how to delate photos from my iPad Air photo library? I do not own a mac anymore and do not using iCloud for photos. When I select a photo in my iPad photo library the delete button is greyed out.
iPad Air, iPadOS 26
Pictures that are transferred through a cable from a computer, perhaps with iTunes, can be shown by Photos, but they're not "owned" by Photos. So these pictures can't be edited or deleted by Photos, and they can't be synchronized with iCloud Photos. The idea is that the originals are kept on the computer, and they are transferred to the phone temporarily. One way to delete them is to use the computer to transfer an empty set of "pictures" to the phone, and the empty set will replace the others. In using iTunes for this, it may give the option to deselect the pictures that are already there. On a Mac we might do it with the app Image Capture in the Applications folder, but that's just with a Mac.
Another way to get rid of all the non-deletable pictures is to momentarily turn on iCloud Photos. You get a scary warning that these will be deleted. When you say OK, then they're trashed, and then Photos will start to transfer the other pictures to iCloud.But you can turn off iCloud and stop the sync before it happens.
If you want to keep some of these pictures, you may be able to use Share>Save to Files to make copies in that app. If they are re-imported, then they will be full-fledged Photos pictures. We've seen some cases, though, where pictures can't be saved to files.
Pictures that are transferred through a cable from a computer, perhaps with iTunes, can be shown by Photos, but they're not "owned" by Photos. So these pictures can't be edited or deleted by Photos, and they can't be synchronized with iCloud Photos. The idea is that the originals are kept on the computer, and they are transferred to the phone temporarily. One way to delete them is to use the computer to transfer an empty set of "pictures" to the phone, and the empty set will replace the others. In using iTunes for this, it may give the option to deselect the pictures that are already there. On a Mac we might do it with the app Image Capture in the Applications folder, but that's just with a Mac.
Another way to get rid of all the non-deletable pictures is to momentarily turn on iCloud Photos. You get a scary warning that these will be deleted. When you say OK, then they're trashed, and then Photos will start to transfer the other pictures to iCloud.But you can turn off iCloud and stop the sync before it happens.
If you want to keep some of these pictures, you may be able to use Share>Save to Files to make copies in that app. If they are re-imported, then they will be full-fledged Photos pictures. We've seen some cases, though, where pictures can't be saved to files.
Delete button greyed out for photos on iPad Air
