Can I delete photos off my pixel , without removing them from Google photos cloud ?

[stone isle]

I've just got a pixel 9A , this is my first phone that's not an iPhone and so far I don't regret a thing.

I am having one problem though, when I delete photos / videos from the WhatsApp folder that's " on my phone" it's also deleting them from the Google photos cloud too...

I'm a photographer, I've been using Google drive / photos as photo backup for years before I had a Google phone, I've probably got about 25,000 photos and videos on there , so believe me when I say this is stressing me out

I like to keep my things organised , so backup is turned off on my phone as I don't want every little snapshot being sent to Google photos , only stuff I want saving.

The videos from WhatsApp , I literally saved onto my pc through the WhatsApp app and uploaded to Google photos last night - but when I noticed my phone had automatically saved them also , I tried to remove them "from my phone" , and found it also removed them from the folder in Google photos I'd uploaded them to last night

Help , there must be something I'm doing wrong here !

[terse ether]

Use Google gallery

[magic mango]

If you open Google photo and click on your profile picture you should find an option called "Free up space on this device"

This option should delete every photo and video who has already been backed up on Google photo from your phone and keep it in the cloud

I have freed like 10gb with this option