The great thing about all your pictures and videos being online is that sometimes all your pictures and videos are online...
iCloud Photo Library, currently in beta, makes sure all the pictures and videos of all the people and places you love, and all the memories you want to keep safe are backed up and available on all your devices, iPhone, iPad, and — and soon, on the Mac. If you've got stuff you simply don't like, or personal pictures and videos that you don't want to keep and don't want available, you can delete them. That way, neither you nor anyone else is at risk of ever seeing them again.
How to delete pictures and videos on iCloud.com
iCloud Photo Library, as the name implies, exists as part of iCloud. That means you can delete photos from any web browser using iCloud.com.
- Log into icloud.com.
- Click on Photos.
- Click on Select.
- Click on the pictures or videos you want to delete.
- Click on the trash can icon.

How to recover pictures and videos on iCloud.com
You can also use iCloud.com to recover pictures or videos you've deleted by mistake or regret deleting.
- Log into icloud.com.
- Click on Photos.
- Click on Albums at the top.
- Click on the pictures or videos you want to recover.
- Click on the Recover button.

How to delete, recover, and eradicate pictures and videos in Photos for iPhone or iPad
If you have iCloud Photo Library enabled on your iPhone or iPad, the portability and connectivity makes it ideal for deleting and recovering pictures and videos as well. You can even use your iPhone or iPad to remove especially sensitive pictures and videos from the Recently Deleted folder, eradicating them immediately.
Reader comments
How to use iCloud.com to delete and recover pictures and videos from iCloud Photo Library
I'd think a common question would be if you're using iCloud Photo Library on all your ios devices and you delete a picture and/or video in your ipad or iphone, whether that picture/video would also be deleted in icloud and free up storage.
Nope
If you are using iCloud Photo Library (currently in beta), it does delete on all devices and remains in "Deleted Pictures" for 30 days.
Hi, this just happened to me. I had all the photos in my iCloud Photo Library (no backup) and I deleted all the photos from my iPhone 6 and I also deleted them from the Deleted Pictures album. How can I restore the photos? I have used photorescue but it does not show the delted photos. I did not import then in iPhoto library or iTunes :( plz help
i hate that. when i delete something i want it gone permanently.
The recently deleted feature is there to protect Apple from the wrath of people that are not like you...
You can go into the Recently Deleted folder on iPhone, iPad, and Mac and delete it from there as well, getting rid of it immediately and permanently.
Kind of dumb you have to do extra steps to delete it permanently. I understand for the complainers it's there, but how did we survive before this? Lol
If you call mistakenly tapping the wrong item and deleting it forever, when that wasn't the one you wanted to delete "surviving," then you have a pretty odd definition of that word. "Lol"
It's there to prevent people form inadvertently deleting the wrong thing forever. It's why there is a Recycle Bin on your PC. No reason why it should not be any different for Cloud Storage. Google+ has a similar feature, and SkyDrive has its Recycle Bin.
The number of people who find going into Deleted Items and then tapping "Delete All" to be an issue are far less than the number of people who truly appreciate the ability to undo mistakes they didn't intend. Sometimes things look similar and you delete the wrong one, especially when deleting multiple items from the Library. There is no "preview" function when selecting stuff.
You really need to do this, there's a nasty bug with the recently deleted where your iphone will still report 1000s of photos even if you don't see any. If you wait the 30 days the photos are still there just not visible and the only fix is to put your clock back a year and then permanently delete the recently deleted and then put your clock back. Shame on whoever didn't catch this. It's all over the internet of people restoring their phones trying to recover this space to these phantom photos.
If you mean photos deleted from your camera roll, they are supposed to be included in your iCloud backup (although unfortunately not all users report success in recover photos from iCloud( http://www.ipad-converters.org/retrieve-photos-from-icloud/ )). If you made a backup while these photos were still in your camera roll, you may get them back by restoring this backup to your phone. (Note, restoring a backup will revert all settings and data on your phone to those contained in the backup, not just photos.)
what about if you dont have a backup of the photos? I accidentally deleted my photos from my iPhone and everything is gone from my iCloud photot library! I also deleted them from the Deleted Photos folder. any solution?
