How do you remove photos from you iDevice, without removing them from iCloud storage?

[r3id]

I have my photos backed up to iCloud, some 15k photos, when I view one it downloads to my device. Over time this starts to take up a fair amount of space.

I have set the iPhone up to optimise iPhone storage, which is working as I have to download the image to view a good quality version of it.

My question is really, how can I remove these downloaded version without deleting the image from iCloud? It seems like an odd omission for Apple to make by not having a way to free up space, but then this has always been the case with the "other" storage section who you view the used space bar.

 

[Sherry_B]

You can't. iCloud photo storage is meant to mirror what you have on your device. I use Dropbox to store my photos. The only pictures I keep on my phone are wallpapers. Anything else gets saved to Dropbox. Since I also have Dropbox installed on my laptop and my desktop, my photos are also backed up onto those hard drives too, which essentially means I have 3 backups of all of my photos.

 

[Ledsteplin]

iCloud is not a storage option so to speak. It's a back up option as Sherry said. It backs up what is currently on your device. If you delete from the camera roll, it also deletes from iCloud in your next back up. I use Box and Dropbox to store photos and delete from the camera roll.

 

[r3id]

Shame they can't do something similar to what they do with music. Where you can delete the downloaded copies while retailing the original on iCloud. - yeah I get that it's part of iTunes, but you get the idea.

Apple really doesn't utilise iCloud as much as they could, if they could nail some its shortfalls they would be onto a winner. Small steps though I guess.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Shame they can't do something similar to what they do with music. Where you can delete the downloaded copies while retailing the original on iCloud. - yeah I get that it's part of iTunes, but you get the idea.

Apple really doesn't utilise iCloud as much as they could, if they could nail some its shortfalls they would be onto a winner. Small steps though I guess.

They need a cloud based app like Dropbox for photos, where you can delete off the camera roll.

 

[Annie_M]

I wish Apple had such an function, but they don't. So what I've done is added the Google Photos App to my phone. I have a gmail account, which I used to sign into the app. You can automatically have all your photos backed up, and once they are backed up, delete them off your phone. You can still access them easily through the app. The awesome thing about this app, is that space is unlimited.

Prior to getting the app, I used dropbox, and a few others, but with dropbox, space is limited, and the other apps seemed cumbersome to me. I do go into google photos occasionally, and organize them into albums, and I do delete some things, like random screenshots I don't want to keep.

 

[Quis89]

I pay like $10 for 1 TB of Dropbox storage. Once Apple decides to improve their iCloud storage options I will drop Dropbox. Until then...it's the best option for me. And it has every picture I've taken in the past 9 years or so.

 

[Sherry_B]

I used dropbox, and a few others, but with dropbox, space is limited

I have 19.75 GB of free space in my Dropbox account, and since 2012 I've never came close to using all of that space. Like you though, I do go through from time to time and delete things and for very special photographs I back those up onto a DVD. I have a few shared folders between close friends, keep photos from my phone, and keep a slew of pdf sewing patterns.