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Finder vs. iCloud Photos

I want to start using icloud photos to backup my camera roll. When I tried to turn it on in settings, there was a warning that photos synced from Finder will be removed. Will all the photos be deleted from my iphone? I've never intentionally used Finder and don't have a Mac.


iPhone X, iOS 16

Posted on Jul 5, 2023 7:48 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 5, 2023 1:23 PM

This warning is telling you that the manually synced photos will be removed from your iPhone - photos you have synced from a computer, either with iTunes from a Windows computer or from a Mac by syncing with the Finder. Do you have a Windows computer and have synced photos using iTunes on a computer?

These synced photos are shown on your iPhone in albums in a special section "From my Mac". You can test, if a photo has been synced this way by trying to delete it on your iPhone. For manually synced photos it is not possible to delete them directly on your iPhone.


Before you turn on iCloud Photos on iPhone, make sure, that you have copies of all synced photos on a computer. These will definitely be deleted from the iPhone, when you enable iCloud Photos.

But the photos that have been saved to your iPhone by the camera or from other apps on your iPhone, or photos imported using a camera connection kit will remin. Only the synced photos in the albums "From my Mac" are in danger.



1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 5, 2023 1:23 PM in response to ronbrownsr

This warning is telling you that the manually synced photos will be removed from your iPhone - photos you have synced from a computer, either with iTunes from a Windows computer or from a Mac by syncing with the Finder. Do you have a Windows computer and have synced photos using iTunes on a computer?

These synced photos are shown on your iPhone in albums in a special section "From my Mac". You can test, if a photo has been synced this way by trying to delete it on your iPhone. For manually synced photos it is not possible to delete them directly on your iPhone.


Before you turn on iCloud Photos on iPhone, make sure, that you have copies of all synced photos on a computer. These will definitely be deleted from the iPhone, when you enable iCloud Photos.

But the photos that have been saved to your iPhone by the camera or from other apps on your iPhone, or photos imported using a camera connection kit will remin. Only the synced photos in the albums "From my Mac" are in danger.



Finder vs. iCloud Photos

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