I find the "recover" button kind of disturbing. If I throw something away, I want it gone, not put into some nebulous state of "maybe-gone" so that I can recover it later.
Could the author clarify if the deletion of a photo or video using iCloud *actually* deletes it for good? Is there an "empty trash" command at least, that would do so?
30 days, then it will be permanently deleted. Sort of like the Trash in your email service.
Wow. That's interesting. I was getting ready to turn it all on when the next OS X update comes out but I'm far from sure about it now. If you can't actually delete things under your own control, that's not a very secure system.
It means you are relying on the general, overall security of Apple's iCloud for your personal security. Apple usually gets good marks there, but you are still forced into a situation of "just trusting them" instead of being in control yourself.
You can simply go in to the "Deleted Pictures" folder and delete it "permanently" from there, you don´t have to wait 30 days if you need instant deletion. It really works like any other cloud service in that sense, OneDrive, Google Drive etc. There is a trash bin for those times you delete things you didn't mean to delete, and if you are sure and need it gone immediately, simply delete it from there. If you decide you want it back you have the option to "recover".
Right. I realised my mistake after I posted and then read what your reply was to the posting by Lagrik. I misconstrued things.
Still, I often have problems deleting the "deleted mail" or the deleted mail folder on Mail. Most of the time it just won't delete on a remote connected device for instance. Oh Well.
Stuff happens. But so far it has been working just fine. It's a non issue really.
The thing that's really bothering me about icloud photos is the way it handles your photos resolution. If you opt in for the "device optimized version" and then go to view a picture/video it has to download it. Ive been in places with bad signal and I can't watch a video or view a picture because it needs to download it first.
Sent from the iMore App
Your choice. You either keep all your videos on your phone (with iCloud photos favorite it) and use up storage or be at the mercy of your internet connection. I don't think that is something Apple has control over.
Is anyone else having a problem with photos staying deleted? I will delete them and then go into recently deleted and permanently delete them and a few days later they're back in my library. extremely annoying.
Yes!! a couple days I deleted all my photos in icloud permanently... Then today I went in and all my photos were restored to the camera roll. I agree..incredibly annoying.
My problem is my 5S got zapped, and I got a new one. When I went to restore photos, many were missing. They all should have been in iCloud, but were not. In 6 years it only shows 57 photos. I should have a ton more. I know they are on the memory of the old 5S but it will not restore, and I thought they were on the cloud. Bad for me.
Sent from the iMore App
"Preparing your library..."
It's been over a month now... Kinda hard to do anything, if you can't even get it to load.
Wow Rene, your post fell down from heaven! You save my life, thank you...
A video corrupted in my iMac I can find it in iCloud!!!!!
It was a video from an excursion (a project) from the Biology class of my son, thank you, one thousand times..!
Sent from the iMore App
There seems to be two different concerns that are hitting from opposite ends:
--When you delete photos from your device, they are not permanently deleted for thirty days. This is bad! I want to delete it!
--When you delete photos from your device, they are immediately removed from the library. This is bad! I want to free space on my device, not delete the photo from my library!
It seems the feature is caught between two compromises.
Obviously, this is an issue of control that people have differing opinions on and also obviously, they will be diametrically opposed =)
One thing to keep in mind is the Photos iCloud service is STILL IN BETA.... so if you're considering getting serious with this, wouldn't you want to wait until AFTER it's out of Beta and in full viable production mode before you'd chance your content there?
I posted a much longer piece about my personal concerns with cloud storage on the FAQs about iCloud page, but YMMV.
I would like to permanently delete pictures from iCloud.com, is there a way? i have had pictures in the recently deleted folder for more than 40 days and i want them permanently deleted. It said it would delete permanently, but may take up to 40 days but up till now, it's still there, and its more than 40 days (not talking about my iPhone because i can permanently delete it on my iPhone) but i can't on iCloud.com when logged in. thanks.
This article was invaluable to me. I did not understand the system, and I accidentally deleted photos of my baby granddaughter because they were "blurry". Then later I realized they were just being downloaded from iCloud and thats why; I now look for that little clock. I did not understand why some photos were clear and some not; this article and reading people's very thoughtful comments has been very helpful to me. I just went to iCloud and found the pictures I wanted to keep, and then I permanently deleted others. I would not have known how to do that without this article.