Unable to Delete Photos from iPhone

Question

Unable to Delete Photos from iPhone

The other day I had to reset and restore my iPhone. I finally got my photos synced between my iPhone 12 and my MacBook Air. I don’t use iCloud Photo, preferring to sync my photos via a USB connection. Then I discovered that random photos on the iPhone can’t be shared. So I connected the iPhone to my MBA, turned off the photo sync, told it to delete the photos, and tapped “Sync.” As of now, all of the albums that I have created have been erased but all of the photos are still in the library on the phone. I think if I can completely clear the photos out of the phone and then sync again to the library on my MBA that the problem.

I tried a couple of the solutions offered elsewhere on this site to no avail. If I select a few of the remaining photos the trash can icon is greyed out. I restarted the iPhone a couple of times to no avail. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I’m

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Apr 30, 2024 11:25 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 30, 2024 2:35 PM in response to Mike Strohmeyer

What may be happening is photos synced over USB are kept separate from photos that arrive on the iPhone from other sources, such as messages, or photos taken by the phone. Photos synced over USB can only be removed by “unsyncing” them from the computer, but photos from other sources do not “join” the photos synced over USB and will remain on the iPhone if you unsync using your computer.

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