You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

iphoto - Deleting Photos

Hi


I created a smart album and from that album I have created an album with pictures that I want to delete.


My question is how do I delete the photos from the album as well as the library. I have over 2000 pics to delete so don't want to have to delete them separately.

I am running iPhoto version 3.


Many thanks

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on May 12, 2020 3:07 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 13, 2020 2:52 AM

There is a difference between "Removing from Album" and "deleting a photo". When you are viewing photos in a standard album, you can either delete them everywhere or remove them from the album. The default is to remove from the album.


  • In Photos for mac Use the key combination ⌘⌫ (command-delete). This will delete the selected photos everywhere, from the library and from any album.
  • But you wrote "iPhoto". In iPhoto you click the trash can to delete the selected photo, if you really are still using iPhoto.





7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 13, 2020 2:52 AM in response to Belumira

There is a difference between "Removing from Album" and "deleting a photo". When you are viewing photos in a standard album, you can either delete them everywhere or remove them from the album. The default is to remove from the album.


  • In Photos for mac Use the key combination ⌘⌫ (command-delete). This will delete the selected photos everywhere, from the library and from any album.
  • But you wrote "iPhoto". In iPhoto you click the trash can to delete the selected photo, if you really are still using iPhoto.





May 14, 2020 9:27 AM in response to Belumira

Deleting Photos from a Photos Library


1 - regardless of where you are in the library, i.e. Photos, Memories, Favorites, People, Recents, Imports, albums or smart albums, select the photo(s) you want to delete and use the key combination of Command+Delete to move the photos to the Recently Deleted smart album.


2 - click on the Recently Deleted smart albums in the sidebar.

NOTE 1: If you're using Photos 1.2 or earlier use the File  Show Recently Deleted menu option.

3 - in the Recently Deleted album you can opt to let the photo automatically delete after the 30 day waiting period is up, delete them immediately or restore them to the library.

NOTE 2: deleting a photo from an album, slideshow, book, etc., with the Delete key only deletes the photo from that item. There is no key combination that will delete a photo from a project and move it directly to the Recently Deleted smart album.

NOTE 3: deleting a photo from a Moment or Collection (the Photos window) or the All Photos window deletes ALL occurences of that photo in the library.



May 13, 2020 2:56 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Matti Haveri wrote:

AFAIR you can go to the album, choose the desired images, and right-mouse on top of them > Delete images (or something like that -- I'm using Windows at the moment). Then empty the Photos.app trash.

Your memory is right, Matti. But the menus have changed in Photos 5 on Catalina - they are only showing "Remove from Album". We have to hold down the command key ⌘ while opening a menu or contextual menu. Then "Remove from Album" will change to "Delete".

May 13, 2020 4:12 AM in response to léonie

Leonie

Thank you so much for responding.


I am confused as to the difference between iPhoto and photos for Mac! I am running High sierra.


I believe I have created an album in iPhoto as that appears on all my other devices ie iPhone, iPad. When I press to delete it says delete from album, so does that mean that it deletes the photos from iPhoto as well?


Many thanks

iphoto - Deleting Photos

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.