How do I delete multiple photos in Photos?

Question

How do I delete multiple photos in Photos?

This program is driving me nuts!

1) I want to delete a whole bunch of photos. But it will only let me delete one at a time. This would take hours. I try selecting several and then delete and it just beeps at me. There MUST be a way to do this or it is a serious bug.

2) When I import all new photos from my iPhone, I get more than I want to keep. I edit the imported photos after importing by deleting the ones I don't want in my computer. Then next time I plug in my phone, it shows all those I deleted as not imported. I don't want to import them again and I don't want to have to see then as new every time. What is the solution to this?

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2), null

Posted on Jun 29, 2016 6:03 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Jun 29, 2016 6:20 PM in response to Marty Roberts

1 - Very simple - select the photos you want to delete and right click - select delete "n" photos -- Or hold down the command key and press the delete key

2 - select the ones you want to import and click on import selected

LN

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Answer 2

Jun 30, 2016 9:15 AM in response to LarryHN

Thank you! Control click worked. That certainly isn't intuitive though and how would someone know? I don't understand why you can't just select the ones you want to delete and click delete.

2 - I know I can elect the ones I want to import, but I really don't want to scroll through hundreds of photos to find them. I guess I am going to have to say delete from phone the second time they appear. That might work.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

195,123 points

Jun 30, 2016 9:15 AM in response to Marty Roberts

You can delete all selected photos using the key combination command-delete, as Larry said. ctrl-clicking is not necessary. Did that not work?

the import panel is showing all photos as new, that are not in your photos library.but the import panel is usually sorted by date, so you should be able to find all recent photos in one place.

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Answer 4

Jun 30, 2016 9:15 AM in response to léonie

Yes thanks. I figured out what do do. I can choose to import all and have the delete from camera box clicked. then delete them all from the computer. Multiple steps but does the job.

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Answer 5

léonie

Level 10

195,123 points

Jul 1, 2016 9:25 AM in response to Marty Roberts

Yes thanks. I figured out what do do. I can choose to import all and have the delete from camera box clicked.

The "delete after import" option is risky. The problem is, that the photos will be deleted immediately, sight unseen, before you check them if they have been imported correctly. This option has been the cause for many lost photos.

I would import the new photos, check them if they all can be displayed enlarged, and the delete them in the camera.

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