i deselected "Sync Photos" in i tunes but the photos are still on my i phone, how can I delete them?

Photos can be in several places on the phone. If you deselect Sync Photos, then sync the phone, this will remove photos in the Photos app. Photos in the Camera Roll will remain on the phone until you copy them to your computer as you would with any digital camera (see: Import photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Mac or Windows PC - Apple Support)

I have the same problem and it's really irritating!! To take advantage of the extra 32GB in my new iPhone 6, I sync'ed all pictures in my Mac to my phone. Months later, I wanted more space and changed the setting from "All pictures" back to "Recent 12 months." The calculated free space was correct. But after I pressed "Apply" and the sync process finished, the free space was back to what it was. iTunes could not delete the deselected pictures on my phone. I even tried not sync'ing pictures at all but the result is the same.

I upgraded my PC from iMac to the latest model of Mac mini. Not sure if this confuses iTunes. The OS is the latest version.

My last resort is to erase all contents in my phone and restore it from a backup file, but it's a very painful and lengthy process.

+1

I have entirely deselected 'sync photos' but I have a residual "Last 12 months" containing "2207 Photos From My Mac".

I've disabled iCloud Photo Library.

I've disabled My Photo Stream

I've disabled iCloud Photo Sharing

Yet these continue to consume a few gig I'd rather reclaim.

In the end, I had to re-enable "Sync Photos" in iTunes, sync the device... Then, disable "Sync Photos" once more, and re-sync the device.

Voila! Persistent photos begone!