How can I prevent iTunes photos from showing in Camera Roll?

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Level 1

4 points

How can I prevent iTunes photos from showing in Camera Roll?

I have an Iphone 16 Pro. I had an old 2013 Dell laptop that had iTunes on it and I would use that to sync photos from my laptop to my phone, which would show up under the "From My Mac" section on my Iphone, but not in my camera roll (which is what I want). I just got a 2024 Lenovo laptop and downloaded iTunes on that and imported my old iTunes library from my Dell laptop (and all information relating to that iTunes). I tried to sync the exact same photos again from my new laptop/iTunes but now these pictures are showing up in my "From My Mac" section, AND in my camera roll, which I do not want. I also can't delete these duplicates from my camera roll. I've tried un-syncing and re-syncing multiple times, turning both my phone and laptop on/off multiple times and it doesn't help. My iCloud photos on my phone is turned off and I always make sure to select the exact folders/pictures I want when I'm on the photos tab in iTunes before I hit sync. I've been doing this routine for many years on my old laptop without an issue, so it's frustrating that it's happening now with my new laptop/iTunes.

Is there any way to fix it so these photos don't show up in my camera roll? I'd prefer to keep it all on iTunes and not have to resort to any 3rd party apps.

Thanks in advance.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Apr 3, 2025 1:45 PM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,537 points

Apr 14, 2025 12:42 AM in response to asc422

" So my laptop synced photos are showing up twice on my phone, once under the "from my Mac" section (which is normal), and again in the phone's photo library (not normal)."

As a test, when you select one of your laptop pictures in the photo library section, is the trash bin shown, so you can delete it? If yes, then you are now having duplicates and the photos have been imported to your iPhone. But if you can't delete them, Photos is now showing your synced photos in the Library as well - together with the saved photos and Photos taken with your iPhone.

I cannot test this on my iPhone, because I am using iCloud Photos, and then it is not possible to sync selected albums from my computer, but several users reported here that Photos on iOS 18 is now showing all photos together in the library, including the items in "From My Mac".

Apple may have changed this, because for users, who are only having synced photos on the iPhone it has been very inconvenient not to see their synced photos in the Library View.

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Answer 2

asc422 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 17, 2025 9:13 AM in response to léonie

"when you select one of your laptop pictures in the photo library section, is the trash bin shown, so you can delete it? " - no unfortunately the trash bin is not shown and is not an option.

"Photos is now showing your synced photos in the Library as well - together with the saved photos and Photos taken with your iPhone." - yes this is exactly what is happening now

Something that is weird is that when I connect to my old laptop with the original Itunes and sync these same photos from there, it goes back to normal with the pictures only showing up under "From My Mac" section (and not my Library). It's only when I try it from my new laptop, with the imported Itunes from the old laptop, that this problem happens. Strange. My old laptop is about to die so I can't keep going back and forth to sync pictures from there much longer.

Also, I just updated my phone to IOS 18.4 and I noticed now when you go to the photo library and go to "View Options", under "Show" it has 3 options: Screenshots, Shared With You, From My Mac, and it gives you the option to uncheck any of these 3 options. Unless I'm mistaken, that wasn't there previously and maybe this is Apple's fix to the recent users complaining about this issue (as you mentioned). I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I'm hoping it will solve this problem....

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

200,537 points

Apr 5, 2025 10:49 AM in response to asc422

On iOS 18 there is no longer a Camera Roll on the iPhone.

Previously the Recents album doubled as a Camera Roll, but currently, we are having many different collections on the iPhone, but none of them can be filtered to show only the photos and videos, that we have taken with iPhone, but not the shared photos or the photos synced from our computer.

You may want to send feedback to Apple to bring the Camera Roll back. You can use the feedback form here: Photos for iOS - Feedback - Apple

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Answer 4

asc422 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 13, 2025 2:17 PM in response to léonie

Thanks for the reply. Yes you are correct there is no more Camera Roll with IOS 18, my apologies I misspoke. What I meant is that the pictures I am syncing from my laptop are also showing up in my general phone photo library where all the photos I've taken with my Iphone also appear. So my laptop synced photos are showing up twice on my phone, once under the "from my Mac" section (which is normal), and again in the phone's photo library (not normal).

Does anyone know why this is happening? Once again, I've tried un-syncing and re-syncing multiple times, turning both my phone and laptop on/off multiple times and it doesn't help. My iCloud photos on my phone is turned off and I always make sure to select the exact folders/pictures I want when I'm on the photos tab in iTunes

before I hit sync. I also made sure that I'm not logged into Onedrive on my laptop.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

200,537 points

Apr 18, 2025 12:30 AM in response to asc422

Your test confirms, that the synced photos are shown twice on your new Mac, but not stored twice. I think it is intentional to make the synced photos easier to use.

The changes in the Filter in iOS 18.4 (with the new options Screenshots, Shared With You, From My Mac) will hopefully make it easier to suppress the synced photos, when you just want to see the saved photos on your iPhone.

For me, the "From My Mac" filter option is not visible, because my iPhone is syncing with iCloud Photos and not with iTunes or the Finder.

Good Luck!

Leonie

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How can I prevent iTunes photos from showing in Camera Roll?

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