How do I backup photos without deleting them form iCloud? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: RandyManis
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 19, 2021, 10:02:24 am
content: I have an iPhone 7, use Win10, and need to free up space on my device without losing my pictures and videos from the past several years. I upgraded to the 200GB iCloud plan and have over 100GB of pics/vids.My question is: if I were to delete the pictures from my phone, how do I ensure they aren't deleted from the cloud?I have tried to copy the entire contents of the iCloud Photos folder to my OneDrive or D: drive but it refuses (says I need to free up space on my C: drive

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2021, 04:03:53 pm
content: Maybe this:https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-delete-photos-from-iphone-but-not-icloudor:https://www.easeus.com/iphone-data-transfer/how-to-delete-photos-from-iphone-but-not-icloud.html

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2021, 04:35:44 pm
content: my advice: don't rely on icloud to backup your photos...a cloud service (**ANY**) is NOT a backup solution. NEVER.make a separate backup on an external drive, with enough room of course.

author: AndersJ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2021, 06:36:50 pm
content: Once backed up to a local drive,what windows programs are available to sort, find and browse imagesas elegantly as can be done on a iPhone or iPad?For instance,on a iPad the images can be overlayed on a mapbased on where they were once taken.

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2021, 07:02:40 pm
content: I did not say to use only a local driveyou can still use a cloud based service, but do not rely on them for a backup solution.it is only a easy synchronisation system.if some pirate guess your password, or succed in hacking apple servers, they can wipe your photos, and nothing is left...there are not many chances, but believe me I have some customers that were once in this situation (mainly with google drive but it's the same principle)

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2021, 11:38:31 pm
content: If you claim that Apple’s cloud service, as offered to iPhone users, is risky as a backup solution, I can’t argue against that.(1)But I have a feeling you are trying to say that aboutanycloud service. That is a bold claim, supported with questionable arguments.An eyebrow should be raised for many of them, but I will focus on only one. Can you provide any reputable source confirming that there was even a single case of a customer, of any larger company, losing data in a cloudbackupservice(2)due to the company’s infrastructure being compromised by an attacker? Just one, in the whole history of humanity and I promise to shut up in this topic.____(1)Not expressing support either.(2)Not a $5 VPS instance, which are not meant to protect data.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2021, 11:50:08 pm
content: Quote from: golden_labels on September 19, 2021, 11:38:31 pmSocial engineering still qualifies as "infrastructure being compromised".https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-apple-let-a-hacker-remotely-wipe-an-iphone-ipad-macbook/

author: bw2341
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2021, 03:36:51 am
content: I don't use iCloud, but from my understanding, the whole point of paying Apple for iCloud is so you don't have to worry about running out of space on the iPhone, if you paid for a large enough iCloud plan.I think this page has the correct setting.https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205703If you turn onOptimize iPhone Storage, your original full resolution photos will be replaced with lower resolution preview versions as needed to leave more free space. If you need to edit or share a photo, the original full resolution version will be downloaded from iCloud automatically. This should let you take new photos and videos until your paid iCloud storage is full.As I understand it, when you useOptimize iPhone Storageand try to install an app, your full size photos will be shrunk to preview size automatically as needed to make space. The iPhone shouldn't show a no free space error unless you managed to fill it up completely with apps and app data.

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2021, 06:07:52 am
content: Quoteit's not just about attacker wiping datas, but also about data being stolen. your datas are not safe in such cloud services.also in europe one major actor of the system OVH had a bunch of servers gone into flames in march 2021, making some 2000+ users losing the datas and the backups.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2021, 10:35:51 am
content: Quote from: bw2341 on September 20, 2021, 03:36:51 amYep, that's how my mother in law manages 30G of photos on her 16 G iPhone. It's a bit of a nightmare when you want to back up pics from the phone though as it downloads each one before poking it out onto the media.I managed to find a windows application that managed to download all her stuff from iCloud as a backup pretty easily though, even if i had to run it on windows in a VM.

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2021, 04:32:39 pm
content: Quote from: BradC on September 19, 2021, 11:50:08 pmIndeed, social engineering is one of the methods. Ifkripton2035can provide a single example of such an event, using social engineering or not, it’s ok. It seems they can’t.Quote from: kripton2035 on September 20, 2021, 06:07:52 amThis is a statement very different from what you have said before. I would argue with that new claim too, but so far you haven’t given the answer to the previous question about data loss.Quote from: kripton2035 on September 20, 2021, 06:07:52 amThe March fire hasn’t affected any single cloud backup instance. Zerto and Archive weren’t even in the affected datacenter. Instance Backup might have been, as OVH wasn’t clear on that, but those remained available — so were either not affected or restored. The people, who lost data in the fire, had no backups or usedcomputinginstances for that purpose.tl;dr: please, stop FUD against cloud services. I would prefer to keep this short, as we’re getting a bit off-topic in here.