Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

How to delete photos in an album with no option to delete

Bugeyeblue

Bugeyeblue

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 27, 2011
514
9
I have a photo album on my iphone that was added by my computer a while back to sync from my hard drive to the iphone. I then started using iCloud to back up instead of my computer or hard drive. Now I have no option to delete the album or the pictures in it either from the computer, iTunes or the iphone. Any ideas on how to get rid of that album? It's taking up too much room and I need the space for new pictures.
 
ive had this same problem but with only one foto inside an album.


i say ive had this problem because ive since tossed my iphone into the garbage.


all i can say is that ive researched, ive asked around (including here), and ive gone to great lengths to find a solution to this problem to no avail. you are searching for the eldorado here, and you wont find it.

ive ventured deep inside the jungles of the iphoto library in an attempt to find this pesky photo - which i did! - or thought i did... i manually deleted it. i also reset my phone several times, hoping iPhoto/itunes wouldnt put it back there... and they did. time and again.


i jailbroke my phone. learnt the ins and out of jailbreaking. asked even more questions specifically about this matter. i downloaded special photo management apps from cydia to deal with it.

all i could accomplish was moving the photo some place else. i hoped i would confuse itunes into putting it back into iphoto and then i could delete it there. but no... the photo would not go.


so i decided to get my hands dirty. i explored the depths of my phones file system myself. spent a whole afternoon only to discover that the photos are all compressed into some database. trying to find the one i wanted (or even its album!) was like trying to find a planet that hosts life amongst the stars.


i am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but apple does not want you to delete your phone's photos. its not new. and most often than not, they get their way.
 
Forget that garbage-post from Troneas... that's just crap.

It's quite simple: Albums are not supposed to be "edited", you sync them with your iTunes library, that's all. Albums have nothing to do with iCloud Sync, they are still locally synced with your MAC/PC.

So the solution would be to plug in your iPhone to your computer and sync your phone again and the album will be gone.
 
Just sync into iTunes and disable the option of synching photos with the pc .. It'll be done .. The above post is perfect .. But if u have a backup
, then yes all ur pics will be backed up .. But once u disable the option if syncing pics with the pc everything will be fine
 
no way to change sync settings in itunes

My itunes does not give me any options for doing anything with photos - I have no way to select which albums are synced or not synced. I'm pretty sure my iphone is syncing the photos with iphoto; however, I can't find a way to adjust what's being synced with that either.

I have no space left on my phone, but I can't move anything off.
 
rdiane1 said:
My itunes does not give me any options for doing anything with photos - I have no way to select which albums are synced or not synced. I'm pretty sure my iphone is syncing the photos with iphoto; however, I can't find a way to adjust what's being synced with that either.

I have no space left on my phone, but I can't move anything off.
Click to expand...

i just started using itunes to sync photos, as to never lose them from reloading OS's.

youre itunes was/still is syncing the photos. plug your iphone in, scoll over to the photos tab. either uncheck the box for syncing the photos or find which folder is syncing them and then go into that folder and delete the photo then resync. the only way to delete a picture that was synced from an folder on your computer through itunes sync, is to remove the pic from that synced album on the computer. end of story.
 
Plug in your phone to your Mac/PC, and at the top click photos, then uncheck "Sync photos from ...." And apply :p
 
but that's just it - there is no mention of photos at all on my Mac when I plug my phone in - there's nothing in itunes or iphoto to uncheck! I checked all the menus in both - nothing.
 
I've been there. If you no longer have the photos on your computer to un-sync, just email them to yourself or plug your phone into your computer and copy them or whatever method you'd use to get pictures on your computer. Then put it back in the spot you originally synced from. Then you'll be able to go into iTunes and unsync it.
 
dictoresno said:
i just started using itunes to sync photos, as to never lose them from reloading OS's.

youre itunes was/still is syncing the photos. plug your iphone in, scoll over to the photos tab. either uncheck the box for syncing the photos or find which folder is syncing them and then go into that folder and delete the photo then resync. the only way to delete a picture that was synced from an folder on your computer through itunes sync, is to remove the pic from that synced album on the computer. end of story.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. That's how it is done.
 
youre itunes was/still is syncing the photos. plug your iphone in, scoll over to the photos tab. either uncheck the box for syncing the photos or find which folder is syncing them and then go into that folder and delete the photo then resync. the only way to delete a picture that was synced from an folder on your computer through itunes sync, is to remove the pic from that synced album on the computer. end of story.
Click to expand...

"scoll over to the photos tab"

I've said this before, but THERE IS NO PHOTOS TAB!

"is to remove the pic from that synced album on the computer"

So I have to remove nearly 7 gigs of photos from my computer in order to get them off my phone? That makes no sense.
 
