how do I delete all photos from iPhone 5 iOS7 - I do not want to upload them to my computer

You are not waiting long enough. It needs to scan the contents of the phone first... then the icon becomes available.

I have the same problem - The delete icon is not active after selecting pics. I had tried doing a sync few days back since than I have all my mac pics on iPhone and now I am not able to remove them to clean up space. 😠

I ended up reinstalling iOS on both my iPhone 4s and my iPad 2 in order to delete all the photos, then syncing only the photos that I wanted to have on each device. The big pain is reconfiguring each device. In my case, I first reset the iPad, and so could copy (manually, of course!) all the settings from the iPhone. When I was sure that the iPad was properly configured, I then reset the iPhone and copied the configuration from the iPad.

However, there may be an easier way. Before you reset either device, you should make two backups: one to the computer which runs iTunes and with which you synchronize the device, and one to iCloud. I understand -- correct me if I'm wrong -- that the iCloud backup only contains settings, since space and bandwidth are precious commodities. If that it so, you might be able to reset your iToy then install it from an iCloud backup and subsequently sync your music, photos, etc., specifying only those songs, photos, etc. that you want on the clean device.

Note: In the process I lost the photos that I had taken with my iPhone. There is probably a way to avoid that, too.

Regards,

Richard

There is no need to reinstall the iOS on your devices, and no need to reconfigure them all. There is a simple and easy way to remove all the photos without having to transfer them all. See previous threads regarding the Image Capture utility.

iCloud backups contain everything you need to restore your device back to the way it was before you dived into that pool and discovered the iPhone was not waterproof. All settings, personal data (photos, media, emails and game settings) are stored in the iCloud backup. Anything that is in the cloud already, like your iTunes purchases and Apps are simply re-downloaded.

To see how big your iCloud backup is, Settings -> iCloud -> Storage -> Manage Storage. This will show how much space each device is using. Click on the device to see and manage which data is backed up to the cloud. Don't want (or don't want to pay for the extra space) to backup your photos? Turn it off.

As far as bandwidth being a commodity, the device will only backup when it is connected to WiFi, Plugged in to a power source, and locked (in standby). If you plug in your phone when you go to bed, that's all you need to do.

iCloud backup is all you ever need. Never plug in to backup your device ever again. Pay the $0.99 a month for 20GB (5GB is free) and have the peace of mind that all your devices can be fully restored to a new device, pictures and all.

Regarding your lost photos, check to see if you had enabled PhotoStreaming prior to wiping the devices. You may be pleasantly surprised to find they are all in the cloud.

iCloud: My Photo Stream FAQ

@sparkspark,

Some people have reported in this thread that selectively erasing photos by whatever means, incl. third party apps, either doesn't work for them or is painful because the photos to be deleted must be selected individually. I am one of those people.

Regarding the differences between iCloud and iTunes backups, it is clear to me that there are differences, both from Apple's Knowledge Base article

Choosing an iOS backup method (Should I use iTunes or iCloud to back up my iOS device?) and from the fact an iCloud backup and an iTunes backup of my iPad in the same state contain 312.4 MB and 2.23 GB respectively. Apple is rather coy about the differences, but on the one hand it states that during a restore from iCloud purchases are downloaded from the App Store (presumably the latest versions), whereas a standard method of "downgrading" a misbehaving upgraded app consists in restoring an older version from an iTunes backup, provided one has chosen to backup apps that are on the device.

Since the referenced Knowledge Base article explicitly states that photos synced from iPhoto are not backed up to iCloud, I stand by my recommendation to those who -- for whatever reason -- need another way besides those previously mentioned in this thread to delete large quantities of such photos from their iOS device: (1) Backup to iCloud. (2) Reset the device. (3) Restore it from the iCloud backup. (4) Sync back to the device whatever should not have been deleted. The same thing might work better for some using an iTunes backup, depending on what exactly the differences are. That's my reason from recommending making both kinds of backups before resetting the device.

Yes, I am aware of Photo Stream. I don't take many photos with my iPhone and none with my iPad, so I wasn't too concerned about losing stuff, particularly since I knew that the oldest photos disappear from Photo Stream once an upper limit (1000?) is reached.

Regards,

Richard

simplest solution:

connect your iPhone to your computer,

fire "Image Capture.app" (make a spotlight search if you don't know where it is located)

select all photos and delete them recklessly.

hmm I figured out that this confused the iphone a lot. The disk space is freed after importing and deleting all the pictures using the Image Capture, however iphone still thinks that they are there, therefore the thumbnails are not deleted. When you tap on the preview icons, they expand but with a blank end point.

Great tip, thanks!!!!

1. Connect iPhone to Mac with USB cable

2. Launch Image Capture (Applications>Image Capture. Or, Spotlight [image capture])

3. Select photos to delete

4. Click red no symbol, to delete the selected photos (no symbol = ⃠ = circle with diagonal line through it)

THANK YOU!!! I have been trying for so long to get old photos off my phone and this worked perfectly!

by i tools

None of these methods are working for me. iPhoto gives the option to delete all, but when I click it, nothing happens. Image capture doesn't find my device. I'm so confused! I did just upgrade to iOS 8 and Yosemite so maybe that's why?

Same here...many thanks to all for posts but NONE of these methods work for me. I have a Retina Display MacBook Pro bought new last year and an iPhone 5.

I am depressingly unsurprised that Mac with a reputation for being visual pioneers have not got a simple - or in my case, possible! - way to delete photos from one's iPhone - utterly ridiculous.

Image Capture does not work - the "no entry" style delete button stays cheerfully unactive throughout...

iPhoto does not work. Not even a delete option...pathetic...

This has got to be one of the most basic requirements with a phone/computer set up. I was able to do this easily 10 years ago with a Nokia and pc!

For me the issue is not having the ability to delete from the iphone in the first place. The initial recommended fix worked for some, but now what is left just results in the grey trash can. Is there some sort of uber protection on them?

I Have tried to delete remaining photos and videos from my iPhone5 with no success yet. A little background. I have been syncing with iTunes and changing the number of photos, or even selecting no photos, had no effect on my device. I finally manually deleted all photos twice, with the recently deleted option, and still had 4GB of photos and videos hiding on my device. Using iExplorer I could see them in the DCIM folder on my iPhone. That app would not allow me to delete them. They do not appear in image capture, or iPhoto. I'm unable to get these photos and videos off of my phone, and they are not visible on it. I can only see them using this third party app. I've restored the phone so even a new iPhone, when the time comes soon, may still carry over these seemingly random cobwebs.