Q: Delete photos from iPhone after import - Photos

Click on your iPhone in the sidebar

In the window at the right select the photos you want to import and have deleted and select the checkbox showing in this screenshot:

Have you noticed that this setting is not "sticky" -- IOW, that the checkbox is cleared after every import? I'm not sure that is how it is supposed to work but that is what happens on my system.

Also, I can't be sure about this, but on a few imports where I selected some but not all of the photos on my iPhone, even with the box checked, some of my burst shots were not deleted from the phone.

BTW, "deleted" isn't really accurate -- like with deleting photos on the phone itself, the items are just moved to the recently deleted "album," where they will eventually be deleted after ~30 days.

Have you noticed that this setting is not "sticky" -- IOW, that the checkbox is cleared after every import? I'm not sure that is how it is supposed to work but that is what happens on my system.

I am glad, that it is not sticky, so nobody will accidentally delete the photos directly on import, before all photos could be checked, if they imported correctly, or if there have been reading errors. We have seen many post in the iPhoto or Aperture forum, were the the photos did not import correctly, but the photos and videos had been deleted directly after import; the OPs had to fall back on data recovery software.

I am glad, that it is not sticky, so nobody will accidentally delete the photos directly on import, before all photos could be checked,

I agree.  With something that's so important and can't be reminded I want to be asked every time.

léonie wrote:

I am glad, that it is not sticky, so nobody will accidentally delete the photos directly on import, before all photos could be checked, if they imported correctly, or if there have been reading errors.

Except that like I said, the items are not actually deleted from the phone for ~30 days, & I believe they are moved to the 'recently deleted album' only after a successful transfer.

Old Toad wrote:

With something that's so important and can't be reminded I want to be asked every time.

You aren't asked, nor are you notified in any way that the checkbox is cleared after every import. How many other places in the OS do checkboxes behave like this?

Except that like I said, the items are not actually deleted from the phone for ~30 days, & I believe they are moved to the 'recently deleted album' only after a successful transfer.

But that is only for importing from iOS8 devices. when importing from iOS7 or earlier systems or from a camera card deleting after import has lost many photos.

I believe they are moved to the 'recently deleted album' only after a successful transfer.

But what does the Mac consider "successful"? Does it check for missing bits and JPEG corruption?

Except that like I said, the items are not actually deleted from the phone for ~30 days, & I believe they are moved to the 'recently deleted album' only after a successful transfer.

One more thing - moving the deleted items to the "Recently Deleted" album pretty much defeats the purpose of this option to delete all imported photos from the device, right after importing them.   Many OPs are using this option, because it is so cumbersome to delete from the iPhone selectively. Find the photo, select it, click the trash icon, then you have to open the "Recently Deleted" album, select the photo again, and delete it completely.

When an OP does not import the complete Camera Roll at once, but only selected photos, she or he will now have to identify the imported photos one by one in the "Recently Deleted" album and trash them individually, if Recently Deleted has not been empty and the OP can simply wipe the complete album.

I don't get a check box to "Delete items after import" since upgrading to Photos. I keep ending up with duplicates in my Photo's library because of this.

You don't see this at the top of the Photos window?

I don't get a check box to "Delete items after import" since upgrading to Photos. I keep ending up with duplicates in my Photo's library because of this.

The "Delete items after Import" is only available, if you did not enable iCloud Photo Library in the Settings > Photo & Camera.

Using iCloud Photo Library on the Device disables deleting when syncing with computers.

For example, on my iPhone 5s with iCloud Photo Library enabled!

May I ask for clarification? Am I correct in thinking that if I enable iCloud Photo Library that I will no longer have the option of deleting photos from the SD card after an import?

Asking another way, if I enable iCloud Photo Library will I then need to manually delete each photo from my SD card following each import?

May I ask for clarification? Am I correct in thinking that if I enable iCloud Photo Library that I will no longer have the option of deleting photos from the SD card after an import?

My answer does not apply for importing from a card or a camera.

You can use iCloud Photo Library on your Mac or mobile device, and still delete from a card directly after importing, if you want.

However, it is not recommended to do that. We have seen many reports here in these forums, where photos have been imported to iPhoto or Aperture, and have been deleted directly in the Import panel, that went dreadfully wrong. In rare cases it can happen, the system crashes at that critical moment and the photos will have been deleted from the card, but do not yet appear in the photo library.  Or some photos may not have been transferred correctly from the card, because of some I/O error.  It is risky to delete the photos from the card, before you have checked all imported photos individually and then made the first backup of the imported photos or your photo library.

When you are sure, your photos have been imported correctly, delete the photos from the card by deleting all photos in the camera at once, or by reformatting the card.  I simply keep the photos on the card as second backup, until all cards are full, then I reformat the card.

If you have an SD card that you're uploading from I recommend you use a card reader, copy the image files to folder on the Desktop and import from there.  Once you've confirmed that the photos are safely in your library you can delete the folder from the  Desktop and reformat the memory card using the camera.

This is the safest method because we've seen too many reports of incomplete imports into a library and complete deletion from a memory card.

Also this allows you to name the folder on the Desktop as you'd like and then drag it into an existing folderthe Album section of Photos sidebar to automatically create an album of those photos titled like the folder. During the conversion all existing iPhoto Events were added as albums to the folder titled "iPhoto Events" there.  If so desired you could also rename the files before importing for easier identification later on.  I rename them as follows:  YYYY-MM-DD-brief description-001.jpg, etc. There are many renaming apps that can batch rename before you import.

I found a little effort up front saves a lot of confusion and time later on.