Pretty obvious no one is actually reading my posts before responding... there is no photos tab, there are no photos buttons to uncheck. Here's a screenshot. I'll also add a screenshot of the options available from the drop-down menu - no photo options at all.
 

Attachments

  • Screen shot 2013-08-10 at 9.52.50 AM.png
    Screen shot 2013-08-10 at 9.52.50 AM.png
    256 KB · Views: 1,379
  • Screen shot 2013-08-10 at 9.54.32 AM.png
    Screen shot 2013-08-10 at 9.54.32 AM.png
    55.3 KB · Views: 31,741
You're looking in the wrong place

Top right hand corner.

The exclamation point is showing on mine because my phone isn't on the same WiFi network.

Yours shouldn't have that.

You're looking through your iTunes library, not at your iPhone.

Screen%20Shot%202013-08-10%20at%209.07.41%20AM.png
 
Help

I have a different problem. I moved a folder of pictures from My Computer to my iphone 5 just by dragging them and there is no option anywhere to delete them. I have tried the syncing method through itunes but it doesn't work for me. I can't delete them individually either.
Anybody have this similar problem or have any knowledge on how to fix it?

Thanks.
 
There are two ways to delete photos from iPhone:
first,
Step 1
Click the "Photos" icon on your iPhone's home screen. The Photos icon has a yellow flower on it.
Step 2
Click your Camera Roll to view its contents.
Step 3
Click the "Share" button in the top corner of your iPhone's screen. The Share button looks like a rectangle with an arrow pointing out of it.
Step 4
Tap the thumbnail image for each of the photos you want to delete.
Step 5
Tap the "Delete" button to remove all of the selected photos from your iPhone's Camera Roll.
the other one
Step 1. connect your iPhone to the computer
Step 2. Choose Erase all data on device and click on it
Step 3. Start to delete photos from iPhone now
Step 4. Click “Done” and the wiping completed

Read more: http://www.*******************************/
 
Last edited:
How to delete photos in an album with no option to delete

Create a folder on desktop on your computer with nothing in it
Then sync your iPhone to your computer and select photos with the help of iPhone Data Eraser
After that press the box saying sync photos from - select the new folder from your desktop and click apply
A box will come up saying replace photos - click yes and it replaces your photo library and then voila, all you have is your normal camera roll with deleting all photos from iPhone!

(It will only replace photos from your photo library, not the pictures you've taken/ screen shot with your iPhone/ iPod)

Hope this helped!
 
Last edited:
Bugeyeblue said:
I have a photo album on my iphone that was added by my computer a while back to sync from my hard drive to the iphone. I then started using iCloud to back up instead of my computer or hard drive. Now I have no option to delete the album or the pictures in it either from the computer, iTunes or the iphone. Any ideas on how to get rid of that album? It's taking up too much room and I need the space for new pictures.
Click to expand...


have you managed to get rid of that album in the end?
 
delete photos

Because the photos are synced through iTunes, you can not delete them directly on iPhone/ iPad.

You can only delete them through iTunes.

Connect the iPhone with computer using cable, then launch iTunes, select the device, next click "Photos" tab.

Here select the folders, and uncheck "Sync photos from" to delete photos.

You have to find the iOS device in iTunes, then you can find the "Photos" tab.

Detailed guide : Delete Photos from iPhone/ iPad
 
Deleting photos

Somehow computer uploaded all photos to my iPhone 4s. I've done all the steps, unclicked sync photos and delete. That doesn't work. Gone into computer and portable device to try and manually delete they aren't in that folder but still on my phone and I can not delete manually directly from phone. Computer added over 2,000 photos I need removed. Only thing I haven't done is a full restore. Any other suggestions? TIA
 
Bugeyeblue said:
I can't remember to be honest, but I think I just restored the phone.
Click to expand...
I think you are right that no one else seemed to have the same issue or doesn't understand. I have pics that are uneditable and can't be deleted too. There is NO option to delete. There is an option to SHARE and to COPY the image but not to DELETE. Other pics I have can be deleted. The phone has been synced, sync photos unclicked, folder where pictures came from on computer deleted, synced again, and tried a few other things too, still photos undelete-able. Very frustrating. Going to go the route you mentioned and reset the phone and then sync again and hope that I get back the stuff I want.
 
verpeiler said:
Forget that garbage-post from Troneas... that's just crap.

It's quite simple: Albums are not supposed to be "edited", you sync them with your iTunes library, that's all. Albums have nothing to do with iCloud Sync, they are still locally synced with your MAC/PC.

So the solution would be to plug in your iPhone to your computer and sync your phone again and the album will be gone.
Click to expand...


Thank You So Much
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back