How to Delete Photos from iCloud but Not iPhone

September 20, 2023 By Nancy William No Comments 3 minutes

Have you ever deleted all your pictures from your iCloud account and lost even the copies on your iPhone? Well, these things happen. iCloud is one of the most important tools for iOS users, where you can back up all required data. However, if there are some pictures, videos, documents, etc., on your phone that you don’t need on your iCloud account, you need to turn off the sync first. This guide will show you how to delete photos from iCloud without losing the first copies from your phones.

Delete Photos from iCloud

STAY SAFE!
While going into your iCloud storage, ensure you’re not connected to public WiFi. This isn’t a safe option when accessing personal data. Anyone with a motive over the same free network can hack your account. Connect with FastestVPN to optimize online security for devices and data.

The best way to delete iCloud photos is to remove the sync option. This way, the pictures on your iPhone won’t get erased.

Get FastestVPN

How to Delete Photos from iCloud & iPhone (Single & Multiple Photos)

Before starting, you need to understand that if your iCloud account and iPhone are synced and you attempt to delete any photo or video from your account, you lose the original copy even on your phone. Here’s how to get started:

Go to the Photos app.
See the photo that you want to delete.
Hold down on the image and wait for the pop-up menu to appear.
Click on the “Delete” option.
If you’d like to delete more than one photo, click on the “Select” button on the top-right of the screen.
Now select multiple pictures that you no longer want.
Click on the “Trash” icon that is on the bottom-right of the screen.
This will delete photos from iCloud and your iPhone device.

Now, in case you’d like to keep the photos on your device and only delete them from iCloud, check the tutorial below.

How to Delete Photos from iCloud by Unsyncing

This tutorial helps you delete your photos only from iCloud and not your device. To begin with that, you need to turn off the sync option. Here’s how:

On your device, open the “Settings” app.
Scroll and click on “Photos.”
There will be a toggle for “iCloud Photos,” click to disable it. It should go from green to grey.
You will now see a pop-up sign. Click on “Remove from iPhone” ONLY if you’d like to delete any vague copies of the pictures from your iPhone device, too.
That’s it. Now, whenever you click a picture, it won’t be loaded to iCloud storage until you enable the syncing option again.

Also note, that if you accidentally delete your Apple ID account, you will lose all photos, videos, purchases, and more permanently from iCloud and your device.

FAQs – Delete Photos from iCloud

How do you permanently delete photos from iCloud?

You can delete photos from iCloud from your device or via the website. If you’re deleting photos from iCloud via the website, here’s how:

Head to the iCloud website and sign in to your Apple ID account.
Click on the folder of the images you’d like to delete.
Now, choose single images or multiple pictures for deletion from iCloud storage.
To delete photos from iCloud, click on the “Trash” icon.
Lastly, when you delete it, please note that these images will be deleted from all your iOS devices linked to this account.

Why is my iCloud storage full after deleting photos?

If you’ve deleted photos from your iCloud and still the storage is full, it is because there are other data stored on your account other than just photos. This may include apps, documents, videos, music, voice notes, emails, and more.

How do I delete photos from iCloud and not iPhone?

To delete photos from iCloud and not your iPhone, you have to disable the sync option. To do this, go to “Settings” > “Your Name” > “iCloud” > “Photos.” Now, tap on the “Sync this iPhone” option to disable it. You can now go to iCloud storage and delete photos only from there and not your iPhone.

Is there a way to delete old backups on iCloud?

To delete backups from iCloud and turn off the option on iPhone and iPad, you have to:

Go to “Settings” and click on your profile name > “iCloud.”
Tap on “Manage Account Storage” > “Backups.”
Now select the name of device containing the backup data you would like to delete.
Select “Delete Backup” > “Turn Off & Delete.”

How do you get more iCloud storage free?

If you’re not willing to pay for more iCloud storage, here are some suggestions to free up more space:

Minimize the limit of your iCloud Backup.
Delete extra pictures from iPhone Photos.
Delete files or extra folders in iCloud Drive.
Delete texts in the Messages folder.
Delete attachments in the Messages folder.
Manage what mail to receive.
Delete voice messages that aren’t necessary.

What are iCloud storage plans?

Just in case you’d like to buy more iCloud storage, there are 3 plans that you can buy:

Package 1 - iCloud+ with 50GB storage
Package 2 - iCloud+ with 200GB storage
Package 3 - iCloud+ with 2TB, 6TB, or 12TB storage.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201238

How do I upload photos to iCloud via PC?

Launch the “File Explorer” window.
Click on “iCloud Photos” under “Favorites.”
Select “Upload photos and videos.”
Now, simply select the photos and videos that you’d like to upload on iCloud and click “Open.”

To Conclude

And you’re done! You now know how to delete photos from iCloud and from your iPhone and how to disable the syncing option to avoid all your pictures getting deleted. Also, we’d like to mention that there is an “Optimize iPhone Storage” option that you can enable.

This allows all full-resolution photos or videos to be saved on your iCloud storage. You will then only have the latest videos and photos on your iPhone device. Why is this option important? Well, when your device runs low on storage, it automatically uploads only full-resolution captures to iCloud and erases the smaller or poor-resolution photos and videos.