives
You can also back up your iCloud photos to an external hard drive or USB flash drive. Just connect the drive, visit iCloud.com, go to Photos, select images and download them.
Cloud Storage Services
Another option is to periodically download your photos from iCloud and store copies on another cloud storage service like Google Photos or Dropbox.
This provides geographic redundancy in case one cloud service loses your data.
Physical Photo Printouts
For your most precious photos, you can always order physical prints and photo books to provide a permanent backup.
How to Delete Photos from iCloud
While iCloud does not remove photos on its own, there are times when you’ll want to manually delete photos or videos you’ve previously stored there.
Here are ways to delete photos from iCloud:
On Your iPhone/iPad
In the Photos app on your device, tap Select, choose the images to delete, tap the Delete icon, then Delete Photos.
On iCloud.com
At iCloud.com, go to Photos, select images, click Delete, then Delete Photo.
In Settings App
Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Photos and delete from there.
Does Deleting from iPhone Delete from iCloud?
If you delete photos stored in iCloud from your iPhone, iPad or other device, does that also delete them from iCloud online storage?
The answer is:
- Deleting photos from your iPhone or device sends them to the Recently Deleted album on iCloud.com. They remain recoverable there for 30 days.
- After 30 days in Recently Deleted, the photos are permanently removed from iCloud storage.
So deleting photos from your device does not immediately delete from iCloud – they go to Recently Deleted first. But after 30 days, they will be gone.
The Difference Between iCloud and Device Storage
One key thing to understand is that iCloud and your device storage are separate places to store your photos library.
Device storage refers to the native, local storage on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc. This storage is directly on your device.
iCloud storage refers to Apple’s online cloud servers. Your photos library can be safely stored and accessed here.
So when managing storage, keep in mind:
- Photos deleted from iCloud may still exist on your device
- Photos deleted from your device may still exist in iCloud
Manually deleting photos from both places is required to fully erase them from your library.
Free Up Space on Your iPhone/iPad
If you’re getting storage full notifications on your iPhone, iPad, or other device, here are some tips to free up space:
- Enable Optimize [Device] Storage in iCloud settings
- Manually remove unwanted photos/videos from device
- Offload unused apps
- Remove music, movies stored locally
- Enable iCloud Drive to store documents in cloud only
The key is to leverage cloud storage like iCloud as much as possible so less data has to physically remain on your device.
Purchase iCloud Storage
If you exceed the free 5GB of iCloud storage, you can purchase additional storage directly from Apple. More space allows you to store more photos in iCloud.
iCloud storage plans and pricing include:
Storage Amount | Monthly Price | Annual Price |
---|---|---|
50 GB | $0.99 | $11.88 |
200 GB | $2.99 | $35.88 |
2 TB | $9.99 | $119.88 |
Purchasing enough iCloud storage for your full photo and video library ensures it will remain safely backed up in the cloud.
Summary and Conclusion
In summary:
- iCloud does NOT automatically delete or remove photos
- Your photos remain in iCloud unless you manually delete them
- Enable Optimize Storage if you want to save device space
- Deleted photos go to Recently Deleted for 30 days before permanent removal
- Back up iCloud photos to ensure extra protection
So you can feel confident storing your entire photos library in iCloud. Your photos will be securely stored in the cloud until you explicitly delete them.