Delete photos off iPhone (but keep in iCloud)

higster

Hi

Wife’s iPhone 7 memory pretty much full due to number of photos. Want to delete them from phone but keep them in iCloud and at same time keep using iCloud account on phone. Struggling to see options (mostly its turn off iCloud on phone and delete but then if want to use Sam iCloud account again have problem back again or all photos deleted off iCloud).

Thinking using log her out, log in on my account, sync photos to my iCloud, log out, delete all photos and let her log in again (make sense)? Will I lose photos on iCloud if do this way?

FourFourRED

Adding them to your account sounds like a nightmare to be honest. They will all get mixed in with your photos. I would avoid signing into her phone with your account. You won’t lose photos but you will certainly gain an irreversible mess.

Have you enabled the “Optimise iPhone storage” option under settings > photos? - that is the best way to do this with the least hassle.

You may already have done this, if so. How much storage are photos taking up in settings > iPhone storage? And how much are actually in iCloud? (You can find this in settings > name > iCloud > manage storage.)

What capacity iPhone is it and what iOS version is she on?

Get back to me on the above and we’ll work out the best solution.

higster

FourFourFM wrote: »

Adding them to your account sounds like a nightmare to be honest. They will all get mixed in with your photos. I would avoid signing into her phone with your account.

Have you enabled the “Optimise iPhone storage” option under settings > photos? - that is the best way to do this with the least hassle.

You may already have done this, if so. How much storage are photos taking up in settings > iPhone storage? And how much are actually in iCloud? (You can find this in settings > name > iCloud > manage storage.)

What capacity iPhone is it and what iOS version is she on?

Get back to me on the above and we’ll work out the best solution.

Thanks. Yeah, Its on optimize but didn’t get chance to check what was using up the storage...she’s gone for the day, will check later (interesting when checked my own WhatsApp netflix and Spotify are using way more then photos (especially whats app).

FourFourRED

higster wrote: »

Thanks. Yeah, Its on optimize but didn’t get chance to check what was using up the storage...she’s gone for the day, will check later (interesting when checked my own WhatsApp netflix and Spotify are using way more then photos (especially whats app).

If it turns out that the storage is still crazy high on the phone, I would start with videos. These are the big culprits obviously as they’re a lot larger. Have her favourite some of the ones she wants to keep on the phone. Download them from iCloud.com onto a computer if this is possible and save them there or on an external drive. Once they’re saved elsewhere delete them from iPhone and iCloud and also from recently deleted - this could make a major difference.

Of course if you prefer to keep the videos in iCloud, honestly she might be better off starting to look for a bigger capacity iPhone. Check the OS version first though and update it to the max it can take. Some newer versions handle the optimise feature a lot better.

higster

Thanks again. Yeah went through her phone. Photos was not the problem glad to say. Clean out of WhatsApp Netflix Spotify has it sorted (Crap 32 GB on the phone isn’t helping). Thanks again.

antix80

It's a 4 year old phone with 32gb storage. At least you know what to get her for xmas.

Gumbo

Download google photos app.
Every photo I take auto backs up to 1tb space for free.

I delete my phone photos daily so have pretty much nothing in the camera roll.

Between Google photos capturing everything, Dropbox for specific roles and I also u;old to OneDrive as I have my photos sorted by year there, it means there’s no messing about with iCloud. 99% of the problems around backing up seems to be too many photos and videos in the camera roll.

higster

antix80 wrote: »

It's a 4 year old phone with 32gb storage. At least you know what to get her for xmas.