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Unable to delete some specific photos on my iPhone that were sync'd from my MacBook

Is there a way to remove specific sync'd pictures on my iPhone?


iPhone SE, iOS 13

Posted on Mar 22, 2020 9:55 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 22, 2020 10:03 AM

You can remove them by turning off syncing of those photos. If they were in an album with other synced photos that you do not want to remove, you will need to remove the entire album, rearrange on your computer and then sync the rearranged album.

See the following from Keep your photos safely stored and up to date on all of your devices - Apple Support


If you don't want the synced photos on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch anymore, turn off syncing in iTunes and they'll be removed from your device. You can turn off syncing for some of your photo albums or all of them at once.

Stop syncing some albums

  1. Open iTunes on your computer and connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  2. Click on the device icon in iTunes.
  3. Click Photos.
  4. Choose "Selected albums" and deselect the albums or collections that you want to stop syncing.
  5. Click Apply.


Stop syncing all photos


  1. Open iTunes on your computer and connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  2. Click on the device icon in iTunes.
  3. Click Photos.
  4. Deselect "Sync Photos" then click "Remove photos."
  5. Click Apply.


5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 22, 2020 10:03 AM in response to Kamiel5m8

You can remove them by turning off syncing of those photos. If they were in an album with other synced photos that you do not want to remove, you will need to remove the entire album, rearrange on your computer and then sync the rearranged album.

See the following from Keep your photos safely stored and up to date on all of your devices - Apple Support


If you don't want the synced photos on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch anymore, turn off syncing in iTunes and they'll be removed from your device. You can turn off syncing for some of your photo albums or all of them at once.

Stop syncing some albums

  1. Open iTunes on your computer and connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  2. Click on the device icon in iTunes.
  3. Click Photos.
  4. Choose "Selected albums" and deselect the albums or collections that you want to stop syncing.
  5. Click Apply.


Stop syncing all photos


  1. Open iTunes on your computer and connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  2. Click on the device icon in iTunes.
  3. Click Photos.
  4. Deselect "Sync Photos" then click "Remove photos."
  5. Click Apply.


Mar 22, 2020 11:39 AM in response to FoxFifth

Thanks for this guidance:

I followed the steps under "stop syncing all photos" (*), but checking iPhone afterwards, as a result some photos have been removed, but not all previously sync'd, some remain, still showing only the option to "edit" or to "send somewhere", but not to delete.

A pity that the delete button is not present on the iPhone to remove some specific sync'd pictures.

For the future, as you explained, I can create a specific album to sync only those specific pictures I want to sync to my iPhone.

But it doesn't solve those who still remain on the iPhone after step (*) following previous sync's.

Apr 4, 2020 3:08 AM in response to FoxFifth

I applied several times "stop syncing all photos", but there remain a lot of photos on my IPhone without the icon to delete ( only icon to edit displayed).

Several of them have been saved from incoming messages from other apps, so not syn'd with Macbook.

Is there a way to remove all photos from IPhone, so I can start from scratch and syn'd specific albums from my Mac?

Unable to delete some specific photos on my iPhone that were sync'd from my MacBook

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