Photos are deleted from google drive when deleting them on my phone

[AC Question]

I cannot believe that there is no easy way to backup my photos from my Android Phone to my google account.

I often want to delete all photos from my phone, and this results in the photos being deleted from Google-drive/Google photos upon syncing. I know that I can, manually, make a copy of my photos, but who wants to do it manually?

There must be an easier way - any ideas?