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How to delete photos off mac but keep them in iCloud?

I want to clear some/Alot! of space on my macbook and have got loads of photos. I have 2TB of iCloud storage but if i delete one photo it deletes off my mac too. Also now I synced the mac up to i cloud all the mac photos have gone onto my phone which is pretty annoying also. I i basically just want to dump them up there and leave my devices clear.... is that possible?

Posted on Dec 1, 2019 6:55 AM

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Posted on Dec 1, 2019 8:45 AM

Not with iCloud Photos. iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 1, 2019 8:45 AM in response to MrStagg

Not with iCloud Photos. iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204264


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


How to delete photos off mac but keep them in iCloud?

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