To hate bloody Apple syncing

[mynamechangemyrules]

Sorry I know it's not really AIBU but I need replies and tips asap please!

Apple phones sync to the cloud, I have a mac, and an iPad I bought off rejects pile at work for my children to use.

I have voice memos which I need to keep of various past events but I do not want my children to have any access to whatsoever.

If you sync the voice memos then if you delete them off one thing it deletes them off all. I just want them on my laptop and nowhere else.

If I check they are currently synced (is that a word?!) from my phone (where they have been recorded) to my mac, and then change it to NOT syncing and delete them all from my phone and iPad would that work? It is doing my head in. They need to be somewhere safe and private and bloody bastard apple think I want EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE
[just like their stupid photo syncing which meant every device had a bazillion photos of crap in unmanageable rolls which can all get lost if you bloody phone dies anyway because they are SHIT. But anyway I have google photos for that now so need to emotionally move on 🤣]

Tried to upload the voice notes to Google Drive but the ones I've done so far lose their meta data and aren't ordered by date because Google Drive thinks they were all created just now!

How to save safely somewhere (as time stamped files) but get them all off my phone and iPad by tomorrow?! 😬

Thank you!

Please help me work this out before my child is supposed to take the iPad to a contact visit with father

On your phone - go to settings, tap you Apple ID profile/account, then go down and tap the iCloud button, you should see a section saying apps using iCloud, at the bottom of that list click show all.
next scroll down and when you get to voice memos slide the green toggle button to off, this should stop any further voice notes sharing to the other devices.

Take the iPad that your child will be taking with them and manually delete the voice memos off the device.
Maybe do a test voice memo from your phone to double check it’s no longer synced to the iPad for peace of mind.

(I know you said you wanted them just in your MacBook, but at least this can get them off the iPad in time.
I have a MacBook too so I’ll try and work out if it’s the exact same format to follow on there as it is in the iPhone)

In that same section where you go to apps using iCloud you could also slide the toggle to off & stop any photos being shared from your phone to the iPad (if needed)

Thanks @Clemmie4
That's the only way I've worked out for now and it'll have to do. It's just frustrating that the cloud can't hold it all and yet allow deletions from devices (like it used to originally)

Will do the workaround for now, thank you!

Why not set them up with child accounts and their own Apple ID. That way they don't get access to all your personal information but you can use parental controls support.apple.com/en-gb/102617