How to delete Photo Library from iPhone

I was going crazy after the iOS 6 update. I ended up with a folder with over 1,000 photos that I had NO IDEA WHO THEY WERE OR WHERE THEY CAME FROM! The only thing I could figure was that it had something to do with the photo stream setting...I went through every setting on my phone and could NOT get rid of it! I was SO frustrated. I followed your instructions and it worked perfectly!! THANK YOU!!! 🙂

Awesome! I was wondering if the iOS6 was going to affect this fix. I did notice that the new iOS moved the Photo Stream to the bottom, which I greatly appreciate!!!

@Jamesan- I'm so sorry this didn't work for you. Not quite sure what happened! I hope you've been able to rectify!

OMG thank you!! lisamhos - somehow my son's photos got synced with my phone and as you can imagine what lies on the phone of a teenager. Luckily nothing that scared me. But, it was rather annoying to see it Poison Ivy photos everytime I went into my pictures!!

I'm so glad someone broke it down step by step and in terms us "normal" folk can understand 😉

I have the new iOS6 and it did not affect mine at all.

Thanks a bunch, I'm certain this will work.

Many of the pix trapped in the iPhone are symbols & icons, not 100% sure how those got there.

WORKED PERFECTLY!!!! Ive been trying to figure this out forever! Thanks for taking the time to type it all up.

Thank you so much. I just helped a friend do this who was about to step on her iphone and crush it. You are a lifesaver!

Thank you SOOOO much! It worked for me - not sure how it happened and would never have figured it out by myself how to get them off.

I have the Iphone 4S with OS 5.1. I could able to delet the pics from the CAMERA ROLL folder only. But how do i delet some selected pics from other Albums? How to transfer pics from one album to another. Getting confused...???😕

OMG I am so frustrated. Please help me out if you are able. I have tried all of the tricks -- Lisamhos you seem to be the heroine of the summer! -- but they're not working for me. For one thing, the frigging photo folders live in the area of my iphone 3gs settings pertaining to wallpaper and I cannot remove or edit them from there. Is there something going on because I don't use Iphoto? I've always been skeptical of Mac software although I have a Macbook and an Iphone, so I've never used it. And Icloud makes me nervous too so I upload ALL of my photos to Dropbox. I DON''T need or want ANY of my photos to live on my Mac, Phone, Itunes or Icloud. I have disabled photo streem, which shouldn't work anyway because I don't use Iphoto. What else am I missing? Thanks so much ~ Jed.

P.S. The camera stream is empty...

You have it figured out... lisamhos !!!!

I've been trying to do this for months and even the apple tech couldn't help me..

Thank you!!!

This is from lisamhos in July 2012 .... I tried it and it took care of my problem!!! after months of searching and trying and calling Apple support etc!!

"I had this exact issue just now. I researched and compiled all of the answers. Surprisingly it worked.

1) On my PC desktop, I right clicked and created a new folder. I named it "Empty folder".

2) I plugged in my phone to computer, opened iTunes.

3) Clicked on my phone on the left

4) Clicked on "photos" on the top

5) Clicked the box "Sync Photos with"

6) Choose the dropdown and "choose folder"

7) Click "desktop" option

8) Click on the folder that you created and named whatever you named it.

9) Click "apply/sync"

In doing so, it deleted the "Photo Library" with the little sunflower as well as a "My Photos" album it had also created, but it left all of my other photos that I wanted to keep.

I'm shocked that this actually worked.

Hope this helps you."

Well..... lisamhos instruction works and it doesn't.

While it will delete the flower photo library, you are unable to synch your photos that you have on your computer (PC). The moment you tell iTunes to go to that folder and use those pictures, BAM! It creates the same old pictures that you deleted. With iOS 6 you can delete your videos tha you synched with iTunes, but for whatever reason, it won't let you delete your pictures. Why do you get duplicate pictures on your iPhone when you choose to select a folder to synch is beyond comprehension. You have your photo library plus your other folder, say iPhone pics. The photo library folder mirrors the iPhone pics folder. The fact that you have to resort to the above to remove your pictures is seriously insane.

BTW, lisamho's information is not accurate:

To clear out/delete your photo stream photos, go into your "Settings", then "photos", then slide the Photo Stream button to "Off". You also have to go into your cloud (icloud.com) and sign in. In the upper right corner, where your name is, click on that, then click on the "Advanced" tab and click on "Reset Photo Stream".

There is no feature in iOS 6 that allows the deleteion of the photos in your photo stream.

I am still able with iOS6 to delete the photos in my photo stream the way I described above when I was using iOS5.

I just wanted to say that I am a normal person with an iPhone and iPad just like you all. I dont work for Apple and quite frankly dont know much about Apple products. I was having an issue with my pics, found a fix that worked for me (and apparently has worked perfectly for over 30 others) and wanted to "pay it forward" so others wouldnt have to experience my frustration. 😀

I am sorry for those that it DIDNT work for. I wish I could help you, but please dont send me scathing emails telling me that my fixes dont work. 😢. I work in Criminal Justice, not IT.

I wish Apple would see these threads and realize that a simple "delete/trashcan" icon would be a MIRACLE worker and not make things so dang complicated.

@jedherman: The photos will always be in your wallpaper settings. I'm not sure of any way to delete them from there. I dont use iPhoto either.

Thats my 2 cents!