How to delete photos while viewing an Album in Photos 5.0 on Catalina

by: léonie

Last modified: Nov 10, 2019 3:06 AM

2 750 Last modified Nov 10, 2019 3:06 AM

In older versions of Photos the Image menu and the contextual menu (when right-clicking the selection) are showing two commands to remove or delete selected photos from the library.

Remove .. photos ⌫
Delete ... photos ⌘⌫

Photos 5 is showing only "Remove .. photos ⌫" when selecting photos in a standard album. So we can only remove the photos from the album, but not delete them from the library.

But the old key combination ⌘⌫ is still working. You can delete the selecting photos from the library and all albums by entering command-delete ⌘⌫. Or hold down the command key ⌘ while bringing up the menus. The command key will modify the menu and show "Delete" instead of "remove".

One caution: ⌘⌫ is very convenient and I am using it a lot, also holding down the command key, to change the contextual menu. But it has a drawback (or advantage, depending on how you view it). When you delete with ⌘⌫ from an album or smart album, the photos will be deleted without any prompt "delete from all devices ". You have to check the number of selected photos in the upper right corner of the Photos window, before you use this key combination. Photos 5.0 on Catalina macOS 10.15.1 occasionally keeps photos selected, when switching between views, and there may be many more photos selected, then you are aware of. So check the number of selected photos in the toolbar, before you use ⌘⌫ , or you may be deleting more photos than you expected.

For example: In the album are two photos selected, but the status message is showing four selected photos:

Created from this discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250838429?page=1