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How can I delete photos from my iPhone to free up storage but still keep them stored in the cloud?

How can I delete photos from my iPhone to free up storage but still keep them stored in the cloud?

Posted on Jul 4, 2023 12:10 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 4, 2023 12:46 PM

There are many ways of preserving photos and videos.


  • emailed, texted or messaged the photos to friends or family
  • iTunes backup
  • Transfer your photos to your computer via USB cable
  • Sync to Google Photos
  • Sync to some other photo archiving service such as Shutterfly
  • Sync to Dropbox
  • Sync to box.com
  • Sync to Microsoft OneDrive
  • Sync to Amazon Photos
  • back up to Livedrive
  • Backup to any other backup or archiving service
  • Transfer them to a Flash drive through the lightning port on your iPhone, using a product such as SanDisk 64 GB iXpand Flash Drive Go - Apple


8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 4, 2023 12:46 PM in response to EddiefmNC

There are many ways of preserving photos and videos.


  • emailed, texted or messaged the photos to friends or family
  • iTunes backup
  • Transfer your photos to your computer via USB cable
  • Sync to Google Photos
  • Sync to some other photo archiving service such as Shutterfly
  • Sync to Dropbox
  • Sync to box.com
  • Sync to Microsoft OneDrive
  • Sync to Amazon Photos
  • back up to Livedrive
  • Backup to any other backup or archiving service
  • Transfer them to a Flash drive through the lightning port on your iPhone, using a product such as SanDisk 64 GB iXpand Flash Drive Go - Apple


Jul 4, 2023 12:16 PM in response to EddiefmNC

You can’t. iCloud Photos is not off device storage. It is a syncing service. What you do on one device is reflected everywhere including in iCloud.


Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


Photos delete from all of your devices

When you delete photos and videos on one device, they're deleted everywhere that you use iCloud Photos. If you delete something accidentally, you can recovery it in the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days. After that, it's deleted permanently. 

How can I delete photos from my iPhone to free up storage but still keep them stored in the cloud?

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