ios 8 / iphone 5s - deleted photos, memory still appears occupied

Try launching Image Capture on your Mac. I've had success selecting all photos via Image Capture and deleting them that way.

Image capture is not 3rd party software.

I Tried - but still no luck.

You might also check Messages app, where photo attachments can be hiding. For each thread, tap Details, scroll down to the attachments, long tap (tap-and-hold) one of them, tap More… in the edit menu, then you can choose photos and delete them.

Setting the time did not work for me. But after I turned off all iCloud photo settings, like icloud photo , photo stream, and especially iCloud photo sharing, then I have 5G coming back. It asked to confirm deleting the shared photos. I think the previous shared photo takes the space even if they look like deleted.

If other solutions do not work remember to try this one.

I would say Apple disappoints me much. For this kind of severe problem there shall be official answer in the forum by some support guys.

And anyone ever tried to ask Apple support to fix it?

I had the same situation, resetting date/time or iphone didn't work for me. Nothing else shows up in recently deleted folders no matter what I do. And iFunBox showed 0 photos in Camera folders. Then I searched thoroughly and found image-like files in Raw File System, which after deleting freed up 1.5GB finally!

I have an iPhone 5S, iOS9.0.2

Try this:

Connect iPhone to Mac > open iFunBox

From the left side panel > Raw File System > PhotoData > Metadata > DCIM > 100APPLE > lots of image files something like IMG1234.XXXXX.Altpath

I went down the list from 100APPLE to 108APPLE and deleted the IMG files only without deleting the holding APPLE folder (just in case something goes wrong)

Also try: Raw File System > PhotoData > Metadata > PhotoStreamsData > XXXXXX(numbers) > 100APPLE > IMG files

After months of searching and trying, this worked for me. My Photos & Camera now show a reasonable 80MB. Good luck!

I had the same situation, resetting date/time or iphone didn't work for me. Nothing else shows up in recently deleted folders no matter what I do. Itunes, iexplorer, image capture all show 0 photos. And iFunBox showed 0 photos in Camera folders. Then I searched thoroughly and found image-like files in Raw File System, which after deleting freed up 1.5GB finally!

I have an iPhone 5S, iOS9.0.2

Try this:

Connect iPhone to Mac > open iFunBox

From the left side panel > Raw File System > PhotoData > Metadata > DCIM > 100APPLE > lots of image files something like IMG1234.XXXXX.Altpath

I went down the list from 100APPLE to 108APPLE and deleted the IMG files only without deleting the holding APPLE folder (just in case something goes wrong)

Also try: Raw File System > PhotoData > Metadata > PhotoStreamsData > XXXXXX(numbers) > 100APPLE > IMG files

After months of searching and trying, this worked for me. My Photos & Camera now show a reasonable 80MB. Good luck!

I used iFunbox also to delete the phantom pictures from my phone and gain more storage. I tried to manually change the date, as someone else suggested, but there is no way to do it in the latest IOS version. I have only 16G on my iphone so storage is a premium. the iFunbox is free to download and worked immediately. Get into the App browsing tab, and select camera. Then, Select all of the pictures and press delete. It really worked. Then I went back to iTunes on my desktop and re-synced the iphone. I regained 5 gig of memory (which is a LOT for a 16 gig phone)

Apple's strategy is to get people to pay for storage using any trick in the book they can come up with. Storage costs nothing, but Apple tries to lock in people to buying more storage by hamstringing even easy functions like "Delete". It's all to get you to cave in to either buying more storage or render your existing devices "full" so you have to buy another Apple device. It's a scam. Lucky for you/us, you found this forum and I can tell you that a recent upgrade to iOS does now allow "Delete All" in "Recently Deleted" photo album. As long as you can get your unwanted photos into "Recently Deleted" you will be ok, but yes, even that is time-consuming and meant to frustrate you so that you have to buy more worthless storage or buy more devices. The best/only way to get photos to "Recently Decently" status is through bulk "Moments" "Select All" and then delete, but yes, you have to go to each "Moments" collection to do this. There's probably an average of 5 photos to 30 photos in each of my "Moments" so at least there is an efficiency factor of 5X to 30X on the deletion action so yes, less clicks to delete, but still no "Delete All" in "Moments".

Thank You

The constant adjustment to new software is waring me down i'd have to say. Especially since it seems only crap is added and the basic essentials are hidden or completely removed. I get on my device or computer everyday to put IT to work, it's my livelihood. Why the F@&%!! does it put ME to work instead? Lets get back to the basics PLEASE!!!!!!

Had the same problem. I had 15G of photos/videos and backed up on google photos and tried to free up the space.

1. No photos from Camera Roll

2. No photos from Recently deleted

3. No photos on Photostream

4. No photos on iCloud photo library

Still, from my iPhone it showed the 15G still piled up in my phone and I couldn't delete them anywhere, on iTunes they were showed as "Other." Tried to set back the date and switch on/off on iCloud photo library, didn't work.

In the end I backed up all setting (takes up 1.5G) accept for Photo Library on iCloud (switch it off in General -> Usage -> iCloud Manage storage -> Backups -> turn off Photo Library) and reset my iPhone and got all space back with other stuff just like before.

I spent exactly one hour figuring out that turning off all forms of icloud photo storage did the trick for me. Once turned off, I restarted the phone. I even changed the date and time twice before turning icloud photo storage back on. Afterwards my 11G were back.

to.GoldyLiang Thanks your solution solved my problem. "Setting the time did not work for me. But after I turned off all iCloud photo settings, like icloud photo , photo stream, and especially iCloud photo sharing" It then emptied my phone and i could sync it again with iTunes.

Hi ,

I had the same issue with my iPhone 6 . ls follow the below process

Go to Settings - iCloud-Photos-Switch off upload Poto stream & iCloud photo sharing .

This will solve your problem

Regards

Jith

I had same problem .... no photos still photos holding up space on my device here is the solution

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8281

Its because of new update on iPhone, Old photos don't get delete by it self you have to delete them manually.