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I want to delete photos and videos from my phone but keep them in the iCloud account. I just deleted all the photos from my phone and it automatically deleted them from the cloud and put them in the trash.

Deleted photos from my iPhone thinking it would be on my iCloud still. It automatically deleted them from my iCloud account as well. I see they are in the trash on iCloud and can be restored. Will this them restore them to my phone as well. What’s the point of iCloud if I can’t free up space on my devices and keep the files in the cloud?

Posted on Dec 15, 2021 9:37 AM

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Posted on Dec 15, 2021 9:39 AM

Yes. They will restore to your phone too. iCloud is primarily a synchronization service, not offline storage. Anything you do to a photo on device or in iCloud will be reflected across all of your connected devices. You can reduce the storage size of your photos on your device at Settings > Photos by turning on optimize photos.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 15, 2021 9:39 AM in response to Jakemajors

Yes. They will restore to your phone too. iCloud is primarily a synchronization service, not offline storage. Anything you do to a photo on device or in iCloud will be reflected across all of your connected devices. You can reduce the storage size of your photos on your device at Settings > Photos by turning on optimize photos.

I want to delete photos and videos from my phone but keep them in the iCloud account. I just deleted all the photos from my phone and it automatically deleted them from the cloud and put them in the trash.

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