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Why can't I delete photos on my IPad without synching?

I am new to Apple products. I love the speed, but hate the usability compared to Microsoft. Why can't I just click on a photo and delete it without synchronising to my Computer which may be in another country at the time I want to delete them ! From looking at previous Google searches this function seemed to be available before but now is not there.

Posted on Oct 31, 2013 12:54 PM

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26 replies

Nov 12, 2013 8:15 AM in response to Billbadge

I imported photos directly from a thumb drive onto my iPad. Then using iTunes I imported all photos onto my laptop. Then I synced after deselecting the 'Sync Photos' checkbox. Then I went back to my iPad and the photos were still there, and I was able to delete some photos but not a large portion of them. When I select a photo for delete, the 'trash' icon remains greyed.


I've been an Apple developer for about 15 years and overall my experience with Apple's latest UI has been very poor.

Nov 12, 2013 8:38 AM in response to RWMHUBBARD

RWMHUBBARD wrote:


I imported photos directly from a thumb drive onto my iPad.


O.k.



RWMHUBBARD wrote:


Then using iTunes I imported all photos onto my laptop.

Nope. iTunes does not import photos from an iDevice, it only syncs them over, its a one way deal from the computer to the iDevice.


Photos imported to an iPad using the CCK (thumbdrive), or taken using the iPad can be imported to a computer much the same way photos in a digital camera would be. In Windows the iPad appears as a camera and you can drag photos form the DCIM folder onto a Windows folder. On Mac you can use iPhoto to import them to the computer.



RWMHUBBARD wrote:


Then I synced after deselecting the 'Sync Photos' checkbox. Then I went back to my iPad and the photos were still there, and I was able to delete some photos but not a large portion of them. When I select a photo for delete, the 'trash' icon remains greyed.


Photos you imported using the CCK are not affected by the iTunes sync you can delete those manually on the device.


Photos you synced from iTunes can be deleted by unchecking the folder in the Photo sync.


You need to determine what photos you are trying to delete.


Again Synced Photos cannot be deleted on the device and must be unsynced to remove them.


Sycned Photos from itunes will not appear in the camera roll. Photos imported from the CCK (thumbdrive) will appear in the Camera Roll.


If the Photos are not in the camera roll, they cannot be deleted on the device and must be unsynced.

Nov 12, 2013 10:13 AM in response to Phil0124

>>Nope. iTunes does not import photos from an iDevice, it only syncs them over, its a one way deal from the computer to the iDevice.

Yes, you are right. iPhoto imports photos from the iDevice, then iTunes syncs them back. Thank you for pointing out this obvious, clear, straight forward and user friendly workflow.


>>Photos you imported using the CCK are not affected by the iTunes sync you can delete those manually on the device.

Yes, but as a previous poster indicated, it's a complex an non-intuitive process. I could not believe how many hoops I had to jump through to delete a few photos.


>>You need to determine what photos you are trying to delete

It would be nice if there was an easy way to determine that. Say, an indicator or a badge of some sort.

Instead I have a folder full of photos. Some of them I can select and trash, some I can't. A bit of a head scratcher.


>>Photos imported from the CCK (thumbdrive) will appear in the Camera Roll.

Mine didn't. Don't know if it's a bug or a feature, but I had about 2000 photos I imported from an SD card that didn't show up in my camera roll.

Yet I was able to delete them.

Mysteriously.


BTW, I finally determined why I couldn't get rid of the photos from iTunes.

The sync never completed. And yet, no indication of any problem.


It took me half a day, 4 syncs, and upgrading the OS to delete a handful of photos from my iPad.


A similar operation on a Kindle Fire HD took about 30 seconds. Perhaps it's because Kindle gives one access to the file system?

Nov 12, 2013 10:19 AM in response to RWMHUBBARD

Glad you got it sorted out,



RWMHUBBARD wrote:


A similar operation on a Kindle Fire HD took about 30 seconds. Perhaps it's because Kindle gives one access to the file system?

Yes, and I was one of those that thought the lack of file system access was a major downfall when I first got my iPad.


After a couple years of using the iPad I'm glad its restricted because its that very reason the iPad is practically virus proof. While Android and Windows Devices are quite susceptible to them.


In any case, once you understand the flow operates and how to work it, its not that un-intuitive. Though it can be a little head scratching at first.

Mar 13, 2014 5:33 AM in response to Billbadge

Hi billbadge I HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION to your problem AND FOR ALL THE OTHERS. i know what is your problem, you can't delete your photos from you ipad. while deleting you can select the photos but you can't delete, the trash button is gray colour i mean it is off. And your computer is also not with u so u should scan the photos and delete them by deselecting.


I WILL CHECK YOUR REPLY TOMORROW.

Mar 13, 2014 8:05 AM in response to Billbadge

It's very simple. When you sync the photos onto your device....using iTunes you selected a folder and told iTUnes 'ok, put all the photos in this folder on my iPad'....iTUnes did that.


And since you used iTunes to put them on, you have to use iTunes to take them off. So if you have a folder named 'family photos' and it's been chosen in iTunes to sync to your device, the ONLY way to get those photos off is to connect your device to your computer, open iTunes, DESELECT that folder or remove photos from that folder, then sync to tell iTunes 'yep, changed my mind, remove them'


iTunes doe exactly what you tell it to do. You've told it to put those photos onto the iPad and it'll keep them on there until you tell iTunes to take them off the iPad.


Personally? If you want to keep total deletability of photos on your device, never use iTunes to put them on. Either import them via the camera kit, or upload/download from dropbox or another photo syncing app, or e-mail them to yourself and save from the mail.

Why can't I delete photos on my IPad without synching?

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