Photos App can't delete photos

[yanksno1]

Hi, so a while back I messed up and put graphics (nothing bad, just stuff I don't want) in my Pictures folder that shouldn't have been there. I DON'T HAVE iCloud Photos backup setup. So I'd sync everything with my MacBook Air and back it up here. Looks like EVERYTHING synced with my iPhone when I did a backup. Obviously the storage grew pretty big for my iPhone Photos when I checked it vs last time. I then moved everything back out of my Pictures folder to another one and did a sync again. Looks like that worked correctly and my storage went back to what it was before the screw up sync. But when I check the Photo App now I still see them there, so I go to select them (which I can) and try to delete them but I can't seem to do that. So is there a way I can get it to delete/refresh, etc. those photos I don't want in it? Hopefully I explained it well enough what's going on here.

 

[Slartibart]

What version of macOS and iPadOS? What version of Apple Photos?

Otherwise:

• Apple Photos on your Mac has/had all images inside its Library (or System Library in Apple’s words).
• You sync(ed) from Apple Photos on your Mac to Apple Photos on your iPhone by cable (?).
• Then you moved the images in the Mac Apple Photos library into a new album you created there (?).
• What are the storage settings for Apple Photos on your Mac?
• You talking about the Pictures folder - I assume on your Mac (?). Apple Photos stores all media in its library inside the Pictures folder, which appears like a flat file to the user. If you had images inside the Pictures folder and moved these, it will not effect the media stored in the Apple Photos library. What did you do exactly?
• If you select e.g. an image in Apple Photos on your iPhone and tap on delete, what dialogue exactly comes up?

 

[yanksno1]

What version of macOS and iPadOS? What version of Apple Photos?

Otherwise:

• Apple Photos on your Mac has/had all images inside its Library (or System Library in Apple’s words).
• You sync(ed) from Apple Photos on your Mac to Apple Photos on your iPhone by cable (?).
• Then you moved the images in the Mac Apple Photos library into a new album you created there (?).
• What are the storage settings for Apple Photos on your Mac?
• You talking about the Pictures folder - I assume on your Mac (?). Apple Photos stores all media in its library inside the Pictures folder, which appears like a flat file to the user. If you had images inside the Pictures folder and moved these, it will not effect the media stored in the Apple Photos library. What did you do exactly?
• If you select e.g. an image in Apple Photos on your iPhone and tap on delete, what dialogue exactly comes up?

• Where's the Apple Photos located? I looked in the Library folder but didn't see anything photos wise there.
• Yes, looks like it synced Apple Photos on my Mac with Apple Photos on my iPhone by a USB-C Lightning cable.
• I then moved the images outside in my Documents folder and synced again. That's when I noticed the storage going down back to where it should be with the photos/videos on my iPhone.
• Looking at that, show it in my Pictures folder just like I thought. Nothing in there now.
• Yeah I'm assuming that's what happened and where it screwed up. Had them in there originally, then moved them out to another folder inside my Documents away from it. Re-synced again, saw storage go down like I said earlier but those Photos are still there on my iPhone not allowing me to delete them.
• When I select one of the images that shouldn't be there, the Recycle bin is greyed out. If I click the 3 dots I get: Feature This Person Less, Add to Album, Slideshow, Duplicate, Copy. If I duplicate it, I can then delete that image obviously but can't get rid of the others.

 

[MacCheetah3]

The likely culprit:

• Yes, looks like it synced Apple Photos on my Mac with Apple Photos on my iPhone by a USB-C Lightning cable.

Why You Cannot Delete Photos from iPhone​

Generally, there are two types of photos on your iPhone. The photos that are taken by your iPhone camera, and photos are synced from other devices, such as your computer. You can browse both photos in Photos without any difference, the photos are saved in two different locations. You can simply delete the photos saved in the Camera Roll directly from your iPhone. In addition, iPhone users may find that some pictures that synced from iTunes cannot be removed because the trash bin icon is grayed out.

It is quite easy for you to manage the photos you take with your iPhone camera. However, when you transfer photos from iPhone to a computer or when you sync your iPhone with iTunes on your computer, the way to remove photos will be slightly different. And fortunately, you do no need to worry about you can’t delete photos from iPhone anymore, as long as you learn how to delete synced photos from iPhone. The way to handle that matter is likely to delete auto backup photos, you can just take it easy.

How to Fix Cannot Delete Photos from iPhone [Solved]

You are really bothered by can’t delete photos from iPhone, you should keep reading the article to know the reason and troubleshoot.

www.widsmob.com

Remove automatically synced photos from your device​

To remove an unwanted folder of photos from your Mac and device, delete photos from the Photos app or delete the folder from your Mac and sync your device.
To remove a an album or folder of photos from just your device while keeping it on your Mac, follow these steps:

1. Connect your device to your Mac.
   You can connect your device using a USB or USB-C cable or using a Wi-Fi connection. See Sync content between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch over Wi-Fi.
2. In the Finder
   
   on your Mac, select your device in the sidebar, then click Photos in the button bar.
3. In the folders list, deselect the checkbox of the albums or folders you want removed.
4. Sync your Mac with the device.

WARNING: If you delete an automatically synced item from your Mac, the deleted item is removed from your device the next time you sync.
Before disconnecting your device from your Mac, click the Eject button

in the Finder sidebar.

Sync photos between your Mac and iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

On your Mac, sync all or a selection of photos to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

support.apple.com