How to delete iPhone photos to save space WITHOUT losing them forever
RUNNING out of space on your iPhone is a right bore, but there’s a simple way to fix it.
The solution involves iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage service that lets you backup photos, videos and more to the internet.
By fiddling around with your iPhone’s settings, you can delete photos from your mobile and instead store them on iCloud.
This should free up a good chunk of memory on your handset, leaving you plenty of space to download new apps and podcasts, or take more snaps.
There is a catch, however: Read the whole guide below to avoid accidentally losing your photo library for good.
How to delete photos from iPhone without removing them from iCloud
Apple’s iCloud is automatically synced with your iPhone, iPad or Mac photo libraries.
This means that deleting an image from one of your libraries will also wipe it from iCloud by default.
However, there is a way to decouple the two.
Go to your Settings, and tap your name (Apple ID) at the top. Tap on iCloud.
iPhone tricks to try today
Here are some of the best...
- Typing cursor – When typing, hold down the space bar to turn your keyboard into a trackpad, letting you move around words and sentences more easily
- Close all Safari tabs – To do this in one go, simply hold the overlapped squares in the bottom right-hand corner, and press close all tabs
- Delete lots of photos quickly – Hold down on a photo and then drag your finger diagonally in Photos to select lots of images at once, then hit delete
- Convert currency quickly – Swipe down from the top of your Home screen (or swipe left to right on an iPhone X or later model), then tap in the bar and type a currency (like $200) and it will automatically covert to your local currency
- Check if you’re due a battery upgrade – Batteries inside smartphones degrade over time. Just go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health, and check out the Maximum Capacity reading. Generally a battery is considered worn when you’re down to 80% capacity. If you’re below, you can buy a battery swap from Apple
- Move apps around faster – Hold an app until it starts wiggling, then (while still holding) tap other apps, causing them to stack so you can move them around easier
From here, tap on Photos and then hit the “iCloud Photos” and “My Photo Stream” toggle so they’re no longer on green.
This will allow you to delete photos from your device, but leave them saved to iCloud.
There is a drawback, however: If you reconnect your mobile to iCloud, it will match your iPhone again, deletions and all.
We’d suggest using another cloud backup service, such as Google Photos or Dropbox, to ensure you don’t delete your photos forever by accident.
Most read in Phones & Gadgets
In other news, Apple unveiled four new iPhones earlier this month – including one of its smallest in years.
Your iPhone has a setting that when activated automatically blocks spam callers – here’s how to switch it on in seconds.
And, Huawei has just launched the Mate 40 Pro smartphone.
Have you tried the iCloud trick? If so, let us know in the comments!
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