Deleting only the cloud version of a photo

[troutusa1962]

I'm sure this question has been asked a thousand times but every answer is confusing or using other versions of Lightroom. I am using "Photoshop Lightroom", the version that you get through the "photography" monthy subscription.

Keep getting message about running out of cloud memory. I want to delete many photos in the cloud without deleting the local version of the photos.

Adobe rep told me to open Lighroom Web, select photo, and a "delete" icon should appear. (It did not.) Looking at the features on the desktop app, the delete functions says nothing about cloud vs. local copies. (Deleting the selected image does delete the local photo ONLY.)

This should be very simple, but based on the search results Adobe fell asleep on this one.

Certainly appreciate any help here. (19Gb of mostly unwanted images that I can't get rid of.)

[Theresa J · Accepted solution]

Lightroom manages your photos in the cloud. Deleting a photo from Lightroom deletes it from the cloud. If you have the local sync option turned on, it will get deleted from there too. 
It is not possible to use Lightroom for photos in the cloud separate from photos on a drive. If you kept the originals on a local drive after adding them to Lightroom they won't be effected by deleting from the cloud. 

[Jao vdL · Accepted solution]

The only way to keep the local versions of your photos would be to make backups of those or to use Lightroom Classic instead of Lightroom Desktop. As Theresa_J notes, deleting an image in Lightroom Desktop or in the web version deletes it everywhere, not just in the cloud but also any locally stored copies. Lightroom Classic keeps all its files local and can sync selectively to the cloud which Lightroom Desktop cannot do. It is very unfortunate that Adobe chose to name these two programs so similarly which causes endless confusion if you try to find any info online.