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How can I delete a photo/ video on my iPhone but leave it up on iCloud?

I am trying to create more space on my iPhone by deleting photos and videos. however I don’t want to lose them permanently. Does anyone know if can somehow save them on iCloud even after I deleted them off of my smartphone?

iPhone 8 Plus

Posted on Sep 13, 2020 10:46 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 13, 2020 10:53 AM

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.


2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 13, 2020 10:53 AM in response to MarioVeraBallón

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 can I delete a photo/ video on my iPhone but leave it up on iCloud?

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