I want to delete photos from my iPhone but not from cloud?

[Libertas]

When I google how to do this I get confused real fast.

I have sensitive financial docs on the phone that I need to keep in the cloud as I did not have access to a printer when I had to mail them, and I dont want someone who has my phone to be able to see them, so I want them off the phone but keep them in the cloud.

How do I do that?

I know how to hide pics but they are easy to find if you know what you are doing and cant be locked, as I understand it.

 

[Libertas]

I found this

4 ways to delete photos from your iPhone while keeping them in iCloud

You can delete the photos in your iPhone but not iCloud by turning off photo sharing, switching iCloud accounts, or using a different cloud server.

www.businessinsider.com

but still confused...

1. Open Settings on your iPhone.

2. Tap on your name (Apple ID).

3. Tap on "iCloud" (should be the first subtitle below name, security, and payment).

4. Tap on "iCloud Photos" and "My Photo Stream" so the green toggle isn't showing – this will delete the iCloud album from your iPhone, but leave your album in iCloud intact.


What? So if I do that I can then delete photos from the phone that wont be deleted from the cloud? Will new photos automatically go on the cloud and phone or not phone? After I delete the pics in question I can go back to the way it was before, how do I do that...I am only trying to delete a few pics from the phone, I wont need to do this again for a long time so I can then go back to the way it was?

 

[Reggaenald]

You can’t really delete photos from your iCloud enabled device without losing either the photo completely or iCloud sync.
I hope to be wrong but, eh, I don’t think so. Post if you have found a way, tho.

 

[Libertas]

You can’t really delete photos from your iCloud enabled device without losing either the photo completely or iCloud sync.
I hope to be wrong but, eh, I don’t think so. Post if you have found a way, tho.

If I disable the phone from the cloud per this article, then delete those few pics, then enable it again, I wonder if that would work. I could try it with test photos I guess.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I found this

4 ways to delete photos from your iPhone while keeping them in iCloud

You can delete the photos in your iPhone but not iCloud by turning off photo sharing, switching iCloud accounts, or using a different cloud server.

www.businessinsider.com

but still confused...

1. Open Settings on your iPhone.

2. Tap on your name (Apple ID).

3. Tap on "iCloud" (should be the first subtitle below name, security, and payment).

4. Tap on "iCloud Photos" and "My Photo Stream" so the green toggle isn't showing – this will delete the iCloud album from your iPhone, but leave your album in iCloud intact.


What? So if I do that I can then delete photos from the phone that wont be deleted from the cloud? Will new photos automatically go on the cloud and phone or not phone? After I delete the pics in question I can go back to the way it was before, how do I do that...I am only trying to delete a few pics from the phone, I wont need to do this again for a long time so I can then go back to the way it was?

Those instructions were for iOS 13. If you are using iOS 15 the iCloud Photos has different options now.

 

[Slartibart]

copy the images to iCloud Drive (this is not iCloud sync!!!). after that you can delete them on your phone.

 

[BrianBaughn]

copy the images to iCloud Drive (this is not iCloud sync!!!). after that you can delete them on your phone.

This is headed in the right direction…but could someone holding his phone see or access the photo that's in iCloud drive?

As to the OP's issue…personally, I wouldn't try to make iCloud Photos do something it's not designed to do.

What is needed is to forward/upload the photo to some different cloud service but not have access to viewing what's on that service…on the iPhone. If a user does this via Photos they must then delete the photo on the iPhone and empty Recently Deleted.

So…a different app that takes pictures, uploads to a cloud service and doesn't store the photo on the iPhone or let you re-download it would be ideal.

 

[chabig]

I dont want someone who has my phone to be able to see them

Don't let other people use your phone. Problem solved.

 

[Slartibart]

This is headed in the right direction…but could someone holding his phone see or access the photo that's in iCloud drive?

you can use e.g. Safari to connect and manage iCloud Drive… or FE FileExplorer… or FileBrowser Go/Pro… or… ?

 

[BrianBaughn]

I have an app called "Scanner Pro" by Readdle. With it you can take photos or scan documents and they're not automatically added to the Photos app.

You can configure SP to upload (automatically if you want) to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, OneNote, Evernote or a WebDAV server.

From it you can share in all the usual ways.

The SP app can be password and FaceID/TouchID protected from opening.

 

[jenelemond]

The easiest way to do this is by simply turning your iCloud backup off. One thing you do is you can turn off iCloud photo sharing, sign in to a different iCloud account, or use a cloud server other than iCloud for photo sharing. Then Sign out of your current iCloud account, and sign into another one

 

[Regina del Mare]

You could put the photos in the Notes app, and then lock that specific note.

 

[cynics]

Your Photos app and iCloud Photos library is sync'd. Its a copy. You could move the photos into a folder in iCloud Drive (Files app) and then just delete them off the phone (which will delete them from the photo library). You can access them again via the Files app....