What happens when you delete photos from iPhone

Deleting a photo from a phone should be easy. Even if it is, the result is not satisfactory, especially when you delete photos from your phone connected to cloud services. Many of you have noticed that their photos disappeared from iCloud when you deleted them on your iPhone. Why did it happen? And what happens when you delete photos from your iPhone? Find the answer in this post. If you are new to cloud services, you may be wondering if you are deleting the original photo or its copy. Well, the answer depends on many things.

First, it depends on the app you are using to delete photos. Is it Apple Photos or another gallery app like Google Photos? We have answered all the questions about what happens when you delete photos from Apple Photos in this post. In Apple’s Photos app, the result depends on two things: whether iCloud is on or off. Let’s see how this affects your photos.

What happens when you delete photos from iPhone when iCloud is off

This too depends on two things. Firstly, if you have never turned on iCloud backup for photos on your current phone, deleting the photos will simply remove them from your phone.

However, if you previously turned on iCloud and your photos are synced to iCloud, if you turn off iCloud and delete the photos, they will only be removed from your phone. However, if you re-enable iCloud photos on the same phone using the same Apple account, the photos you deleted on the phone will also be removed from iCloud if they were previously synced. This could be the reason why iCloud deleted your photos.

What happens when you delete photos from iPhone when iCloud is on

While things are simple when iCloud is on, many won’t like the repercussions regardless of the method used to delete photos from iCloud.

When iCloud Photos is enabled on your iPhone and press the Delete button for a photo, it will be removed from iCloud and other Apple devices connected to the same iCloud account. It happens because your photos are constantly synced with iCloud. Hence, removing an image from one device will remove it from all.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to remove it from the iPhone alone. Fortunately, your phone will remind you that deleting the photo from your phone will remove it from anywhere before confirming the deletion.

How to recover deleted photos on iPhone

If you have accidentally deleted some photos on your iPhone, you can get them back easily. This is possible with the help of the Recently Deleted album.

When you delete photos, they go to the Recently Deleted folder where they remain for 30 days. You can recover the photos within 30 days of deletion. If you don’t, they are eliminated forever.

If iCloud Photos is enabled on your iPhone, you can recover deleted pictures from any connected Apple device and even from iCloud on the web. You don’t need to use the iPhone itself to recover pictures.

Here is how to restore deleted pictures on iPhone.

Step 1: open the Apple Photos app and tap the Albums tab at the bottom. Scroll down and tap on the Recently Deleted album.

Step 2: Tap Select and choose the photos you want to recover. Tap Recover.

Cannot delete pictures on iPhone

In the case of images cannot be deleted from your iPhone or the pictures reappear after deleting them, the reason may be iTunes. If you have added those photos from iTunes, you need to sync your phone with computer via iTunes again. Then, deselect the photos to delete them from your phone. Sometimes, even photos in other cloud services on the iPhone pose problems.

How To Free Up Storage Space On iPhone Without Deleting Photos

If you are deleting photos only for free up space on your iPhone or iPadthen there are better alternatives. Let’s see them.

1. Enable Optimize iPhone Storage

Known as Optimize iPhone Storage, it is a native feature provided by Apple for iCloud photos. Replaces the original copy of the photo on your iPhone with a compressed version, thus saving space. This does not mean that the original photo has been deleted. It’s safe and sound in iCloud Photos.

Once enabled, the feature starts working automatically when the storage space on the device is low. For example, if you have 50GB of photos and videos, your iPhone will only take up around 1.5-3GB using the Optimize iPhone Storage feature.

To enable it, go to Settings on your iPhone. Then, tap your name, followed by iCloud.

Tap Photos. Enable iCloud Photos if it isn’t. Then, tap on Optimize iPhone Storage.

2. Use the Google Photos app

Google Photos is a great alternative to iCloud Photos. It also comes with a native feature to free up storage space on your phone. Unlike iCloud, no space will be taken up on the phone though use theFree up storage option provided by Google Photos. Freeing up space is a great way to delete photos only from iPhone and not from Google Photos. If you like the app, you can even move your iCloud photos to Google Photos.

Temporarily delete photos

Many people temporarily delete photos from their iPhone to hide them from others. But you don’t need to. What if you forget to restore the photos? Then they will be eliminated forever. What you should do is hide the pictures using the built-in function of the Apple Photos app.