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How to Delete Photos from iCloud on iPhone, Mac, Website

How to delete pictures from iCloud on iPhone, iPad, iCloud.com, Mac and Windows computers? Scroll down to get everything about the deletion.

February 5, 2024

Content at a Glance:

How do I delete photos from iCloud?

iCloud is a cloud storage service designed by Apple, which allows you to access data from different devices like your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other devices. Besides, there are multiple apps that use iCloud to store files, including iCloud Photos, iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, Contacts, Calendars, Notes, Messages, Safari, and others. Thus, you can manage all files together in iCloud with its initial free 5GB. However, there is probably a chance that you have to delete some unneeded photos from iCloud to clear iCloud storage. How to delete photos from iCloud storage easily and quickly? Let’s figure it out.

5 Proven Ways to Delete Photos from iCloud Quickly

How to delete pictures from iCloud on different devices quickly? Don't panic, please follow the 5 ways listed below to delete iCloud photos.

Way 1. How to delete photos from iCloud on iPhone/iPad

Deleting pictures from iCloud is just easy as ABC while using your iPhone or iPad. First of all, you have to make sure the iCloud Photos option is enabled in your iPhone or iPad settings. How to delete photos from iCloud storage, just follow the steps listed below:

1. Please open your Photos app on your iPhone/iPad.

2. Select the tabs that you want to delete photos from, Photos, For you, or Albums.

3. Tap Select on the top right, and tick all the photos you’d like to delete.

4. Click the trash icon and Delete Photos to confirm.

Delete Photos from iCloud on iPhone

Note: If you’re preferred to delete photos from iPhone or iPad but not on iCloud, the iCloud Photos sync must have to be disabled first, then delete photos from iPhone or iPad. Here are the steps to disable iCloud Photo in your iPhone’s Settings.

1. Ensure you have signed in with your Apple ID, and go to Settings.

2. Tap your Apple ID > iCloud > Photos, and then toggle off the iCloud Photos option.

Disable iCloud Photos on iPhone or iPad

Way 2. Delete Photos from iCloud.com

Important: If you have enabled iCloud Photos and delete photos from Photos on the iCloud website, they will also be deleted on all your connected devices with iCloud Photos turned on.

How to delete photos from iCloud website? Follow the below steps to make it:

1. Please log in to your iCloud with your Apple ID and passwords.

2. Click Photos from the iCloud page.

Choose Photos on iCloud Website

3. Select multiple or all photos from the Library list, and tap the Trash icon from the top right corner.

Delete Photos from iCloud Website

Tips:

  • You can use the Shift or Ctrl key to select multiple photos.
  • If you just want to delete a single photo or video, just double-click it, and follow the same steps to delete it.

4. Hit Delete to confirm deleting photos from the iCloud website.

Confirm iCloud Photos Deletion

Notes:

  • Deleted photos will be saved to the Recently Deleted album. And it will be kept for 30 days by default to help you recover files if needed. Besides, you can go to the Recently Delete album to permanently delete the photos.
  • In this way, you can only delete photos up to 1000 at a time.

If you just want to delete photos from iCloud but not on iPhone, you have to turn off the iCloud Photos sync on your iPhone’ Settings first, then delete photos and videos from iCloud.com.

Way 3. How to delete photos from iCloud on Mac

To ensure you have deleted photos from iCloud on your Mac successfully, you have to check iCloud Photos option is enabled first:

1. Please go to System Preferences.

Mac System Preferences

2. Tap Apple ID > iCloud, and check Photos is ticked, which means iCloud Photos is enabled.

Then delete files from iCloud on Mac:

1. Open your Photos app on your Mac.

2. Tick the photos you’d like to delete, right-click and select Delete [number] Photos.

Delete iCloud Photos on Mac

3. Hit Delete to confirm the deletion.

Confirm iCloud Photos Deletion on Mac

All the deleted photos will be removed permanently after 3 days, you cannot find them on your Mac and iCloud Photo Library.

Way 4. Delete Photos on iCloud for Windows

How to remove photos from iCloud while using a Windows computer, you can follow the below steps to remove using iCloud for Windows:

1. Ensure you have installed iCloud on your Windows computer, or you must download iCloud for Windows first, input your Apple ID and password, and hit Sign in.

