I can't delete photos from photostream

Question

I can't delete photos from photostream

I'm totally freaking out because I have some really BAD photos on my photostream. I don't even know how they got there. I deleted them from my computer soon after uploading them and I deleted them from my camera, but when I try to delete them from my photostream by selecting a photo and then hitting "delete" I just get an error beep. No message, no disappearring photo, nothing. What is wrong? I don't have any other photostream enabled devices.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011)

Posted on Oct 13, 2012 1:02 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Oct 13, 2012 1:53 AM in response to smellslikechanel

This should work:

Select "PhotoStream" in the left panel
Select "My Photo stream" in the "Photo Stream" panel.
Double click to open "My Photo stream"
Select a photo and press "⌘⌫" to delete it.

This will only work with Photo Streams owned by you, not with Photo streams shared to you by others, however.

If the above does not work, you may have protection problems with your user library. You could use "Brute Force" and delete the images directly from the place where the Photo Stream Images are stored on your mac: in the folder "Applications Support" folder in the subfolders "iLifeAssetManagement" subfolder "assets" subfolder "sub".

~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub/

Paste the above string into the Finder's "Go > Go to Folder" textfield to open this folder.

Regards

Léonie

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Answer 2

Oct 13, 2012 10:05 AM in response to léonie

Hi Léonie,

Thank you for responding to my question, but it doesn't seem to work. First of all, on my computer there is no "my photostream" or "all photostreams" there's just the one photostream. Also, it's not nested under "web" it's under "recents." Then when I select the photo and try to delete it with the cloverleaf + delete nothing happens. Not even a beep.

Then I tried your second suggestion in the sub folder the pictures are all jumbled up and don't show thumbnails, just folder icons and I have to open each one individually to see what it is because they're not named with the file name of each picture, but I found one of the photos and I couldn't delete it. I select it, then click delete or cloverleaf + delete and nothing happens.

Any other suggestions?

Kari

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Oct 13, 2012 10:32 AM in response to smellslikechanel

Kari,

what is your MacOS X version and iPhoto version?

If you cannot delete photos from the iLifeAssetManagement folder, then you have a permissions problem. You should be able to do that. Try to fix the permissions for that part of your User Library.

Navigate again to the iLifeAssetManagement folder as described above. Then select the Folder and press ⌘I (clover leaf, capital letter I) for "Get Info". You shoud see an ifo panel like this:

Disclose the "Sharing & Permissions" brick by pressing the disclosure triangle. Press the padlock in the lower right corner and enter your administrator password. Make sure your user account .....(Me) has Rad &Write permissions, change the permissions if necessary. Then click the padlock and select to apply to enclosed items.

Then try again, if you now can delete photos from the Stream.

Regards

Léonie

You might also check these support articles:

iCloud: Photo Stream Troubleshooting

iCloud: Photo Stream FAQ

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Answer 4

Oct 13, 2012 2:53 PM in response to léonie

Hi Léonie,

I was able to delete the photos from the iLifeAssetManagement folder by following your directions, but I still can't delete the photos from the photostream. I restarted the computer to see if that would help. It didn't, so I went back to the iLifeAssetManagement window above and the lock had been locked, so I unlocked it again.

I also can't empty the trash. The computer just pretends like it's emptying the trash forever and never finishes. Then I can't restart the computer and I try to stop the trash emptying process but it never stops so I have to force quit by holding the power button down. Maybe this is a related problem.

I'm running Mac OS X10.7.5 and iPhoto '11 9.2 626. I just did a software update yesterday.

I really, really appreciate you helping me. What do I try now?

Kari

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Oct 13, 2012 3:03 PM in response to smellslikechanel

Kari,

this looks like your complete Home folder has permission- or ownership problems. What did you do, before the problems with photo stream started? Did you install something or migrated your system from another mac?

Léonie

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Answer 6

Oct 13, 2012 3:18 PM in response to léonie

I don't know what I did. I got a new computer in December. It seems to always have little problems like this. Then in May I got a new iPhone and almost immediately lost it and had to go back to using my old iPhone, but these problems don't really have anything to do with the iphones. I took the pictures on my regular digital camera.

Anyway, I think I got rid of the pictures by going to iCloud.com and erasing all the photos from there, I mean I reset it and erased all the photos, but I have all the photos I want on my computer anyhow. Then I went to iphoto and disabled Photo Stream. Then I opened it again to see if they were still there and it's empty🙂. So, I solved my immediate problem of having zombie photos popping up in my life, but not the underlying problem of permission and ownership problems.

I also can't empty the trash. And the photos are in the trash.

Can you help me empty the trash?

Kari

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Answer 7

léonie

Level 10

194,755 points

Oct 13, 2012 3:34 PM in response to smellslikechanel

To solve your Trash Problem have a look at this: Solving Trash Problems

i.e. You may want to download and install the freeware utility "Trash It! ", that would be the simplest option. But if you are familiar with the Terminal, you could do it like described here:

Empty and recreate an account's Trash.

I think, when you got your new computer and migrated your data, you may have copied the data in a way, that you are no longer the owner of the files in your home folder and this is now causing the permission problems.

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