How to delete pictures from iPhone SE

Question

Level 1

15 points

How to delete pictures from iPhone SE

July 2016

Computer: iMac running OSX 10.11.5 El Capitan

Phone: iPhone SE

Bought new iphone SE. Everything transferred correctly from old phone, via iCloud, but new phone's memory is almost full, and I need to delete about 300 photos.

I plugged the phone into my Mac with USB cord. The phone does NOT appear as a drive in Finder, as the phone vendor said it would.

I was able to import all the photos to the Mac both with Image Capture and with Preview, so the pictures are safe, but neither app shows any way to delete photos from the phone.

Both "Image Capture Help" and several third party articles say that there are buttons on the bottom of the Image Capture screen to "view the thumbnails as a list (List view button) or to see larger thumbnails (Thumbnail view button), or to rotate (Rotate button) or delete (Delete button) images."

NOT TRUE.

The other buttons appear, but not the "Delete" button.

I've used Preview for years, and it does not allow deletion of images.

So, How do I delete photos from my iPhone SE? Do I have to look at all of the 300 photos and delete each one individually?

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), iPhone SE

Posted on Jul 13, 2016 4:32 PM

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Answer 1

elcpu

Level 7

31,506 points

Jul 13, 2016 7:24 PM in response to greydog77

While you can do it directly from the iPhone by following the Apple article linked above, it will take time with 300 pictures to delete.

Connect your iPhone to your Mac, Open Image Capture, from the menu above click Edit > Select All. Click on the circle with the line across (see screenshot below). A drop down menu will then ask you if you are sure you want to delete all and just confirm.

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Answer 2

greydog77 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jul 15, 2016 7:02 PM in response to greydog77

I did figure out how to select and delete multiple photos at once on the phone, so the problem is solved.

But just for the record, here's what the Image Capture screen looks like on my iMac:

Note that the "Delete" button doesn't appear.

I don't know whether this is a change in El Capitan 10.11.5, or there's some setting somewhere that needs to be changed, but there's no delete button where your kind examples show it and the help text says it should be.

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Answer 3

Jul 13, 2016 4:44 PM in response to greydog77

You can delete multiple photos at one time right on the iPhone.

Instructions here > Delete photos on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

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Answer 4

elcpu

Level 7

31,506 points

Jul 15, 2016 7:22 PM in response to greydog77

Do you have iCloud Photo Library enabled on your iPhone? If so that may be the reason. If you no longer have photos on your phone disable iCPL, take one photo just to test and then open Image Capture again. See if Delete now appears.

btw, I am on El Cap 10.11.5 so that is not the reason.

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Answer 5

greydog77 Author

Level 1

15 points

Jul 16, 2016 11:08 PM in response to elcpu

Interesting.

I had left a few pictures behind when I deleted the majority of them by selecting and deleting on the phone.

I took 4 or 5 new pictures, just to see if there was any difference between pre-delete and post-delete pictures.

I turned off iCloud Photo Library on the phone, then plugged the phone in and opened Image Capture.

Mixed results:

On the on hand, the Delete button IS visible in Image Capture. (So you were right.)

On the other hand, while the phone shows up in Image Capture, none of the photos are visible at all, despite the fact the the phone is physically plugged into the iMac.

So, I can either see them but not delete them, or I can delete them but can't see them.

Overall, not very useful.

But thanks for your suggestion, which did do what you said it would do.

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Answer 6

elcpu

Level 7

31,506 points

Jul 17, 2016 7:50 AM in response to greydog77

So, I can either see them but not delete them, or I can delete them but can't see them.

That's a good one.... 🙂

If this issue persists you may have to restore as new as the backup from the old phone could have been corrupted transferring the issue to the SE. Restoring as new is a pain, I know.

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