How to delete Photo Library from iPhone

I am so glad u wrote. I meant nor intended to convey any anger at you at all. Only gratitude, and frustration that your solution didn't work for me. I am continually horrified by the viciousness that possesses people behind the relative anonymity of discussion boards, so I'm paying it forward by apologizing on their behalf and thanking you for being so generous with your time.

You're so sweet, thank you!...that last post was not at all directed at you!!

Thank you from another successful delete-er

I didn't read every post on this thread, so forgive me if I missed the answer to this question. For clarity, I'm working with an iPhone 3GS. I lost my iPhone4 and had to revert back to this model for the time being. It had MANY MANY pictures on it and the laptop that it was synched with isn;t functional and I'm afraid I've lost those copies. This iPhone 3GS had a camera roll and I already got those pics backed up on this new laptop. My concern is there are 3000 pictures that were 'accidentally' synched ONTO this iphone month ago that reside in 'photo library' (1497 pics) and then 6 other folders that are named as they were named on the previous laptop.

I want to accomplish 2 things. Remove these 7 folders worth of 3000 pictures from the iPhone 3GS but I also want them to end up in a folder (or folders) on my new laptop. I'm concerned that if I hit 'APPLY' when following your instructions the 3000 pics on the iPhone 3GS might disappear, but I NEED them to appear in the 'empty folder' on my laptop.

Can you please guide?

Thank you - this was driving me nuts - some of the photos I could delete by the trash can but other seemed like they were there like the dead sea scrolls - did the folder on the desk and it worked - many thanks - john

Isn't that dang weird....how it works for you and not others. I guess maybe we're not talking about the same thing?

Personnaly, I see absolutely no reason for Apple to create the shortcut to the the Photostream and not give the user the ability to delete the pics on device. Is Apple trying to help prevent people from deleting their pics? Well, if that's the case, why do they allow the deletion of movies? Sure, the movies are huge but still it's not a big deal to add that feature to the pics. In fact, if you want the ability, then send Apple a "suggestion" in the feedback link: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

@MacZombie - Thank you! This worked!

@MacZombie - Thank you so much!

To delete images from your iPhone permanently, for Mac users...

Note: Make sure you have imported/backed-up/saved your photos before you do this (because it will delete them forever)

1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac

2. Open the "PREVIEW" software that came with your Mac

3. From the "FILE" menu, choose "IMPORT FROM [the name of your iPhone]"

4. Select which photos you want to delete and hit the delete button (on the bottom left of the window, there will be a red delete icon)

5. Disconnect your Phone from the Computer

6. Shutdown the "PHOTOS" app on your iPhone (To do this: double-click the home button on your iPhone, hold down your finger over any one of the icons that appear at the bottom of your screen until the icons start to shake, then hit the RED MINUS ICON in the top left of the icon) [Note: this will NOT delte the app from your iPhone. It is only shutting it down (from running in the background) so it can refresh / restart.]

7. Then hit the home button on your iPhone again to return to your home screen

8. Open up your photos app and you will see that the photos you deleted are now gone!

At last! Thank you so very much for that advice.

Why is iTunes soooo vague about things? It reminds me of French signposts which assume that you know exactly where you are and how to get to where you are going...

Actually her post does make logical sense, think again.

I was one of the few that all the above fixes couldn't help.

Whilst messing about, discovered that this almost works. You have one picture (that you can choose) left & the junk is gone.

1 Open I-Tunes, connect phone & select your phone from LH menuunder Devices

2 Select 'photos' from top menu

3 In "sync photos from" - like someone previously mine says FROM not WITH- select choose folder where your photos are kept. 4 This should list all folders of your photos.Select a folder that only contains one picture (you may have to create this earlier). As you check each folder it shows how many pics are in there.

5 Click on eitheer APPLY or SYNC button whichever shows.(bottom right)

6 On your phone although the Photo Library with Flower picture is still there you should now only have your new picture in it.You will also have your own folder with same photo.

7 Happy Days !

Thank you Lisa! Out of all of the articles I read yours was ther only one that was helpful and worked! As awesome as Apple stuff is supposed to be you would think a simple friggin' delete button would be available!!!!!

Thanks a lot, you're a real life saver. I tried many things but your idea just worked! By the way, I signed in just to thank you 😉

Thank you for all your help! Really much appreciated!

To lisamhos:➕ you are a brillant woman. I have been racking my brain over this and almost restored all the factory settings in order to get those pesky albums removed. I couldn't believe how easy it was. Thank you for saving me my sanity!🙂