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How do I delete photos from my phone but still get access to them on iCloud?

I have 50g of iCloud storage but a 16g phone. I want to save my photos and videos to iCloud but delete them from the phone to make way for new ones. How can I do this?


if it’s not possible, can the support team work on that for future updates?


I don’t see the point in paying for monthly storage if I can’t store things there.

iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 14

Posted on Aug 18, 2021 5:39 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 18, 2021 6:15 PM

iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.


This is primarily a user-to-user support forum; other Apple users like you. If you want to make a suggestion to Apple that they change how that works, you can use the following: Feedback - iCloud - Apple

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 18, 2021 6:15 PM in response to Need_space

iCloud Photos is a syncing service. Any photo you delete from a device where iCloud Photos is turned on will also be deleted from iCloud and from any other device connected to iCloud Photos. You can potentially reduce the storage space required on a device by turning on Optimize Storage. See: Set up and use iCloud Photos - Apple Support


Apple does not currently offer cloud-only storage for photos. If that is what you want or need, you may want to explore 3rd party options such as Google Photos or Dropbox.


Another way that photos may be on iCloud (if you don’t have iCloud Photos turned on) is via a backup of an iOS device. The only thing you can do with a backup is use it to restore a device or set up a new device. The contents of backups are not viewable at iCloud.com and if you delete a photo from a device it will not be included in future backups and will be lost.


This is primarily a user-to-user support forum; other Apple users like you. If you want to make a suggestion to Apple that they change how that works, you can use the following: Feedback - iCloud - Apple

How do I delete photos from my phone but still get access to them on iCloud?

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