How to delete synced photos from iPad, How to delete synced photos from iPad

After years of wrestling with this and not wanting to reformat my iDevices every time my Photos DB gets corrupted or I get photos stuck on the device from a computer I no longer have access to, I finally found the solution.

Download iFunBox on your computer, connect your iDevice to your computer, launch iFunbox.

Select Raw File System

To delete your Photo database and rebuild it:

Select Photo Data

Right/control click Photos.sqlite and delete it.

There are other files in the raw file system that also may be useful to delete and rebuild. I ended up deleting everything from DCIM and a bunch of stuff from Photos. After re-syncing with my computer to re-download the photos I actually wanted, I found that most of these folders didn't re-populate, indicating that Apple changed the way they store images over time, and I had a bunch of old junk loaded that couldn't be deleted that was taking up storage and preventing proper photo syncs with my computer.

Photos that were synced from your computer are deleted by moving/removing/de-selecting them from where they were synced from on your computer and then re-syncing - they can't be deleted directly on the iPad

The links below have instructions for deleting photos.

iOS and iPod: Syncing photos using iTunes

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4236

iPad Tip: How to Delete Photos from Your iPad in the Photos App

http://ipadacademy.com/2011/08/ipad-tip-how-to-delete-photos-from-your-ipad-in-t he-photos-app

Another Way to Quickly Delete Photos from Your iPad (Mac Only)

http://ipadacademy.com/2011/09/another-way-to-quickly-delete-photos-from-your-ip ad-mac-only

How to Delete Photos from iPad

http://www.wondershare.com/apple-idevice/how-to-delete-photos-from-ipad.html

How to: Batch Delete Photos on the iPad

http://www.lifeisaprayer.com/blog/2010/how-batch-delete-photos-ipad

(With iOS 5.1, use 2 fingers)

How to Delete Photos from iCloud’s Photo Stream

http://www.cultofmac.com/124235/how-to-delete-photos-from-iclouds-photo-stream/

 Cheers, Tom 😉

with iTunes you only go to images tab in device wiev, and uncheck photo sync

without itunes you need to be jb, and go (with iFile i.e.) to /var/mobile/media/photodata and delete sync folder for all photos deletion, or go to sync folder and choose photos to delete

after that you need to go to thumbnails folder, and delete all .ithmb files (32x32.ithmb etc) and respring/reboot device, then just wait for rebuild of the thumbnail cache in photos app.

et voila.

I understand the official response, i.e., that you have to connect your iPad to the computer that you used to transfer the photos via iTunes, but I have two questions:

(1) How does Apple think you are meant to make space for new photos when on a trip thousands of miles away from your home computer? What was Apple's logic in not allowing photo deletion without connecting to a computer, because I cannot understand it. Surely taking photos when traveling must have been one of the usage scenarios they considered, since one of the main uses of iPad is for photos. Since they have still not provided this much-needed feature after all this time, it seems they will never provide it, but WHY?

(2) Short of jail-breaking, (which Apple is encouraging with this frustrating shortcoming), what workarounds or apps are there that will delete photos originally transferred to iPad by synching with iTunes on a computer when you are thousands of miles from that computer?

Thanks

AMEN BROTHER! PREACH IT.

Sync has been the universal band-aid for every design shortcoming of the iOS world since the first iPhone and it has been given virtually NO real resources to make it work correctly. Never fear though, it isn't Jjust an Apple problem -- I tried to use Microsoft's ActiveSync for years with a Windows smartphone and it was abysmal.

The lack of resources (particularly in design) is clearly shown through the decision to base an extremely complex process inside of iTunes. This was clearly a MARKETING-driven decision and it has handcuffed users since it was made.

The plain bald truth is that syncing your iOS device means Apple has made critical assumptions about what needs to be on your device and what must remain on your device REGARDLESS of what the user wants because they feel they know better than you want you should want to do with your device and data. That contempt is inexcuseable.

Seriously, I have tried to delete to delete apps that show up on my iPad that WILL ONLY FUNCTION with a camera (bought on my iPhone) and sync just keeps pushing them back there. Can't delete podcasts on my iPhone without doing a sync. Can't ssideload data from any conveinent PC, gotta use iTunes... And that list goes on and on.

