How to Delete Photos From iPhone But Not From Google Photos
The main purpose of a photo storage service like Google Photos is to backup your photos to the cloud. Once done, the photos are safe in the cloud. Then one might think of deleting photos from their phones to free up internal space for other apps and things like music.
Let's see different methods to delete photos from iPhone but not from Google Photos.
How the Google Photos app works on iPhone
When you install the Google Photos app, it works like a traditional gallery app on your iPhone. In other words, it displays the photos and videos stored on your iPhone. However, you can also use it to save your photos to the cloud. When the backup option is enabled, two copies of photos are created. One that is present in the cloud, and the second is the copy of the device.
If the photos are not saved to Google Photos and you simply use them as a gallery app, their deletion will only be deleted from your phone. These photos will not appear in any gallery app. But if you have made a backup of them, you can delete them from iPhone and keep them in Google Photos.
This is possible because the copy of the device is deleted without affecting the cloud copy. However, the process is not as simple as hitting the Delete button.
Delete photos from iPhone but keep them in Google Photos
There are three methods to do this. Before checking them out, let's see what are its side effects. Read our guide on what happens when you delete photos directly from Google Photos.
What happens when you delete photos from iPhone but not from Google Photos
In this case, only the copy of the device will be deleted. The cloud copy will remain and is available at photos.google.com. They will also be visible on your phone, but only in the Google Photos app.
1. Remove from different Gallery app
The easiest method to delete multiple photos from iPhone but keep them in Google Photos is to delete them using another application. You can use the Apple Photos app or any other gallery app on iPhone. Again, the photos must first be saved to Google Photos.
To put things in perspective, if you use the Google Photos app directly to delete photos, the two copies (cloud and device) will be deleted as they are synchronized with each other. But deleting photos using other gallery apps will only delete the copy from the device. Therefore, your cloud copy will remain safe and intact.
After photos are deleted using other gallery apps, you can still see them in the Google Photos app. But now you see the cloud copy. To verify this, open an image in the Google Photos app that you deleted and swipe up. If you see the "Save to device" button, it means you are viewing the cloud copy. If you see Delete from device, it means the photo is still on your phone.
Note: Enabling or disabling the Save and Synchronize setting has no impact on this method.
2. Use free space
Google Photos comes with native functionality to remove the device copy from photos in order to free up internal space on Android and iPhone. It is known as free space.
Once activated, it will delete the camera copy of all saved photos. You will see the cloud copy on your phone. This method is safe because only photos that are properly backed up in the cloud will be deleted. Photos that have not yet been saved will remain on your iPhone. Check out our detailed guide on what happens when you free up space in Google Photos.
To use it, follow these steps:
Step 1: Open the Google Photos app on your iPhone.
2nd step: Tap the three bar icon at the top and select Free up space.
Stage 3: A popup window will appear telling you the number of photos that will be deleted. Tap Delete.
Step 4: If you are trying to free up internal memory, you should delete them from the Recently Deleted folder of the Apple Photos app. Otherwise, they will continue to use the storage space on your phone until they are deleted automatically after 30 days.
So open the Apple Photos app. This is the app preinstalled on your phone. Tap Albums. Scroll down and tap Deleted recently. Select the photos and delete them.
Point: If you accidentally delete a photo, you can recover it using the recently deleted folder.
3. Use the delete device copy function
The above method deletes the copy from the camera for all saved photos. If you want to delete the selected photos, you can use the native function Delete copy from device.
Note: To delete only a few images, you can even use method 1.
For the uninitiated, Google Photos offers two types of delete buttons. One is your usual delete icon which will delete photos from your iPhone and your Google Photos account. The second delete button (Delete from a device) is available by swiping up on the photo or pressing the three-dot icon at the top of the photo.
When using this function, only the copy of the device will be deleted, as the name suggests. Since the photo is saved in Google Photos, you will still see it (as a cloud copy) on your iPhone in the Google Photos app.
To use it for a single photo, open the photo and swipe up. Tap Delete from device.
For multiple photos, select them on the Google Photos app home screen. Then tap the three dots icon at the top and select Device Copy Originals.
What about accidentally deleted photos
If you accidentally deleted photos, you can recover them from the Bin Photos folder. To access it, open the Google Photos app and tap the three bar icon. Select Bin.
Choose the photos you want to recover and click Restore.
Pay attention
Since we are dealing with photos and associated cloud services, we always suggest that you try the methods above for a handful of photos first. Once you are sure they are safe in Google Photos, you can continue and delete the others. You can also move photos from your iPhone to Google Photos and delete them if necessary.
Then: Don't like the Google Photos app? Uninstall it from your iPhone. Know what happens to your photos after uninstalling the app.