iCloud Photos is a fantastic service for automatically backing up and syncing your precious photos and videos across all your Apple devices. It ensures that memories captured on your iPhone are readily available on your iPad, Mac, and even Apple TV. However, there might be various reasons why you’d want to turn off iCloud Photos. Perhaps you’re approaching your iCloud storage limit, concerned about data privacy, or simply prefer to manage your photos locally on each device.
Whatever your reason, disabling iCloud Photos is a straightforward process. This guide will walk you through the steps to turn off iCloud Photos, either on a single device or across all your devices and iCloud entirely. Before diving in, it’s crucial to understand what happens when you turn off iCloud Photos and how to prepare to avoid losing any cherished memories.
Important Preparations Before Turning Off iCloud Photos
Before you proceed with turning off iCloud Photos, it’s absolutely vital to ensure you have a backup of all your original photos and videos. Once disabled, new photos and videos will no longer be synced to iCloud, and any edits or deletions made on one device won’t reflect on others. More importantly, if you choose to turn off and delete iCloud Photos from iCloud itself, your photos will be removed from iCloud storage after 30 days.
Therefore, before you make any changes, make sure you’ve downloaded all your original, full-resolution photos and videos to at least one device or a separate backup location. This could be your computer, an external hard drive, or another cloud storage service. Apple provides instructions on how to download your original photos and videos, which you should follow to safeguard your media.
After confirming that you have secured a copy of all your photos and videos, you can confidently proceed with turning off iCloud Photos, knowing your memories are safe.
How to Turn Off iCloud Photos on a Single Device
If you wish to stop syncing photos from iCloud to just one of your devices, while keeping it active on your other Apple devices, follow these steps. This is useful if you want to conserve storage space on a particular device or manage photos independently on it.
On your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro
- Open the Settings app on your device.
- Tap on your name at the top to access your Apple ID settings.
- Tap iCloud and then select Photos.
- Locate the “Sync this [Device]” toggle and deselect it to turn off iCloud Photos for this specific device. It will likely ask you if you want to download photos or remove from device – choose “Download Photos & Videos” to keep a local copy if prompted.
On your Mac
- Click on the Apple menu in the top-left corner of your screen and choose System Settings.
- Click on your name or Apple ID.
- Select iCloud from the sidebar, and then click on Photos.
- Deselect the box next to “Sync this Mac” to disable iCloud Photos on your Mac.
On your PC
- Open iCloud for Windows on your computer. Ensure you are signed in with your Apple ID.
- Next to Photos, click on Options.
- Deselect the checkbox for iCloud Photos.
- Click Done, and then click Apply to save the changes.
On your Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD
- Go to Settings on your Apple TV.
- Navigate to Accounts and then select iCloud.
- Under the Photos section, highlight iCloud Photos and press the Select button on your Siri Remote to turn it off.
How to Turn Off iCloud Photos Across All Devices and iCloud
If your goal is to completely stop using iCloud Photos and remove your photos from iCloud storage, you can turn it off for your entire Apple ID. Be aware that this option will delete photos and videos from iCloud after 30 days, so ensuring you have backups is even more critical in this case.
On your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Vision Pro
- Open Settings and tap on your name.
- Tap iCloud, then tap Storage. (In iOS 17 or earlier, tap Manage Account Storage).
- Select iCloud Photos.
- Tap Turn Off & Delete Photos (or Turn Off & Delete from iCloud in iOS 17 or earlier). Confirm your decision when prompted.
On your Mac
- Click the Apple menu and go to System Settings.
- Click on your name or Apple ID. (In macOS Sonoma or earlier, click Apple ID).
- Choose iCloud and then click Manage.
- Select iCloud Photos, then click Turn Off and Delete from iCloud (or Photos, then Turn Off and Delete in macOS Sonoma or earlier). Confirm your decision when prompted.
Turning off iCloud Photos gives you greater control over your photo storage and syncing preferences. Whether you’re disabling it on a single device or entirely, remember to back up your photos beforehand to prevent any data loss. By following these steps, you can easily manage iCloud Photos to best suit your needs.
