Damn Apple!!!! How to delete photos synced through iTunes?

[Piggie]

I'm struggling to see why it's being made to sound so complicated.

You have a library of photo's and one or ten devices that sync together.

All devices have the same photo's on them.

If you delete a photo from any one of the devices, and then sync then that one photo gets deleted from any other device attached during the sync.

If you don't want the photo, then you don't want the photo.

It would be like contacts, you add a new contact to one device, she's your new girlfriend.

When you attach ANY or ALL of your other devices, then her details gets added to any devices attached during that sync process.

If you split up and don't want her on your contact list any more, you delete here details from whatever device you are using at the time, and then, during the next sync her details are removed from any devices connected at that time.

If you do have multiple devices, then of course you will need to at some stage give them all at least one sync to bring them into line with each other.

It seems simple, I can't see why this is complicated at all.

Or course, in an ideal world devices would sync without wires, so if you deleted her details from one device then all your other devices would update themselves to match instantly.

Why is this complicated? Isn't it easy to have all devices with that same data in sync with each other?

 

[Night Spring]

If you don't want the photo, then you don't want the photo.

That's just not true. You could very well not want a photo on one device, but still want to keep it as part of your permanent collection. Take the case of the OP of this thread. He wanted to delete a picture that got mixed into the wrong folder, but he likely didn't want to delete it off his main computer.

Now address book, yes, if you delete a contact off one device, you want it deleted off all your devices. It's a much simpler sync scenario, which is probably why iOS does offer two-way address book syncing, but not two-way photo syncing.

 

[GnillGnoll]

Now address book, yes, if you delete a contact off one device, you want it deleted off all your devices. It's a much simpler sync scenario, which is probably why iOS does offer two-way address book syncing, but not two-way photo syncing.

Sometimes you might actually want to delete a contact just temporarily on one device...

On the whole I don't think contact syncing is really easier, but it's a problem Apple already solved. The obvious solution to avoid data loss is to ask the user.

 

[Piggie]

That's just not true. You could very well not want a photo on one device, but still want to keep it as part of your permanent collection. Take the case of the OP of this thread. He wanted to delete a picture that got mixed into the wrong folder, but he likely didn't want to delete it off his main computer.

Now address book, yes, if you delete a contact off one device, you want it deleted off all your devices. It's a much simpler sync scenario, which is probably why iOS does offer two-way address book syncing, but not two-way photo syncing.

Ok, well, I will admit.

When I think of the scenario I explained in my previous post, I am thinking that your MAIN collection, your BACKUP, your REAL LONG TERM STORE of photo's is not in the same location as your "Working photos"

You would have your main storage area that holds every photo you have taken, even the ones you are not using in another place, on another drive, in another directory.

You would only move the photo's you want to look at/use in a day to day basis into this SYNC storage area.

Like for me. I have my main images, scans, hi-res photo's, tons of historical photo's in one place, like a main storage.

Same for music and video.

I'd imagine many people don't have their REAL FULL video/music/photo collection to sync onto their iPad

This would make the iPad the same as a NAS device that hold all you own.

Not practical. I've got more than 64GB of music before I even look at Photos and Video's!

 

[MacDawg]

Ok, well, I will admit.

When I think of the scenario I explained in my previous post, I am thinking that your MAIN collection, your BACKUP, your REAL LONG TERM STORE of photo's is not in the same location as your "Working photos"

You would have your main storage area that holds every photo you have taken, even the ones you are not using in another place, on another drive, in another directory.

You would only move the photo's you want to look at/use in a day to day basis into this SYNC storage area.

Like for me. I have my main images, scans, hi-res photo's, tons of historical photo's in one place, like a main storage.

Same for music and video.

I'd imagine many people don't have their REAL FULL video/music/photo collection to sync onto their iPad

This would make the iPad the same as a NAS device that hold all you own.

Not practical. I've got more than 64GB of music before I even look at Photos and Video's!

The point is, not everyone's workflow is like yours (mine for one)
People are different and think differently
Apple chose a solution with minimal risk and simplified application for the majority of their consumers

 

[Piggie]

The point is, not everyone's workflow is like yours (mine for one)
People are different and think differently
Apple chose a solution with minimal risk and simplified application for the majority of their consumers

So you have all your Music, Video and Photo's in only 1 place and it's all set to Sync with the iPad when you dock ?

