How to remove photos from google photos without deleting from iphone

Cloud services should make our life easier. But unfortunately sometimes they can’t. This is because of their contradictory nature. I assume you must have the Google Photos app installed on your iPhone and iPad and it syncs all your photos with Google servers. Now you may want to remove photos from Google Photos without deleting them from iCloud.

Do not worry. We will assist you in doing this. At this time, when trying to delete the photo from the Google Photos app, you must be surprised to learn that the photo was deleted from iPhone and eventually iCloud. True? All you want to do is delete all the pictures from Google Photos but not iCloud. In other words, you want to unlink Google Photos from iCloud.

Let’s see how to do this by first understanding how these two services work.

Let’s talk about apps first. iCloud Photos uses Apple’s Photos app to work. Google Photos is an app-based extension of the service. Both Apple Photos and Google Photos act as tools to show you photos from your phone. Get them as regular gallery apps. Apple Photos comes pre-installed on iPhone and iPad, while you can download Google Photos from the App Store.

Both act as a storage service for your photos. That is, they allow you to store photos in the cloud. While Apple Photos uses the iCloud service, Google Photos saves them to Google’s cloud, unlike Apple’s iCloud.

Storing or backing up photos in the cloud is a secondary feature that is initially disabled. You may use one or both of the services at the same time. You can disable backup for both services. Instead, just use them as gallery apps. Learn more about the differences between Google Photos and iCloud Photos.

However, these services work differently when you enable them. Google Photos takes the photo from your phone and saves it to the Google cloud. The photo is now in two places – your phone and your Google cloud. To save space on your phone, you can remove it from your phone using the Free up space feature provided by Google Photos. By doing this, the photo remains only in the cloud. Check out our in-depth Google Photos guide to find out what happens when free space is used up.

Think of the cloud as a central database. From this database, you can access photos on any device using your Google account. You can view them on the web, Android and iPhone. On mobiles, simply download the Google Photos app and log into your Google account. Then you will be able to view all the photos without enabling any settings (like Backup & sync) or downloading them. Photos appear automatically on your phone. However, they do not occupy any storage space on the phone as they are stored in the cloud. You view them directly from the cloud.

Now when it comes to iCloud, it also takes the photo and saves it to its cloud. Even though there is a central database, the same copy is kept on your iPhone and any other connected Apple devices, if any. Basically, the photos in the cloud and your iPhone are the same. So, yes, it also takes up your phone’s storage.

However, Apple offers a feature known as Optimizing iPhone Storage to save space. When enabled, the original, high-quality photos are retained in the database, while your phone stores and shows you a smaller, optimized version of the same photo. In summary, there is only one copy of the photo. If you delete it from any device, it will be removed from all linked iCloud accounts.

what is the problem

When someone tries to delete a photo from the Google Photos app on iPhone, they are surprised to find that the photo has been deleted from both their device and iCloud. Even when someone uses the Free up storage option in Google Photos, they delete photos from iCloud. You must be wondering why this happens when both are different services and Free storage should only wipe the device copy.

For starters, stop cursing Google. It’s not their fault. Google Photos has nothing to do with iCloud. Doesn’t even know iCloud exists.

Now when you delete a photo from the Google Photos app (or use free storage), the device copy is also deleted. But as explained above, iCloud stores the same copy of the photo on your iPhone and in the cloud. Therefore, when you delete the device copy using the Google Photos app (or even Apple Photos), it is also deleted from the iCloud server. This is how it happens:

In summary, Google Photos does not spy on your iCloud photos, the photos are only on your iPhone and that’s how Google Photos has access to them.

Delete Photos from Google Photos without Deleting them from iCloud

Now we come to the main question – how to disconnect Google Photos and iCloud. The answer is simple – they are already disconnected and separated. But if you only want to delete photos from Google Photos, there are two methods.

Method 1: Use Google Photos Website

The easiest and simplest way to do this is to use the Google Photos website. You don’t need to do anything on your iPhone. So, open photos.google.com in your computer browser and log in with your Google account. Then hover your mouse over the photo you want to select. You will see the selection icon. Click on it. Press Shift to select multiple items and select other photos.

After making the selection, you will see the delete icon in the upper right corner. Click on it.

note

If you’re wondering what role Google Photos’ Backup and sync setting will play here, here’s the answer.

Case 1: Backup and Sync Enabled

If you delete photos from the Google Photos website with Backup and sync enabled in the Google Photos app on your iPhone, you will notice that such images reappear in the Google Photos app. The reason the Google Photos app exists is because it’s a gallery app and it occurs because the photo is available on your device.

However, Google does not automatically back them up. That is, they will not appear on the Google Photos website. You will see the pending backup symbol on them on your iPhone.

Case 2: Backup and sync Disabled

Once disabled, photos will not appear again in the Google Photos app. But they will stay on your iPhone and can be accessed through the Apple Photos app.

Method 2: Uninstall Google Photos

If you don’t want to use the Google Photos app at all, you should go ahead and uninstall it from your iPhone. Uninstalling the app will not delete any photos on your iPhone. Even if the photos are saved to Google Photos, they remain in the cloud. You can view them on photos.google.com.

If your Google storage is full or you don’t want your photos to be on Google servers, open the Google Photos website and delete the photos from there.

What You Shouldn’t Do

If you’re wondering what happens when you disable iCloud or turn off Backup & sync and then delete photos from Google Photos, here’s your answer.

Case 1: Turn off iCloud

If you turn off iCloud before deleting photos from Google Photos on iPhone, the photo will be removed from your device and Google Photos. It will stay in iCloud. However, if you enable iCloud again on the same phone, the photo will also be removed from it.

Case 2: Disable Backup and Sync in Google Photos

Disabling backup and sync won’t have any effect on your iCloud photos, as it’s just a setting in Google Photos to enable or disable the backup service. If you disable this and then delete the photos from the Google Photos app on your iPhone, these photos will be removed from the iPhone as you are technically deleting the device copy of your iPhone. And once deleted, iCloud copy is deleted automatically.

Recover Photos

In case you accidentally delete some photos, you can recover them through the Bin (or Trash) folder in Google Photos in both the web and mobile apps. To do this, tap the three-bar icon in the top left corner of Google Photos and select Bin.

Note:

You should also check the Recently deleted folder in the Apple Photos app and iCloud Photos on the web. On iPhone, go to Albums. Scroll down and click Recently Deleted.

be careful

To summarize, do not delete photos directly from your iPhone. Use the Google Photos website to remove the photos. We recommend deleting a few photos initially. Then check them in iCloud after a while. If the photos remain, you can go ahead and delete them in bulk.

Next: Don’t want to use Google Photos anymore? Learn how to remove your account from Google Photos.

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