Cannot delete photos in iPhone (and iPad too)

[luke23]

Hi,

I have my photos in my iMac's Photo app. They sync via iTunes with my iPhone and iPad. I have deleted some pictures in the iMac library and synced with the rest of the devices. The thing is I still see them in the devices. Even if I tap on "Edit" option of the pictures the trash icon to delete is disabled. I cannot understand why.

Can anyone help me?

Thank you very much!

 

[sura]

Here's how i understand it...photos added to iPhone by syncing Photos library cannot be deleted by the iPhone. You must delete the photo in Photo library then sync again. Photos taken by the iPhone camera can be deleted by the iPhone and once synced, deleted on the iMac in Photos.

 

[luke23]

Thing is the photos I talk about are actually shot with the iPhone. :-(

 

[Cmd-Z]

Thing is the photos I talk about are actually shot with the iPhone. :-(

What they are shot with is immaterial ... the important thing is how did they get onto the iPhone?

Above, you said that you synced them from your computer via iTunes. If that is the case, then you cannot delete them using the iPhone/iPad itself, you have to use iTunes. It should be just a matter of changing the folder/event on your computer to not contain the photo(s) you want removed, and then re-sync the device. However, iTunes does a terrible job of managing this and more often than not it won't remove the photos from the device, even if you move the photo out of the source you're syncing it from.

The effective way to remove synced photos is to tell iTunes to not sync any photos at all to your device, re-sync the device to remove all synced photos, then optionally turn the photo sync back on while syncing to a new (or updated) source on your computer.

But I'd avoid using iTunes for photo syncing altogether. Instead, set up a shared photo stream and upload the photos from your Mac directly to the shared stream -- they'll appear on any device linked to your iCloud account, as well as any other people you invite to the shared stream (that is optional). If you no longer want the photo on your device, you can delete it from the stream it is deleted everywhere except for the original copy on your Mac which you uploaded.

Or, if you're inclined to use the new iCloud Photo Library, let iCloud manage your entire photo library across all your devices.