[2 Ways] How to Remove Photos from iPad Only

Photos can take up a lot of space on iPad, so deleting photos from iPad is a good way to free up storage. However, a message appears and saying that those photos will be deleted from iCloud. This means you will lose these photos forever. You definitely don't want to lose all these precious memories so you come to this guide to find the solution. Don’t worry, next you will know how to remove photos from iPad only.

Tip: If you accidentally delete some photos, you can go to iCloud.com to restore deleted photos in the latest 30 days from Recently Deleted album.

Can You Delete Photos from iPad but Not iCloud/iPhone?

When you understand how iCloud Photos works, you'll know how to delete photos from iPad but not iCloud.

Actually, iCloud Photos is more like a sync service, not just a storage service. It will help you sync photos between your devices, provided that your devices use the same iCloud account and iCloud Photos is enabled. iCloud Photos is designed to keep the photo libraries identical on all your devices. So when you want to delete photos from your iPad, you will be told that these photos will also be deleted from iCloud.

If you want to remove photos from iPad only, you should cut the connection between iPad and iCloud. When the connection disappears, you can delete photos on the iPad without affecting iCloud and iPhone.

How to Remove Photos from iPad Only

iCloud Photos is a sync service and any changes made on any device (addition, deletion or edition)  are made on all devices. If you want to remove photos from iPad but keep on iPhone and iCloud, you should disconnect iPad from iCloud.

Note: To make sure you don't lose any pictures, you may first transfer photos from iPhone to computer as backup. Refer to the next part to get the detailed steps.

Solution 1. Turn off iCloud Photos

When you turn off iCloud Photos on iPad, photos stored on iCloud or iPhone will not be deleted anymore. But please make sure not to enable iCloud Photos on iPad again, otherwise, changes you made on iPad will be upaded to iCloud.

Steps to Remove Photos from iPad but not iCloud/iPhone

Go to Settings app > Tap [your name] > Tap iCloud > Tap Photos > Turn off iCloud Photos. You will be given two options.

Remove Photos from iPad - Quickly remove all iCloud photos from iPad.

Download Photos & Videos - Download iCloud photos on iPad and then manually delete unwanted photos.

Solution 2. Log out of iCloud Account

You can also chooce to log out of the current account to delete photos from iPad only. When you log out of iCloud, the connection between iPad and iCloud will be disconnected, and any actions you do on iPad will not affect iCloud and iPhone.

Steps to Remove Photos from iPad but Keep on iPhone

Go to Settings > Tap [your name] > Tap Sign Out > Enter the passcode to turn off Find My iPhone > Choose the files you want to keep on your iPhone > Tap Sign Out to confirm.

You may also choose to sign in to another iCloud account. In this way, iPhone and iPad are independent. It’s a good choice to remove photos from iPad but keep on iPhone.

Make Sure All your Photos are Properly Kept

If you want to quickly transfer photos from iPhone to compuer, you can let FoneTool help you make it.

FoneTool is one professional iOS data management tool for Windows PC users. It supports data transfer between iPhone/iPad and computer, between iPhone and another iPhone/iPad. It will display all your photo albums so that you can easily find the photos you want to transfer.

Steps to Transfer Photos from iPhone/iPad to Computer

1. Download, install and launch FoneTool.

2. Connect your iPhone or iPad to computer and Trust FoneTool.

3. On the home interface, choose Phone Transfer > Locate iPhone to PC option and click Start Transfer.

4. Choose Photos and select the pictures you want to transfer, click OK to confirm.

5. Click Start Transfer to transfer full resolution photos from iPhone to computer.

Final Words

When iCloud Photos is enabled on the Pad, if you want to delete photos from the iPad, they will also be deleted from iCloud. To remove photos from iPad only, you can disable iCloud Photos or sign out of iCloud account. In this way, you can delete photos from iPad without effort affecting iCloud and iPhone.

PS: Before turning off iCloud Photos, it is recommended to transfer the photos to your computer to avoid accidental deletion.