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How do I delete photos from my iPhone but keep them on my Mac

Im trying to free up space on my iPhone, I have lots of iCloud storage. Id like to delete the photos from my phone but keep them on my Mac - is there away to do this? TIA

iPhone 8, iOS 15

Posted on Aug 24, 2022 9:54 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 24, 2022 11:51 AM

Mynne wrote:

1 - if I turn off iCloud I can then delete all photos in my phone? They will stay on my Mac?
2 - after doing so when I turn iCloud back on will the photos stay on my Mac or will they pop back onto my phone?

1 - yes, the will stay on your Mac.

2 - as I don't use iCloud Photos I'm not sure if after you turn on iCloud again if the photos will be deleted from the Mac or added to the iPhone. I'm thinking deleted from the Mac.


If you want to keep a set of full sized photos do the following:


1 - on an external drive formatted either APFS (GUID partition) [for an SSD] or OS X Extended (journaled) [for a rotational HDD] create a new, empty Photos library.

2 - set the library to be the System Photos Library and enable iCloud Photos. DO NOT ENABLE "OPTIMIZE MAC STORAGE".

3 - let the download begin. I could take up to a week depending on the size of the iCloud Library.

4 - when the download is complete disable iCloud Library on the EHD library and set your library on you internal drive to be the System Photos library.


This will give you a Photos library with all of the full sized photos.


NOTE: if you do not have Optimize Mac Storage enabled on your Mac's Photos Library you can just copy the library to the external drive for a full backup. If you do have optimize enabled you'll need to do what's in steps 1 - 4.


5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 24, 2022 11:51 AM in response to Mynne

Mynne wrote:

1 - if I turn off iCloud I can then delete all photos in my phone? They will stay on my Mac?
2 - after doing so when I turn iCloud back on will the photos stay on my Mac or will they pop back onto my phone?

1 - yes, the will stay on your Mac.

2 - as I don't use iCloud Photos I'm not sure if after you turn on iCloud again if the photos will be deleted from the Mac or added to the iPhone. I'm thinking deleted from the Mac.


If you want to keep a set of full sized photos do the following:


1 - on an external drive formatted either APFS (GUID partition) [for an SSD] or OS X Extended (journaled) [for a rotational HDD] create a new, empty Photos library.

2 - set the library to be the System Photos Library and enable iCloud Photos. DO NOT ENABLE "OPTIMIZE MAC STORAGE".

3 - let the download begin. I could take up to a week depending on the size of the iCloud Library.

4 - when the download is complete disable iCloud Library on the EHD library and set your library on you internal drive to be the System Photos library.


This will give you a Photos library with all of the full sized photos.


NOTE: if you do not have Optimize Mac Storage enabled on your Mac's Photos Library you can just copy the library to the external drive for a full backup. If you do have optimize enabled you'll need to do what's in steps 1 - 4.


How do I delete photos from my iPhone but keep them on my Mac

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