How to delete iPad photos when synched Mac no longer exists

Question

How to delete iPad photos when synched Mac no longer exists

A friend wants to remove all photos from Photos on his iPad 2. They were originally transferred by cable from a Mac Mini which stopped working and he no longer has. He does not use iCloud and doesn't want to. He substituted his old MacBook Air for the broken Mac Mini. He can't delete the photos on the iPad itself (no trashcan appears). We connected the iPad to his MacBook Air running Catalina by cable and tried to synch photos from the Finder but it didn't seem to work as they are still there on his iPad. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

iPad 2

Posted on Apr 22, 2021 8:19 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 24, 2021 7:15 PM in response to markwmsn

Thank you markwmsn. I tried to do that previously but it didn't work. No error message but it did not delete the photos. This time I researched how to sync using the Finder and told it to sync just the Favorites album from the Mac which I knew was empty. It told me there was an existing sync to the old Mac and gave me a Sync and Replace option which I selected and then confirmed that I wanted to remove the existing synced photos. It took a while due to the large number of photos but when it finished, the photos on the iPad were gone. Thanks again.

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Answer 2

markwmsn

Level 6

15,605 points

Apr 23, 2021 9:13 PM in response to Oahu_mac_user

I haven't tried this trick in a long time, but the method used to be to sync photos from an empty folder to the iPad. Back then, we were still using iTunes. Is that what you tried to do with Finder? Did you get any sort of error indication?

My next shot would be to try syncing photos from a folder containing one photo and see if that changes anything.

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Answer 3

Dave_G1

Community Specialist

Apr 23, 2021 2:29 PM in response to Oahu_mac_user

Hello Oahu_mac_user,

Based on your post it sounds like your friend is trying to remove photos previously synced to their iPad.

If they synced photos to their iPad by connecting the device to their computer, they can't delete them directly from the iPad. They'll want to use Finder and stop syncing photos from the computer. At that point they'll get the option to remove the photos. The only other option to remove the photos is to restore the iPad as new using Finder.

Delete photos on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Keep your photos safely stored and up to date on all of your devices

Warm regards.

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Answer 4

Apr 23, 2021 2:38 PM in response to Dave_G1

Dave_G1,

Thanks but as I indicated the computer he used to synch is no longer available. Is there any way to change the synching to the computer he is using now (which has no photos) and then force the iPad to delete the photos? He doesn't want to lose the non-photo data on his iPad which I assume the restore would do.

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How to delete iPad photos when synched Mac no longer exists

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