iTunes Photo Transfer from PC Just Syncs

DonB_62 wrote:

I just bought an iPhone, first time.

.... I transferred all my photos from PC ...

My problem is, I wanted to delete a few photos on the phone, but there's no trash can icon. I read that's because they're synced. I did not want or need to sync. I wanted to transfer them.

You do need to Sync. It's how this works.

Sync - or synchronise, means "to make the same". You choose a folder of photos on your computer to synchronise with your phone - to copy onto the phone. Note, copy, not transfer. There's a huge difference.

If you transfer files (photos) from your computer to your phone, they are no longer on the computer - and crucially, you now have no backup of those files. So if your phone is lost, stolen or damaged, you will lose those photos. But if you synchronise the phone with iTunes, you still have the photos if the copy on the phone is lost.

To remove a photo from your phone, that came from the computer, simply remove that photo from the folder on your computer, then let a Sync remove it from the phone too. You can place the photo into a different folder on the computer, one that isn't being used to copy onto the phone, or you can delete the photo from the computer, although the second option will mean that you will then have no copy of that photo.

The message you saw about "keeping" the photos was probably asking if you wanted to keep the photos on your computer when removing (or deleting) them from the phone.

That hopefully addresses your current issue.

However - can I just add this too: if you take photos with the phone's camera, those photos are stored in a different folder on the phone to the ones you synced to the phone. Photos taken on the phone will be in a folder named DCIM and you are able to delete those from the phone without using iTunes. If memory serves me well, to copy, move or simply to backup the photos taken on the phone, to your computer, you need to use Windows Explorer/File Manager (or the Mac equivalent).

You have mis-interpreted what I wrote - and yes, you do want to use Sync with your PC in order to add pictures on your computer to your phone. It's the only practical method for you to use. Take your time reading what I've written. If necessary, go and have a cup of tea and then come back to read it again, carefully.

The DCIM folder, viewable only via the file manager (Windows Explorer), is where you manage the photographs taken by your phone and the screenshots taken by your phone. You cannot manage the pictures that you added from your computer by using Windows Explorer to look in the DCIM folder on the phone.

I thought I had made it clear that the paragraph about the DCIM folder was additional information, which I supplied simply because Apple have now made their devices so complex that it's easy to use the wrong method to do what you want. Plus, new users tend to ask why they can't see photos taken on the phone in iTunes (see below).

Let's try again: my advice here assumes that you're not using iCloud storage for your phone. It assumes that you are using your computer to manage pictures, photographs and music. To do this, when you connect your phone to your computer, there are two separate places where you can manage the content:

1. iTunes;
   1. to add music to, or remove music from the phone and to manage Playlists that you might put on the phone
   2. to choose which picture folder on your computer to use to copy (sync with) your phone. You cannot see the pictures in iTunes, you can only choose which folder to use. Those pictures, when synced with your phone, will not be in the DCIM folder*
2. Windows Explorer; where you can find the pictures taken on the phone (in the DCIM folder), and screenshots taken on the phone. Remember, since they're only on the phone, you have no backup of them. If you want to back them up, or to move them from the phone to our computer, in order to free up space on the phone, you do that in Windows Explorer

Note:

• • you cannot manage photos and screenshots taken on the phone by using iTunes. Instead, you use Windows Explorer
  • you cannot manage music, or pictures synced from your computer, to the phone, by using Windows Explorer. For this, you need to use iTunes
  • the method for putting pictures (photos etc.) onto your phone, from your computer, is to use iTunes Sync feature. You cannot manually add them to the phone
  • * if - and make sure you understand this point, if you move a photograph from the DCIM folder on your phone, to the folder on your computer that you're using to sync with the phone, then of course the photograph will continue to display on the phone. If you copy that photo from the DCIM folder and put that copy into the sync-pictures folder, you will end up with two copies of that same picture on your phone.

So back to your original problem:

1. You have synced a folder (on your computer) with your phone
2. You now want to remove one or more - but not all, pictures of that batch, from your phone
3. The only way to do that is to move (or delete) those pictures from the folder on your computer and then let iTunes Sync with the phone. It's the Sync which will then remove the pictures from the phone.

Okey dokey.

Oh no - epic fail, I replied.