So today I am sitting indoors due to rain (on vacation) wanting to copy some photos from my peashooter camera and myiPhone I took on the golf course yesterday. I recently did a sync and backup of my iPad. It put back all of these photos I have in iPhoto (50GB worth -- that don't all fit BTW) but I figured "no problem, just delete them manually". Hmmmm. Now I find out that I simply cannot delete them manually on the device. WAY TO GO!! THOSE ARE MY **** PHOTOS AND I SHOULD BE ABLE TO DELETE ANY AND/OR ALL OF THEM IF I WANT TO, RIGHT NOW, ON MY DEVICE. **** IT I AM THE USER AND WHAT I SAY SHOULD RULE, PERIOD.

Who would decide that whatever I have in iPhoto MUST BE SYNCED to my device? The total lack of user involvement and control of the sync process is completely inexcuseable. The lousy way sync works makes me want to handle it all MANUALLY so that I can get WHAT I WANT... oh, except that option isn't open to me either.

Grrrrr.

So much for the myth of insanely great.

You could use a third-party photo management app instead of Photos e.g. Photo Manager Pro allows you to delete photos that you've copied to it from your computer directly in the app (it can also copy photos to/from the Photos app).

If you want the functionality within Photos changing then you can try leaving feedback for Apple : http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

When syncing photos from iPhoto you have control over which albums, events, faces to sync to the iPad : syncing photos.

The question is how to delete synched photos THAT ARE ALREADY ON AN IOS DEVICE; I do not think Photo Manager Pro is relevant for that, although I wish I had known about it before I got into this bind.

I have another similar problem that is even worse; a family member was visiting as part of a family reunion and I wanted to give her a large number of photos of the reunion. She had an iPhone with her, so I synched the photos onto her iPhone. Now she needs to delete them because she is out of space, BUT SHE LIVES ON ANOTHER CONTINENT. Does she have to wait until the next time she can connect her iPhone to my iMac, which may be a couple of years?

Leaving feedback in Apple's black hole is not going to resolve my problems; this problem has existied for years and Apple have apparently decided to do mothing about it. I am looking for a workaround. I am sure there are Apple developers who know a way to do this, but short of waiting outside their office, how do I get them to provide this information?

Restoring the iOS device to factory settings will certainly delete the unwanted photos, but then when all the data and apps that are needed are restored from backup, won't the unwanted photos come back too?

Any suggestions would be really appreciated. Thanks.

She can connect the phone to her own computer's iTunes and if she syncs photos from it then those that you synced to it will be removed and replaced - if she doesn't want any synced photos on the phone then she can just select and sync an empty folder.

Thanks; this is very interesting. She tried connectiing to her own Mac, but none of the unwanted photos showed up, so she saw no way to delete them. I will tell her to follow your suggestion and see what happens.

Photos that were originally synced from a computer won't show up iPhoto, Aperture or Image Capture, only non-synced photos (those taken with the iPad, dopied to it via the camera connection kit or saved from emails/websites) show there - they are deleted via the same process as they got onto the iPad i.e. not including them in the next photo sync via the Photos tab.

Brilliant. And it worked. Solutions always so simple.

My relative tried your suggestion King Penguin, and it worked; MANY, MANY THANKS!

(Actually, the first time she tried it, she ended up with her selected folder on the iphone twice, once in place of the unwanted folder and once all by itself. Then she unplugged, replugged and synched again, this time with no folder selected, and then she ended up with only the regular iphone photo folder.)

Do you know if the simple mechanism you recommended appears anywhere in Apple documentation? I certainly never found it.

You solved one of my problems, King Penguin, (deleting photos synched from a computer that is not the "home" computer), but I think you are saying you know of no solution or even workaround for my other problem, (deleting photos synched from the home computer when the iOS device is far away from that computer for an extended period.)

Please confirm my understanding, or provide a solution.

Thanks

The same syncing principle applies - as only the most recently sycned photos remain on the iPad if you connect to a computer and sync photos from that computer then all existing synced photos will be replaced. To remove all synced photos select and sync an empty folder. They can't be deleted directly on the iPad i.e. you will need to sync to remove them.

Also an iPad is designed to only be synced to one computer at a time, and there is a risk that if you connect to another computer that hasn't got your content on it (music, films, apps etc) then you could end up removing that content.

There are third-party photo management apps in the store that have greater flexibility e.g. Photo Manager Pro allows you to copy photos to/from it via your computer's iTunes (file sharing) or via your wifi network (so you don't need to use iTunes), and you can then delete the photos directly in the app, as well as move photos between albums, change the sorting order (it can also copy photos to/from the Photos app, so you can copy into it photos that you take with the iPad).