Delete photos from iPhone after import - Photos

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.

How can I managed the pictures on multiple devices using iCloud if it either keeps putting them back or deleting them from every device????

Don't use iCloud Photo library if you want to manage photos individually on the devices.

iCloud Photo Library is a very convenient tool to have the photo libraries identical on all devices. You keep one library in iCloud and all your devices will mirror this library and update accordingly.

• If you add photos on one device, they will appear on all devices.
• If you delete photos on one device, they will be deleted everywhere.
• If you edit a photo on one device, the edits will sync to all devices.

It is perfect, if you want to have the same library everywhere. But if you want different libraries on each of your devices and use want to transfer some photos between them, do not use iCloud Photo Library. Sync your photos with iTunes to your devices.

"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 have to say, this makes it very difficult to delete photos from my phone. I have to select them 24 at a time on my phone - not on Photos or Image Capture - and then delete them in batches.

I take a lot of photos and my phone is always getting full. I don't know how to take the SD card out & I'm afraid I'd break it if I tried, so I really need to be able to batch import & then delete photos like I used to be able to with iPhoto.

I have to select them 24 at a time on my phone - not on Photos or Image Capture - and then delete them in batches.

Why only 24? You can select hundreds of photos at a time on the iPhone. If click select, then tap the first photo and swipe the finger up across all further photos and hold down on them at the upper border of the display, the photos will scroll to enlarge the selection. It is easy to select hundreds of photos this way in the all Photos album, then click the Trash button. I would not put more then 500 photos into the recently deleted album at once, however. On my iPhone the recently Deleted album will not "delete all"; if there are more than 1000 photos so in it.

I don't know if anyone is still checking this but in the latest version of 'Photos' it seems that the 'delete photos after import' checkbox isn't always there.

I've worked out that if you quit and re-open photos the checkbox appears again... Really annoying but it's a work-around

T

Jim in Dallas wrote:

I Don't have that option in iPhoto...

OKs - since this is the Photos Mac forum and has nothing to do with iPhoto what exactly is the point? - if you have iPhoto questions you need to post them in the iLife ==> iPhoto for Mac forum to get valid answers - Photos is a totally different program with totally different features and workflows

LN

what version of the OS and of Photos do you have? - what version of IOD on each iPhone?

Is this about the iPhone or about tPhotos for the Mac when you connect the iPhone?

And what are your iCloud settings on the iPhones? The most likely reason is that you have iCloud Photo Library turned on on the 5 and not on the 5S - but that is only a guess given incomplete information

LN

I have a similar issue, in a way. The "Delete items after import" does nothing when checked.

I'm importing the photos from the SD card without having it checked the first time,

I delete in the photos application the ones that I don't want (out of focus etc) and then,

when I close and re-open the application, I'm prompted to import only the ones that I deleted.

So I do that, this time with the tick box checked because I want to delete them from the SD card too.

After the previously deleted photos are imported again, I delete all of them once more hoping that this time they were also deleted from the SD card too (the "delete items after import" was checked this time).

Closing and re-opening the Photos application still prompts me to re-import the deleted photos as it did not delete them from the SD card!!

Mac OS X Sierra, 10.12.3

Photos Version 2.0 (3130.0.240)

I didn't think that unlocking my phone before connecting it to my computer would be the solution. It is so frustrating to delete the photos after they've been imported. Will try to find a quick fix to this now. Thank you for this tip.

@mthq- I agree with you. Apple doesn't need to make this complicated or difficult to delete photos after you have imported them. I followed Old Toad's instructions and there is no option to "delete items after import". There is nothing that comes up do delete after you import the photos. Unless I am missing something, there is no keyboard trick or nothing listed under any of the menu items. In iPhoto, there was an option to delete photos after importing them. I think there was reminder that came up asking if you wanted to delete them.

I have an iPhone 6s plus. I have a Mac Mini running El Capitan and Photos 1.5 version. Yes, I am using iCloud and every aspect of it including storing my Photos in the cloud. I understand the taking pictures and videos consume a lot of space on a phone which reduces the amount of free space.

I use my phone to take pictures like everyone else does. Yes, I do send and receive text messages with pictures. The phone is great but lack of space is not great. I use my phone take and send pictures and I have a lot of Apps on it too. The typical and logical answer is, spend more money to buy a 32 or 64gb phone. For the most part, I agree with that solution. However, I don't have the money to buy the latest and greatest phone with the extra space.

I wish there was a better way to manage photos on the phone after I import them. Nothing seems to be easy with Apple. Don't get me wrong, I like Apple and I use Apple products. I don't want to change any settings in iCloud or my phone, just to achieve the end result and that is to delete photos. Once I import, Photos should give the choice to delete or keep photos on the phone.

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.

I have read all of this thread and I'm still not satisfied with the answers given.

I was also not aware of the above mentioned fact that by enabling iCloud the option to remove the pictures from the iPhone after they have been transferred was not available.

Recently I came back from a trip and decided to transfer ALL the photos off my iPhone and I too was looking for this option. So after the transfer was complete and I could not see any other way I went into the phone and started deleting ALL the pictures manually to make space on the phone.

I had to do this manually and since I have 128G memory and a lot of pictures it took a long time.

Finally I managed to get them all deleted and went on with my life.

The next day when I went into my MACBOOK to look at the pictures they were also GONE ALL of the pictures I had deleted from the iPhone were also deleted from the MAC!!!!

As mentioned they were luckily still in the recently deleted folder, BUT THIS IS INSANE!

How can I managed the pictures on multiple devices using iCloud if it either keeps putting them back or deleting them from every device????

Sorry but I have never had so much trouble from any photo management software as I have had with iCloud and it's interaction between accounts and devices??

I repeat this is an insane system.

What I have - and it can be a pain - is two separate Photos libraries on my iMac. One has my complete photo collection (a bit over 75,000 photos over the years). The other is the one that I set up to be my "system" library - the one that is connected to iCloud Photo Library. That is the one I use to decide what photos/videos I wish to have remain on the various devices/computers that are connected via ICPL (two iPhones, two iPads and two iMacs). The ones I wish to keep permanently I move from one library to my "main" library, so I always have a copy of everything I want to keep.

Yes, it seems a bit of a PITA to not be able to use the "delete after import", but the basic reason is THAT IS NOT WHAT ICLOUD PHOTO LIBRARY WAS DESIGNED FOR. It was intended to keep ALL your photos/videos available on all your connected computers and iOS devices. Hence the only way to have different versions of your Photos library on different devices IS NOT TO USE ICLOUD PHOTO LIBRARY.

Having said that, I believe - have not done my transfers from my iOS devices to my iMac in a while - you can turn off ICPL and then do the transfers of the photos you wish to keep using iTunes sync. Then you should be allowed to delete the ones from your iPhone permanently.

Having said that, I believe - have not done my transfers from my iOS devices to my iMac in a while - you can turn off ICPL and then do the transfers of the photos you wish to keep using iTunes sync. Then you should be allowed to delete the ones from your iPhone permanently.

I'm using iTunes Photo sync for my iPad with iOS 9.3.5, there it is still working well. All folders and albums are synced.

For my iPhone with iOS 10.3.3 I have been forced to abandon iTunes photo sync. Since I updated the iPhone to iOS 10.2, iTunes did no longer syncing the albums and smart albums, only the photos. With iCloud Photo Library I can at least sync the folders and standard albums, but it is a pain to have to duplicate all smart albums as standard albums to sync them to the iPhone.

I am using the same approach as you - keeping a smaller Photos library with only the favorites to sync between my devices with iCloud and an archive of older libraries with all photos on an external drive (and a backup copy of this drive).