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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

Apr 23, 2015 7:15 PM in response to gerryfromwatchet

I have the same issue but all my photos duplicated themselves and i can't get my phone or macbook to sync because my iCloud is not full because i have duplicate photos and videos. I went thru on iCloud.com on a computer and deleted all 600+ duplicated photos which freed up a bunch of room until my phone and mac book synced last night !!!! Now I have duplicate photos and don't know how to delete it on my macbook thru iCloud.com

Apr 23, 2015 11:57 PM in response to carrie_dyer

As for the duplicate "Gemini" by MacPaw (http://macpaw.com/) used to be the best way to get rid of them in iPhoto, but for the moment it does not support the new Photos app (i hope they will fix it soon). If you don't want to wait try "Duplicate Annihilator for Photos" by Brattoo Propaganda Software (http://brattoo.com/). It is not as good as Gemini since it only marks duplicates in comment of a photo but not deletes it (as Gemini does).


BUT neither of the two apps solves the problem with ghost photo folders in iCloud unfortunately. Maybe MacPaw will solve that in CleanMyMac 3 in the near future, who knows...

Apr 26, 2015 5:14 AM in response to gerryfromwatchet

Same problem here. However, I somehow did manage to delete one of the 8 ghost albums I have in the Photos app on iCloud. First I deleted all the photos from the album in the iCloud app. After that, the album appeared in my OS X Photos app. Then I was able to delete that one. One down, seven to go. Too bad this trick doesn't work for the other albums.


So Apple just have to give us a delete button on iCloud.com for albums. Or just get the syncing to work as it should.


Justin

Apr 27, 2015 1:53 AM in response to iErokh

Last year I had the widely know problem with logic board failure with my MacBook Pro. Because the Apple store wouldn't help other than charging me for a new logic board, I wrote an email to Tim Cook. Frankly, the day after I got a call from Apple assuring me there was a replacement program in in the make and releasing in the near future. And it is fixed now.


To the point, back then a lot of other people did the same and I think it helped to speed up the process. So if the issue with the ghost albums persist, just send an email to Tim. And always give feedback (https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html. Apple actually does something with that.


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how do i delete empty photo albums from icloud.com

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