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how do i delete empty photo albums from icloud.com

Old (legacy) photo albums, many of them empty a still visible at icloud.com. I cannot see them on my mac or ios devices.

I have just moved from iPhoto to the new photos app and I am running le latest ios and Yosemite.

Posted on Apr 15, 2015 6:44 AM

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Posted on Apr 28, 2017 1:32 PM

I figured it out!


  1. Close the sidebar using the "Close Sidebar" button near the top left.
  2. Two new buttons will appear at the top center of the page, "Photos" and "Albums". Click on "Albums".
  3. Select the album you want to delete.
  4. Press the trash can button at the top right!


So the trash can that's specifically for deleting albums only appears when you're looking at your collection of albums on the main screen.


There's also another way to do this without closing the sidebar (I just found out).


  1. On the sidebar, the first item should be "Photos". Below it should be "Albums" (in smaller font). Click on "Albums".
  2. Now the main screen should display your albums. Select the one you want to delete.
  3. Trash it with the trash can button in the top right.


It's not exactly obvious, so I think they should add a trash can icon next to each album in the sidebar. *shrug

57 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Apr 28, 2017 1:32 PM in response to gerryfromwatchet

I figured it out!


  1. Close the sidebar using the "Close Sidebar" button near the top left.
  2. Two new buttons will appear at the top center of the page, "Photos" and "Albums". Click on "Albums".
  3. Select the album you want to delete.
  4. Press the trash can button at the top right!


So the trash can that's specifically for deleting albums only appears when you're looking at your collection of albums on the main screen.


There's also another way to do this without closing the sidebar (I just found out).


  1. On the sidebar, the first item should be "Photos". Below it should be "Albums" (in smaller font). Click on "Albums".
  2. Now the main screen should display your albums. Select the one you want to delete.
  3. Trash it with the trash can button in the top right.


It's not exactly obvious, so I think they should add a trash can icon next to each album in the sidebar. *shrug

Mar 18, 2017 3:03 PM in response to gerryfromwatchet

not sure if its the same issue but i may have solved this.. log in to icloud.com and when you go to your photos, click on "albums" in the left-hand sidebar. when you do that the ghost albums should appear on the right side just like pictures, and the trashcan emblem becomes enabled so you can delete them. my ghost albums are gone.. the option is hidden in plain sight looks like a label or a header rather than a menu option doesnt it lol

Sep 10, 2017 8:55 AM in response to gerryfromwatchet

Hello everybody,

I don't know if anybody is still visiting this question, but I solved it.

check this out:

1 - go to you photos in icloud.com

2 - on the left you see sidebar that has multiple rows. Row #1 is called photos, row #2 album which is a folder with subfolders = your photo albums

3 - click on the row #2 that and now on the right (where you had your album opened a saw your photos) you should see those albums in an icon view

4 - simply click on any album you wish to delete and then on to top click on the trash can as you would to delete a photo


I worked for me. Hope it will for you.

m8

Apr 15, 2015 8:30 AM in response to gerryfromwatchet

gerryfromwatchet wrote:


Old (legacy) photo albums, many of them empty a still visible at icloud.com. I cannot see them on my mac or ios devices.

I have just moved from iPhoto to the new photos app and I am running le latest ios and Yosemite.


A lot of users (including me) have this exact problem too!


You can't see them on iOS, but if you search on searching field, they appear on results? And on the app Photos (Yosemite), they appear testing by the same method?

Apr 16, 2015 8:04 PM in response to gerryfromwatchet

I had this problem too but I was able to solve it.


When I first opened the new Photos app on Yosemite, I did not convert my previous Aperture library. I started with a new empty one.

In Photos Preferences -> iCloud, I checked to box to use the iCloud Photo Library and selected "Download Originals to this Mac."


After a short wait, Photos began to download everything I had in iCloud.com Photos, which at this point was only empty albums and folders.

When downloading had completed and my Mac and iCloud.com were synced up, I deleted the empty albums and folders on my Mac.

Shortly after that, they were all gone from iCloud.com.

Apr 17, 2015 8:38 AM in response to gerryfromwatchet

Try importing a few photos into your new Photos library on your Mac and then wait for them to upload to iCloud.com. Maybe even let it sit overnight. It will eventually work. After the uploads complete, the downloads will begin almost right away. If you scroll down to the bottom of your iCloud.com Photos page, you will see the status of your uploads/downloads progress.

Apr 21, 2015 7:04 AM in response to gerryfromwatchet

48 hours is way too long. It should begin almost right away. I'm trying to think of what I may have done differently. Just before I connected OS X Photos with iCloud Photos I logged out of my iCloud account on my Mac and then logged back in again. My Messages app was giving me trouble and that solved the problem.


I don't use My Photo Stream on any of my devices. I tried it once but it just made a big mess and it did not fit in with my workflow.

how do i delete empty photo albums from icloud.com

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