Q: iTunes continues to display 5+GB of photo data usage after all photos have been deleted

Glad to hear it worked. I had never posted to an Apple Support Forum until this issue sprang up, but after figuring out the answer, I wanted to share and keep others from wasting as much time as I did trying to find a resolution. I tried to find a few boards where similar questions were raised, be it for iPhone or iPad.

This work for me too, thanks

Unfortunately changing the date did not work for me, on my iPad it shows I have 1.7GB of photos, when my photo album is empty, even my recently deleted photo album is showing as empty.

Interesting when I link my iPad to ITunes on my Desktop computer the 1.7 GB is showing as other, but cannot find what other refers to.

I also have a flik'r app which was showing 1.1 GB of usage, I deleted this app and re installed it and my flik'r usage has gone down from 1.1 GB to 191MB, but the photo app cannot be deleted on its own.

The iTunes program shows the photo size.  Other is something else like pdf files, spreadsheet files, etc.   What iTunes shows for photos stored on a desktop computer is the same number as shown on the iPad, Settings, General, Manage Storage.

Thanks for that solution.

I don't know how you worked it out, especially as it appears to be such an intractable fault. Like a lot of people here I'd tried just about everything (including the "official" suggestions) but without any success. However by using your technique - which is wonderfully simple - I have managed to recover 5.6GB.

Apple should have fixed this properly in the first place, however.

Thanks again.

Thanks for sharing your solution - it worked a treat. I have restored 33GB of storage by deleting hidden photos. I had already emptied my deleted items folder so was pleasantly surprised to see over 1000 photos appear by changing the date. Congratulations on figuring out the mystery!

I had to do the same thing to fix my phone -- set the date back by 6 months and deleted photos in the "recently deleted" folder.  Worked instantly.  Thanks!

I'm having this same problem and would really appreciate any support. iPad is showing 6GB of photographs that I just don't have. This problem has been going on for a while, so it's not just an issue of things taking a few hours, or even days, to catch up.

I've worked through all the suggested solutions I've read about, but just can't get any of them to work.

I have

• switched it off and on again - repeatedly
• updated to the latest iOS
• deleted all photos and videos (including the "recently deleted" folder)
• changed the date to every month in the last two years to see if old pictures appear in old "recently deleted" folders - they didn't
• deleted everything from iPhoto as well (that only shows up as 320MB usage)
• checked the iPad on iTunes - no photos showing up there at all
• turned off My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo sharing

I tried to turn on the iCloud Photo Library (Beta) but the effing thing won't let me because it says I have insufficient space available, what with my iPad being rammed full of photographs (that don't exist).

Like you I have tried everything including the date change to delete the 1.7 GB showing against my Photo's app, even although my photo album is empty, included deleted, recently deleted and photo roll etc.

Cannot be in my iCloud as I still have 4.3 GB of space left to use out of my free 5GB.

What I don't understand, is when I look at the usage in ITunes the coloured barometer which shows your usage on my Desktop Computer, there is nothing against photo's, the 1.7 GB of usage is included in the total of other, shown as yellow on the barometer.

I did find on my Desktop I had 1.7 GB of photos stored in my Photoshop elements storage, so I synced them to my IPad which increased my Photo's app storage to 1.8 GB, and this was shown as photo's, coloured mauve on the coloured barometer in iTunes on the desktop. I later reversed the sync and deleted the photos from photoshop elements, whiich took me back to square one, still showing the 1.7 GB in my photo's app on the IPad.

i Understand I can do a full backup of my IPad on my Desktop, then reboot my IPad back to factory settings, but will this not still include my 1.7 GB of photo's when I re install my backup back to my iPad. Don't want to reboot my iPad to factory settings without a backup as don't want to loose all my saved passwords.

I've also tried a complete reboot from backup, and that hasn't worked either. Whatever the problem is must have been saved in the backup itself and just reloaded back on to the iPad.

if you are showing many GB under photos, not under "other" and you deleted as you say, then you may need to go back to when the iPad year it was new.  Make sure you changed to manual for the date and left it there before you look at the photos.  Restart to be sure.  You did all that, you cannot fail to find the photos.  What iTunes shows cannot be different from what the iPad shows.  The size of "other" should not be a part of this conversation, they are not related to photo sizes.

When I sync my iPad to iTunes on my Desktop computer and click on IPad, it shows I have 12.50 GB total capacity. it then shows my usage in the coloured graph line at the bottom of the screen as follows.

Apps 3.57 GB

Books 16.7 MB

Docs & Data 771.2MB

Other 4.29 GB

Free 4.06GB

There is no mention of photo's, yet when I look at usage on my iPad it show 8.3 GB used, available 4.18 GB. When I look at the breakdown of the 8.3 GB used, it shows Photos 1.7 GB, although my photo library is totally empty as previously posted.

If I were then to upload new photos to my iPad from my camera card, it would increases my iPad photo library from 1.7 GB by the amount of GB's uploaded. However in iTunes on my Desktop, my free 4.06 GB will have decreased by the amount of the upload, and this amount will now be shown under Photos, But the total photos in iTunes will still not include the 1.7 GB.

Just to add I have changed the date from Automatic and tried various dates including installation date but still no sign of any photos.

Thanks! So simple. And it actually worked.

Awsome find thanks

THANK YOU!!!!!!! I can't believe that... Just freed up 10G on my daughter's iPad. *** Apple?