Your iPad contains your full collection of all the above?

Or do you select only parts of your full "data" collection to sync with the iPad?

 

[Night Spring]

I'd imagine many people don't have their REAL FULL video/music/photo collection to sync onto their iPad

This would make the iPad the same as a NAS device that hold all you own.

Not practical. I've got more than 64GB of music before I even look at Photos and Video's!

But the way iTunes is supposed to work, is that you put your entire media collection into iTunes, then you pick and choose which ones you want to sync to your iDevice(s). I"m not sure how iPhoto works on Macs, but in iTunes for Windows, syncing photos work on a similar principle. Generally, people store their pictures in My Pictures, and iTunes lets you pick and choose which subfolders in My Pictures you want to sync. Sure, you can point iTunes to a different folder than My Pictures, but the basic assumption behind the design is that people will have iTunes pointing to their main picture collection. Just because you don't trust iTunes to manage your media collection doesn't mean that Apple should design their software on the assumption that people won't trust it -- what kind of design and business philosphy would that be????

 

[MacDawg]

So you have all your Music, Video and Photo's in only 1 place and it's all set to Sync with the iPad when you dock ?

Your iPad contains your full collection of all the above?

Or do you select only parts of your full "data" collection to sync with the iPad?

I have all of my music in iTunes and all my pictures in iPhoto
I have a Time Machine backup and a Carbon Copy Clone
And I choose what to sync to my iPhone and my iPad separately in iTunes

 

[peled]

Why Sync. Why not simply copy.

Every one is talking about ways of syncing properly.
I say that Photos should behave in iTune as books.
You can copy into the iPAD and forget about it.

My ipad is full of magazines , books, and songs.
and my iTune Library is empty.

That is the way to og.
I never sync them.

 

[sactownbwoy]

That is one thing that annoyed me to no end about the ipad. Not being able to just plug it into a computer, create a folder and drop what ever I want into it. My Galaxy tab does just that. The video player recognizes the folders i created and so does the photo viewer. I am not turning this into a ipad vs the other guys, just saying that some of us who buy i devices would like to have more control and not have to use itunes for everything.

 

[jb007clone]

Wow. Two way syncing is very complicated, mainly because you have to consider all sorts of unusual situations. Two way syncing is not complicated for the simple situation you describe, but consider:

1. I delete one picture on device A, but not on B. When I sync, do I move the missing picture from B to A, or remove it from B and leave A alone?

2. OK, #1 was easy. Now I delete one picture (X) from B and a different picture (Y) from A. When syncing, do I: 1) delete X and Y from A and B; 2) move X from A to B and Y from B to A; 3) move X from A to B and leave A alone; 4) move Y from B to A and leave B alone?

3. Now I have three devices. I delete one picture from B, but not A or C. When I sync B and C, do I delete the picture from C? If so, then what if I delete a different picture from C, independently add a picture to A, then sync A and C. OK, C now has the new picture. Then I sync to B. What pictures do you want on B?

4. I delete one picture from A, a different one from B, a still different one from C. I add a picture to A, add a different on to B, and rearrange C. Now I sync A to C, then delete a picture from C but not A. Then I sync A to B, then sync B to C. Then I sync A to C. What pictures do you want on each device?

You can come up with unusual situations by yourself - give it a try! It's fun!.

True, for each situation, you can come up with a rule that covers it. But the difficulty is that the rules are complex (because, as we have seen above) the situation is complex. Thus the user becomes unsure what will happen to their pictures. This is true even for mega-ultra-power-tech-users like yourself.

Please explain email syncing and why it isn't a confusing problem? Or contacts? How come my mind doesn't explode when I delete contacts/email in Gmail on my iPhone and then check my computer and they're not there. Do you/does Apple think that people are so stupid that they wouldn't be able to understand this if it was applied to other files?

The concept of deleting something isn't new and yes accidents do happen, but guess what? Someone can open your mail/contacts and delete them, but two-way syncing is allowed there. Just take care of your device, put a password on it and you're good.