iCloud Photos Confusing!

[buckmoney]

So not to long ago I switched to an iPhone from an android. I used google photos to back up my photos and want to use iCloud photos to back up my photos now. I downloaded and uploaded all my pictures and videos last night from my google photos to my iCloud photos. All the photos I had uploaded to the cloud were showing on my phone and taking up space. I don't want the photos on my actual device I just want to be able to view them like you can in google photos and download if need be so they are not taking up space. So today I decided to delete all the images off my phone and they deleted from the iCloud also. What the heck am I doing wrong? Yes all my stuff was on the cloud. I double checked last night by going on icloud.com and viewed them online from my windows PC.

 

[M. Gustave]

...All the photos I had uploaded to the cloud were showing on my phone and taking up space. I don't want the photos on my actual device I just want to be able to view them like you can in google photos and download if need be so they are not taking up space. So today I decided to delete all the images off my phone and they deleted from the iCloud also. What the heck am I doing wrong? Yes all my stuff was on the cloud. I double checked last night by going on icloud.com and viewed them online from my windows PC.

What you should have done is go to Settings > Photos & Camera, and turn on "Optimize Phone Storage". That replaces all your full size photos with downscaled versions, as needed, freeing up space. If you edit or use the photos in any way, it automatically downloads the full res original.

The good news is all your deleted photos should be in the Recently Deleted folder on your phone for 40 days, so you can restore them.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Icloud is not meant to do what you expect it to do. And it actually warns you against it.

 

[Bradley Easton]

Sorry to thread steal, but is there anyway to find out which photos are stored to your phone and what are in iCloud?. I want them all in iCloud but my phone is telling me 488mb is taking up with photos so I am assuming there is a few which are on my phone.

 

[M. Gustave]

Sorry to thread steal, but is there anyway to find out which photos are stored to your phone and what are in iCloud?. I want them all in iCloud but my phone is telling me 488mb is taking up with photos so I am assuming there is a few which are on my phone.

All your photos are in iCloud, if you've turned it on, and done a backup on wifi. The upload status can be seen in Settings > Photos & Camera.
If you've turned on Optimize iPhone Storage, you don't need to worry about what's full res and what isn't, it will delete full res files as needed.