Retainment of locally deleted content at storage service by client device

Cloud-based storage services are provided for storing and/or sharing content across multiple devices, where the content is periodically synchronized between the devices and the storage service. Embodiments are directed to retainment of locally deleted content at the storage service to prevent accidental or nefarious deletions of locally stored content on a device from being propagated to the storage service. For example, a selectable feature to retain locally deleted content, at the storage service may be presented through a display of a client device. A deletion of the content from the client device may be detected. The retained content may be prevented from being downloaded and stored locally on the client device when content at the storage service and the client device are synchronized if the feature was selected. If the feature was not selected, deletion options for the content may be presented through the display.