33
  • I have 4000 photos in the camera roll
  • I don't want import them into my MacBook's iPhoto or nowhere, so
  • simple want delete them directly in the iPhone (iOS 7).
  • selecting them one-by-one (you sure agree) is NOT very user friendly

What is the "Apple way" of doing this (usually) simple thing?

Peter Mortensen
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clt60
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2 Answers2

61

On iOS 7

  1. Open the Photos App and make sure you are in the “Photos” section from the three icons at the bottom of the screen;
  2. Look at the top of the screen and make sure the view is “Moments;”
  3. Now you can tap individual thumbnails one at a time to select them, or you can tap the word “Select” that appears at the top of each grouping to select an entire grouping.

On iOS 6

  1. Go to Settings → General → Usage → Photos & Camera;
  2. Swipe on the “Camera Roll” entry;
  3. A “Delete” button appears.

This solution does not work on iOS 7 (last tested on iOS 7.0.4). It is probably a bug.

Any iOS, but using a computer

If you have iOS 7, you can use Image Capture on your Mac to delete photos from the iPhone without importing them:

  1. Plug the iPhone to your Mac with the iPhone cable;
  2. Quit iPhoto if it launches automatically;
  3. Launch Image Capture;
  4. Select the photos you want to delete;
  5. Click the red icon to delete the photos.

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p.campbell
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Frizlab
  • 1,995
  • +1 GREAT answer - helped me delete the unwanted photos. But still not solved the problem, doing this directly in the iPhone without a computer... – clt60 Sep 25 '13 at 09:44
  • I found the solution on iOS 6 (and earlier probably, though I did not test). Go to Settings -> General -> Usage -> Photos & Camera. Then swipe on the Camera Roll entry, a Delete button will appear. This does not work on iOS 7. – Frizlab Sep 25 '13 at 20:24
  • I'm still searching for a solution on iOS 7, but I don't think there's one. Obviously the iOS 6 solution should work. Apple probably forgot to add in the “Photos & Camera” usage page the “Edit” button that can be found for instance in the “Music” usage page. – Frizlab Sep 25 '13 at 20:34
  • Simple, i can't understand why apple don't add a feature what is implemented in any basic camera.... Thanx anyway for the partial solution - accepting... – clt60 Sep 25 '13 at 22:09
  • There is a way of doing this on iOS7 by selecting entire collections at a time and deleting them this way. See here: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/iphoneandipodtouchapps/qt/Select-Photos-Ios7.htm – Dan Jan 02 '14 at 10:17
  • At the moment I'm testing iOS 7.1 beta 5 and it's still not fixed if it's a bug as mentioned(it's highly unlikely but maybe because of some weird reason Apple wants it the it is right now). Perhaps I should inform Apple about it. – Can Sürmeli Feb 21 '14 at 13:07
  • You should inform Apple, but should not discuss this here; you're under NDA dude! ;) – Frizlab Feb 21 '14 at 16:46
  • ImageCapture FTW! – Simeon Fitch Oct 01 '14 at 12:12
  • ImageCapture on OS X El Capitain and iPhone 6 connected shows a 'prohibited button' - but it is not red. I kinda missed it because I was looking for a 'red' button somewhere. :) – Stefan Hendriks Aug 28 '16 at 14:58
1

Works on ios7 - Plug your iphone into your computer and open it via My Computer - then find the photos file(s). Select all and then delete! Done!

Oli Simmons
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    "My Computer" is a Windows thing. On Sep 25, he wanted a solution directly on the iPhone, not using a computer. – GEdgar Oct 05 '13 at 21:41