iCloud Photo Library is an Apple service that automatically uploads photos and videos from your iPhone to iCloud, allowing you to access them from any device signed into your Apple ID. Any changes made to the photos and videos in iCloud, such as deletions, are synced across devices. This means that deleting a photo or video in iCloud will also remove it from your synced iPhone.
The goal of this guide is to show you how to selectively remove photos from iCloud while retaining copies on your iPhone. This allows you to free up iCloud storage space without losing photos and videos saved locally on your device.
Check iCloud Photo Settings on iPhone
To check your iCloud Photo settings on an iPhone, follow these steps:
Open the Settings app and tap on Photos. This will display the Photos settings screen.
Look for the option called iCloud Photo Library and confirm that the toggle is enabled and blue. This means iCloud Photo Library is turned on.
Also check the setting below iCloud Photo Library called Optimize iPhone Storage. If enabled, this setting will store full resolution photos and videos in iCloud while smaller versions are kept on your device to save space. If disabled, full versions of all photos and videos are stored locally on your iPhone.
Knowing your iCloud Photo Library and Optimize iPhone Storage settings will be useful later when deleting photos just from iCloud.
[Source: Apple Support]
Turn Off iCloud Photo Library on iPhone
The first step is to temporarily disable iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone. This prevents your photos from automatically syncing and being deleted from your iPhone when you delete them from iCloud. To turn off iCloud Photo Library:
1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on your name at the top of the screen (your Apple ID).
3. Tap on “iCloud”.
4. Tap on “Photos”.
5. Toggle the switch next to “iCloud Photo Library” to the off position.
With iCloud Photo Library disabled, any photos you delete from iCloud will no longer be automatically deleted from your iPhone. This allows you to delete photos solely from iCloud while keeping them intact on your device (source).
Delete Photos in iCloud
To delete photos from just iCloud without affecting the photos on your iPhone, you can log into iCloud.com and delete photos directly from there.
On a Mac or PC, open iCloud.com and click on Photos. This will show all the photos and videos that are stored in your iCloud Photo Library.
Go through and select any photos you want to delete by clicking on them. You can delete multiple photos at once by holding down the Command key on a Mac or the Ctrl key on a Windows PC and clicking on each photo.
Once you have selected the photos to delete, click the Delete button at the bottom. Confirm that you want to delete the selected items.
This will delete the photos from your iCloud storage only. Any photos deleted here will NOT be deleted from your iPhone camera roll or other devices. This allows you to free up iCloud storage space while keeping photos on your devices.
Turn iCloud Photo Library Back On
Once you have deleted the photos you want removed from iCloud, you can turn iCloud Photo Library back on to sync your remaining photos. On your iPhone, go to the Settings app and tap on your name at the top. Then tap on iCloud > Photos and turn on the iCloud Photo Library toggle.
When you re-enable iCloud Photo Library, your iPhone will begin syncing the photos you have locally with iCloud again. Any photos you had previously synced to iCloud before turning it off will download again to your device. However, any photos you deleted while iCloud Photo Library was turned off will not come back, as they are now permanently deleted from iCloud.
So after turning iCloud Photo Library back on, you can be assured that your iPhone photos will match what remains in your iCloud storage. Just be aware that turning it off and on again will not bring back deleted photos. The sync will only restore photos that still exist in iCloud at the time you re-enable the service.
Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7985228
Alternative: Use Optimized Storage
Another option to consider when wanting to delete photos from iCloud while keeping them on your iPhone is using the Optimize iPhone Storage setting. This feature allows you to offload the full resolution photos to iCloud while keeping smaller, optimized versions on your iPhone [1].
When Optimize iPhone Storage is enabled, your iPhone will automatically manage the storage space by replacing full resolution photos and videos with smaller versions as needed. The originals remain safely stored in iCloud. This frees up space on your device while still letting you access all your photos and videos.
With this setting on, you can safely delete photos from iCloud through iCloud.com or the Photos app while retaining the smaller versions on your iPhone. This allows you to remove unwanted photos from the cloud without impacting the content visible on your device [2].
Enabling Optimize iPhone Storage is a handy alternative to fully turning off iCloud Photo Library if you still want quick access to all your photos, just in a reduced file size when space is low.
[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/105061
[2] https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/stop-deleting-photos-on-your-iphone-to-free-up-storage-and-do-this-instead/
Check Deleted Photos on iCloud.com
Once you have deleted photos from iCloud, you can confirm that they no longer appear in your iCloud photo library by checking on iCloud.com. Sign in to iCloud.com and go to the Photos app. In the All Photos view, you should no longer see the photos you just deleted.
However, keep in mind that immediately after deletion, those photos will still exist in the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days before being permanently erased. So if you go into the Recently Deleted folder, you will still find the photos you removed. After 30 days, those deleted photos will be permanently gone.
Verify Photos on iPhone
After deleting photos from iCloud, it’s important to verify that the photos still remain on your iPhone’s local storage. Here’s how to check:
Open the Photos app on your iPhone. You can find this in the bottom row of default apps.
Once in the Photos app, browse through your photo library and confirm the photos you deleted from iCloud are still present on your device. The deletion from iCloud was only done in the cloud, so your local iPhone copies remain intact.
Scrolling through your Photos app library and visually confirming the photos are still there is the best way to verify the iCloud deletion did not affect the photos on your device.
If the removed iCloud photos no longer appear in the Photos app on your iPhone, it’s an indication something went wrong with the steps to delete them solely from the cloud. You may need to go back and redo the steps to remove them from iCloud without deleting local copies.
Permanently Delete Photos from iCloud
When you delete photos from iCloud, they are moved to the Recently Deleted folder and remain there for 30 days before being permanently erased. This gives you a chance to recover photos if you deleted them by accident. According to Apple Support, “To permanently delete photos or videos before they’re automatically deleted, go to the Recently Deleted album, select the items you want to delete, then click Delete”.
To fully erase photos from iCloud so they are no longer recoverable:
- Go to iCloud.com and sign in.
- Open the Photos app.
- Go to the Albums tab and click on Recently Deleted to view your deleted photos.
- Select the photos you want to permanently delete.
- Click the Delete button to fully erase them.
Once photos are deleted from the Recently Deleted folder, there is no way to recover them. Apple notes “Deleted items are permanently deleted after 30 days”. So if you want to completely remove photos from iCloud, deleting them from Recently Deleted will permanently erase them.
Conclusion
In summary, temporarily turning off iCloud Photo Library gave you the ability to selectively delete photos from your iCloud storage without removing them from your iPhone. This approach lets you free up iCloud space while preserving photos you still want on your device.
Alternatively, you can use Optimized Storage which provides a similar capability to delete iCloud photos without affecting your iPhone. With Optimized Storage, your full photo library remains accessible while your most frequently used photos are stored locally and the rest are stored in iCloud.
It’s also a good idea to periodically review the photos stored directly on your iPhone and delete any unwanted ones to free up local storage. Just remember photos deleted from the Photos app will be removed from both iCloud and your device.
By thoughtfully managing your photos across iCloud storage and local iPhone storage, you can ensure you always have your most important photos with you while minimizing the total space used.
