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Dennis Catt

Q: How can I safely delete photos and videos from an iDevice after import to Photos?

It seems that deleting photos and videos from an iDevice after import to Photos also deletes it from Photos.  I don't remember this being an issue with iPhoto.  How can a user safely delete photos and videos from an iDevice without it affecting their already imported photos and videos before deletion?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on May 12, 2015 7:23 PM

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Q: How can I safely delete photos and videos from an iDevice after import to Photos?

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  • by Dennis Catt,

    Dennis Catt Dennis Catt May 12, 2015 7:34 PM in response to Dennis Catt
    Level 1 (83 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 12, 2015 7:34 PM in response to Dennis Catt

    After playing around with this for a bit, I disabled all of the iCloud Photo Sharing options ad that seems to have done the trick.  I was able to delete photos and videos from an iDevice without it affecting what was already imported.  Now I have to figure out how to get rid of some media ghosts appearing in the Import view of Photos!

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc May 12, 2015 7:37 PM in response to Dennis Catt
    Level 6 (11,011 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 12, 2015 7:37 PM in response to Dennis Catt

    If you are using the iCloud Photo Library, this is the way it works.

     

    If you are not using iCloud Photo Library, you should be able to delete photos from the iOS devices once it is uploaded to the Photos application. Are you sure they are deleting from Photos? Check the main library. The All Photos Album is sorted by date added, so the last imports should be at the bottom of the list if they still exist. In the Photos Moments view, they will be sorted by the date of the photos.

  • by Dennis Catt,

    Dennis Catt Dennis Catt May 12, 2015 7:53 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 1 (83 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 12, 2015 7:53 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    Yes, I watched them disappear before my eyes.  I then used the recovery feature on the iDevice to get them back and start the whole process over again.  It's kind of confusing to have an import feature in Photos enabled if the iCloud Photo Sharing feature is a more auto-sync thing.  Apple should do a better job with the UI/UX in this case!

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc May 12, 2015 8:06 PM in response to Dennis Catt
    Level 6 (11,011 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 12, 2015 8:06 PM in response to Dennis Catt

    I'm not sure what you are meaning here. The iCloud Photo Sharing has nothing to do with the actual Photos library.

     

    If you are referring to a shared album, you have to manually import the photos from the shared album to the Photos application. Once you verify that they appear in the Library, then you can remove them from the shared album.

     

    If you are referring to PhotoStream. Deleting from the iOS device will remove them from PhotoStream, but should not delete them from the Photos Library once they are imported.

     

    So, I'm still not clear if you are referring to PhotoStream, Shared Albums, or if you are using the iCloud Photo Library.

     

    I'm not using the iCloud Photo Library. I have PhotoStream enabled.

    If I take a picture with my iPhone, it automatically goes to PhotoStream. Then it automatically imports to my Photos Library. If I then delete the photo from the iPhone camera roll, it deletes it from the camera roll and PhotoStream, but it remains in my Photos Library.

  • by Dennis Catt,

    Dennis Catt Dennis Catt May 12, 2015 8:16 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 1 (83 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 12, 2015 8:16 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    So I'm talking about the Photos tabview in Photos.  I had imported some photos and videos from my iDevice.  I then proceeded to delete the form the iDevice and saw the media from Photos tabview disappear.  I understand the PhotoStream bit since I remember mucking with that even for iPhoto and it was also confusing to deal with in relation to maintenance of your photo library.  And actually, from what you said above was how iPhoto would behave.  Anyways, I disabled any of the photo sharing features and I think I'm good to go now.  If I had gobs of storage on the iDevice, I'd probably utilize the feature, but got to save that space for taking more photos and videos, etc...

  • by gail from maine,

    gail from maine gail from maine May 12, 2015 8:18 PM in response to Dennis Catt
    Level 7 (25,645 points)
    iCloud
    May 12, 2015 8:18 PM in response to Dennis Catt

    You may want to take a look at this FAQs link for iCloud Photo Library:

     

    iCloud Photo Library FAQ - Apple Support

     

    Cheers,

     

    GB

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc May 12, 2015 8:39 PM in response to Dennis Catt
    Level 6 (11,011 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 12, 2015 8:39 PM in response to Dennis Catt

    Very sorry Dennis. I still can't connect to what you are saying.

    I don't know what a "Photos tabview in Photos" is.

    I still don't know if you have the iCloud Photo Library enabled.

    And I still don't understand if you disabled Photo Sharing, PhotoStream, or iCloud photo library. They are all different things as you can see in this image:

    Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 10.36.16 PM.png

  • by gail from maine,

    gail from maine gail from maine May 12, 2015 9:17 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 7 (25,645 points)
    iCloud
    May 12, 2015 9:17 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    The OP is using iCloud Photo Library, which uses the Photos app on Yosemite.

     

    Cheers,

     

    GB

  • by R C-R,

    R C-R R C-R May 13, 2015 1:17 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 6 (17,633 points)
    May 13, 2015 1:17 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    Glenn Leblanc wrote:

    Very sorry Dennis. I still can't connect to what you are saying.

    I don't know what a "Photos tabview in Photos" is.

    I think he is talking about the Photos button at the top of the window that appears when the Sidebar is not visible:

    tabs.jpg

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc May 13, 2015 4:54 AM in response to R C-R
    Level 6 (11,011 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 13, 2015 4:54 AM in response to R C-R

    RC-R

    OK. I think I get the tabview now.

     

    Gail

    I think he is using the iCloud Photo Library, but he keeps referring to importing pictures from the iOS devices. You don't need to do any importing if you are using the iCloud Photo Library. It automatically syncs to all devices where it is enabled. So, I was confused.

     

    Dennis

    If you are using iCloud to store your photos, Gail gave you a good article. Here's another that is a bit more detail on using iCloud Photo Library. Especially read the part about optimizing your library on a device and how it automatically adjusts the library according to the space available on a device.

    http://www.imore.com/how-use-icloud-photo-library-ultimate-guide

  • by Dennis Catt,

    Dennis Catt Dennis Catt May 13, 2015 3:30 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 1 (83 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 13, 2015 3:30 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    Thanks to everyone for the advice and help... I'll give those articles a read and try to get my photo library in order.