Instant deletion of all Photos from iCloud (not using the Photos App on the Mac or iPhone)

I use several devices (iPhone 14 Pro and 15 Pro, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro) and over time, my iCloud (using the 6TB plan) has filled up with a lot of photos, which I neither need nor want in continuous sync on all devices.

I downloaded all the contents to an offline storage medium (Export to large external HDD via Photos app on the MacBook)


No I want to delete all the photos from the iCloud Photo Library. As I want to continue using the (now offline) Photo Libary on the MacBook, deleting all Photos there while in Sync is not an option. Selecting all (~600k) photos on the iPhone without a "Select All" button is not practicable. Is there any "delete all" option on the iCloud web interface or via the Mac/iPhone System Settings?


Alternatively, I plan to de-activate the Photo Library function in iCloud in order to delete all Photos from iCloud. Is it possible to re-activate iCloud Photos *without* restoring all the old photos but just using it as a vanilla new iCloud photo storage? And will storage space be freed immediately when deactivating iCloud photos or only after 30 days?


Kind Regards

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Sep 7, 2025 1:22 AM

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Instant deletion of all Photos from iCloud (not using the Photos App on the Mac or iPhone)

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