How do I delete photos only from icould?

Thanks for the help!

When I try to turn offiCloud syncing it warns me that all the photos on my Mac will also be deleted, but full resolution photos will remain in the cloud. That's the opposite of what I'm trying to achieve. How do I keep photos on my Mac, but remove them from the cloud only? (I only want to keep docs and device backups on iCloud.)

Thanks!

Hopefully that's the answer. I did have optimize on in the past, but turned off iCloud on all my devices (about a month ago) because the photos took up too much space. But then when I tried to delete/remove from iCloud I still got the scary message. And even with syncing turned off.

I think we did it!

But first, just to be sure, I created a new Photos album on the Mac, and did not turn on sync.

Then I went to iCloud Photos and deleted a test image I could live without.

Then I checked my photo libraries on all devices, and found the photo I had deleted from iCloud was still present wherever it had been previously (searched using Power Photos, from Fat Cat Software).

Maybe the key is to break any connections that exist between the cloud and your devices, so that even if it wants to, iCloud can't touch your local files. I dunno... "I'm just a bass player, Jim, I'm not a doctor!"

Guess what I just found.

If you go to System Preferences on the Mac you can open Apple ID, click on "Manage iCloud Storage," select Photos, then choose to "Turn off and Delete all photos."

DON'T DO IT!

iCloud sync turned itself on in the background and DELETED ALL THE PHOTOS ON MY COMPUTER!

Not good at all...