Mysterious photos album on iPhone

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Level 1

56 points

Mysterious photos album on iPhone

I have an iPhone 8 Plus running iOS 16.7.5 – current. In the Photos app, if I go to Albums, there's a section From My Mac that contains an album with 6 photos in it.

I recognize the photos, they're mine, and the name of the folder makes sense BUT for the life of me, I can't find where they are. Nothing comes up under ⌘-F on my Mac, or in my iCloud.

Where could the folder be located? What am I missing? I'd actually like to get rid of it. Thanks...

iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 16

Posted on Feb 2, 2024 2:36 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

markwmsn

Level 6

17,125 points

Feb 3, 2024 9:26 PM in response to Angus McC

All you can be sure of is that at some time in the past there was a folder on some computer (maybe your Mac) that contained those photos and that somebody (maybe you) used iTunes or Finder to sync those photos to your iPhone. There is no guarantee that the photos were not removed from that computer since then.

If you want to remove the album and all six photos from your phone, you can repeat the photo sync (using Finder unless your Mac is running an old version of macOS) selecting an empty album or no album at all.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

217,802 points

Feb 8, 2024 11:14 AM in response to Angus McC

Try what markwsmn suggested:

Add an empty album to your library, launch iTunes, select the empty album and sync. That may remove those photos.

Note: do you find any albums when using iTunes that are checked? If so uncheck it also if they are not any you want to keep on your iPhone.

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Answer 3

Angus McC Author

Level 1

56 points

Feb 8, 2024 12:45 PM in response to Old Toad

That did it! In iTunes, photo sync was unchecked. I checked it, went to sync and got this on-target message:

I hit Remove and Sync and lo and behold, the album and its photos are gone from my phone. Many thanks, Mark and Old Toad – much appreciated.

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Answer 4

markwmsn

Level 6

17,125 points

Feb 7, 2024 9:57 PM in response to Angus McC

Yes, the files are on the phone, in a separate "From My Mac" area viewable only through the Photos app.

In macOS versions before Finder handled photo syncing to iPhones, that was one of the capabilities of the old iTunes application.

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Answer 5

Angus McC Author

Level 1

56 points

Feb 8, 2024 7:52 AM in response to Angus McC

Interesting again. I tried iTunes but nothing showed up under photos. As you said, the photos are likely vestiges of having been synced with a previous computer. So I can't delete them either on the phone or on my desktop. They will live forever!

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Answer 6

Angus McC Author

Level 1

56 points

Feb 7, 2024 9:34 AM in response to markwmsn

That's very interesting, thank you. Unfortunately, it is an old OS, yes, El Capitan 10.11.6

So the files actually reside somewhere on the phone?

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Mysterious photos album on iPhone

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