Sign in iCloud for Windows

2. Tick the Photos and other options you want to sync, and hit Apply.

Enable iCloud Photos Sync

3. Your iCloud Photos directory will be located at:

C:\Users\Ailsa\iCloudPhotos\Photos

Note: The shared albums folder is located at C:\Users\Ailsa\iCloudPhotos\Shared. Replace Ailsa with your user name.

4. Open your iCloud Photos folder, right-click the photo(s) and select Delete.

Delete iCloud Photos with iCloud Photos Folder

Now, the deleted photos on your computer will be deleted on other devices connected to the Apple ID. And the deleted files will be permanently deleted, which means that the files cannot be recovered.

Way 5. How to delete iCloud photos on MultCloud

Fortunately, you have another easy way to delete iCloud photos directly with the powerful multi-cloud manager - MultCloud, which allows you to delete all iCloud photos or only the selected pictures. Let’s figure it out.

1. Please apply for a MultCloud account, and sign in. 

2. Select Add Cloud on the left panel, and choose iCloud Photos to add.

Add iCloud Photos

3. Follow the steps to complete the two-factor authorization to allow MultCloud to access your iCloud Photos.

4. Click iCloud Photos on the left control menu.

5. Select the picture(s) you want to delete, and choose the Delete option on the top menu.

Delete iCloud Photos from MultCloud

Tips:

  • You can use the Shift key to select all the continued items. Or tick the photos using your mouse to select multiple items.
  • If you’d like to share your memory with your family and friends, tick the photo and select Share to share photos on iCloud with family members and your friends.

Why Can’t Delete Photos from iPhone?

Sometimes, you might encounter the problem you cannot delete photos from iPhone or the deleted photos keep appearing. We listed some reasons for the problem and corresponding solutions:

  • iOS bugs: Restart your iPhone and delete Recently Deleted files from Settings.
  • iPhone storage full: Clear cache, app data, and browser cache; delete photos from the computer; uninstall some apps you don’t use anymore.
  • Your iPhone is not correctly connected to your computer: connect it in the right way and ensure it can be detected by the computer.
  • iCloud Photos is enabled on your iPhone. Disable iCloud Photos and delete photos again.

Migrate iCloud Photos to Other Clouds with Larger Space

iCloud only provides free 5GB cloud storage if you haven’t upgraded to iCloud+. If you want to migrate iCloud Photos to Google Photos or other clouds with a larger cloud space, the powerful multi-cloud manager - MultCloud will also do you a big favor.

MultCloud supports more than 30+ clouds, including Google Drive, Google Photos, iCloud Photos, Google Workspace, OneDrive for Business, Dropbox for Business, MEGA, and others.

Offers multiple ways to transfer iCloud Photos to other clouds, like Cloud Sync (including 7 one-way sync, two-way sync, and 2 real-time sync), Cloud Transfer, as well as Cloud Backup to backup iCloud Photos to other cloud storage.

You can perform the migration between iCloud Photos and other clouds offline, which means that the migration will be completed even if you close the browser or the computer once it begins.

Let’s migrate iCloud Photos to Google Photos for example with MultCloud:

1. Tap the Add Cloud option on the control menu, and add iCloud Photos and Google Photos separately.

Add iCloud Photos and Google Photos

2. Hit Cloud Transfer, and click FROM to choose iCloud Photos, Click TO to choose Google Photos.

Choose Source and Destination for new Cloud Transfer

3. Click the Transfer Now button to migrate iCloud Photos to Google Photos directly and quickly.

Migrate iCloud Photos to Google Photos Directly

In this way, you can transfer Photos from one iCloud account to another, migrate Google Photos to iCloud, and more.

Besides, if you have multiple clouds, you can add them all to MultCloud and manage them on one platform without exchanging your accounts frequently.

The End

How to delete photos from iCloud easily? This post listed serval ways to remove photos from iCloud on iPhone/iPad, iCloud website, Mac, or Windows, just find the detailed steps to delete photos from iCloud storage quickly.

Moreover, you can transfer photos from iCloud to flash drive, NAS, and other storage devices with MultCloud web app or the extension. So why not give it a try?

Quickly transfer, sync or backup files from one cloud to another.

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