Delete photos from iPhone after import - Photos

"Delete after import" is still there on Yosemite and on newer system, provided you do not use iCloud Photo Library on the iPhone. If your iPhone is storing the photos in iCloud, trying to import via a USB connection and trying to delete phots from the iPhone, that are actually stored in iCloud and are only mirrored on the iPhone will just create a mess.

• You cannot import the photos using USB, if the iPhone is holding only optimized, smaller previews. Then you will only import random photos, that are currently stored in a full resolution.
• And if you import a few photos and try to delete after import from the iPhone, the deletion would sync back to iCloud and the Mac and then delete the just imported photos from the Mac as well.

With iCloud Photo Library enabled on the iPhone, use only iCloud to transfer the photos, and delete only photos from the iPhone, that you want to delete everywhere, on all devices.

I realised that if one turns off iCloud Photo Library on an iPhone or iPad the option of deleting photos after import shows up.

Delete after import is tempting, but very risky, see: The Drawbacks of "Delete After Import"

You may be deleting the only copies of your photos, if you do not wait until you checked, if the import went well.

You can erase photos from the Phone with Image Capture (in the Applications Folder).

You are right. This does work. Thank you. I realised that if one turns off iCloud Photo Library on an iPhone or iPad the option of deleting photos after import shows up.

Setting > Photos > iCloud Photo Library. I turned it off and it worked.

Saw this thread come up to the top again, so figured I would mention something. I have been seriously involved with photography for almost 50 years and with digital since the Sony Mavica that used floppy disks (remember those) for its storage.

I see a lot of posts here about having the Photos app delete the photos from your memory card after the photos are imported. THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! I realize it is convenient, but it can cause problems between your camera and the SD card. People discovered this when using an external reader attached to their computer to either erase or format the memory cards. (If you don't want to take my word for it, check out the numerous digital camera forums and do a search for deleting/formatting memory cards - it is never advised to do it in any computer.) You should ALWAYS do either your deletions of photos or re-formatting of the memory card (if you wish to erase the entire card's contents) IN YOUR CAMERA. And if you have two cameras and wish to switch the SD card from one to the other ALWAYS REFORMAT IT in the camera you plan on putting it into.

This option does not exist in Photos on the Mac in macOS Sierra. It used to exist. Not sure what Apple is doing here but this is annoying. It's becoming more unusable. I think they are trying to force one to buy more iCloud storage but I want to download my photos offline.

In Yosemite, the current version of iPhoto NO LONGER has the "delete items after import". Hence the phone is now out of space. We had assumed photostream replaced this function.

I already did that ANd it works, however, will there be a possibility that it can retrieve back? I deleted some of my custom stickers logo for my business that needs to be reprinted who that be possible?

Photos you delete using Photos go to the recently deleted for 30 days and then they are gone - you need to get them from the recently deleted album or restore a backup from there they were there or use file recovery software like File Salvage

LN

It appears Apple made a greedy move here, so they could make more money, by removing the "delete photos after import" option in the Photos app, making it so that users would have to pay a monthly fee for iCloud storage. You can't even delete any photos off your phone anymore from the photos app. :/

It appears Apple made a greedy move here, so they could make more money, by removing the "delete photos after import" option in the Photos app, making it so that users would have to pay a monthly fee for iCloud storage.

Hate to ruin a good conspiracy theory...how can iCloud come in to play when discussing a dialog related to importing photos directly from a memory card to a Mac with no cloud involvement? Your theory makes no sense unless Apple also made SD cards. But I digress...

I believe the reason for removing this dialog would have been to keep people from causing themselves harm. I have not seen any "where are my photos..." or "best memory card recovery software" questions in some time.

To automatically remove photos from the only source for your valuable photos makes no sense. No wise photographer does this. Memory cards and device memory should be formatted within the device/camera itself before re-use, not erased by an operating system.

You can't even delete any photos off your phone anymore from the photos app. :/

Now you're just making stuff up.

Sorry I should have been more specific (were not all Pros at this Level 6, just everyday peeps trying to figure out all of this perfectly created, seamless software ): "You can't even delete any photos off your phone anymore from the Mac OSX Photos app." That was the easiest way for me to mass delete photos from my phone, that I was aware of. Now everyday I get the stupid your 50GB of iCloud storage is full on my iphone, and 99% of it is photos. That is why I mention iCloud in this message board thread - I came across the thread from google since I'm now trying to resolve this new issue. I have no idea how to easily mass delete those photos out of iCloud so I can stop getting that message. I try and do it from icloud on the website, but I get this message that it will delete the photo across all of my devices. Screenshot: https://d.pr/i/ETMKQx . So... will that delete photos from my Mac device as well? I hope not, I want to dump all photos there in the Mac Photos app and never have them deleted.

The "delete photos after import" check box wasn't auto selected, and it was very clear what it would do, plus there was an extra dialog to make sure thats what you wanted to do. Plus we have iCloud where the photo can also be found. But I'm no photographer. Plus I want the Mac Photos app to be the source of all my photos, not my phone which I'm more likely to lose.

Maybe you can help me out. I want iCloud take all my photos across all my devices and auto move them to the Photos app on my Mac computer. Plus I don't want every single photo I have to live in the cloud, and I don't really care to have them across all my devices. Once iCloud storage gets full, or device storage get full, then it can just delete the oldest files. If it can tell the photo isn't on my mac yet, then it can message me if it needs to sync to the Mac before it deletes the photo from the cloud. I'd rather have that message bother me on my phone. Not a daily message thats trying to get more money out of me.

Maybe you can help me out. I want iCloud take all my photos across all my devices and auto move them to the Photos app on my Mac computer. Plus I don't want every single photo I have to live in the cloud, and I don't really care to have them across all my devices. Once iCloud storage gets full, or device storage get full, then it can just delete the oldest files. If it can tell the photo isn't on my mac yet, then it can message me if it needs to sync to the Mac before it deletes the photo from the cloud. I'd rather have that message bother me on my phone. Not a daily message thats trying to get more money out of me.

That is what you want but it is not an option - you can either use iCloud Photo Library and have everything always up to date on all computers and IOS devices - of you can not use it and not always have everything up to date - your choice

If you do not want everything always up to date you can use MyPhotoStream to move all new photos to your mac and IOS devices with no future updating or you can connect teh IOS devices via usB and manually sync the desired photos

For me $120 per year is a very reasonable price to have all of my photos everyplace and have them automatically and seamlessly updated - if you do not think so then there are other ways to operate including the above form Apple and other offerings from other vendors

LN

Plus I don't want every single photo I have to live in the cloud, and I don't really care to have them across all my devices. Once iCloud storage gets full, or device storage get full, then it can just delete the oldest files. If it can tell the photo isn't on my mac yet, then it can message me if it needs to sync to the Mac before it deletes the photo from the cloud. I'd rather have that message bother me on my phone. Not a daily message thats trying to get more money out of me.

Then you need a different solution than iCloud. It does none of that.

I can't seem to ever bring up the "Delete photos after import" option with checkbox no matter what I do, clicking on my iPhone in the sidebar does not do anything...? Thanks so much for support!