READ THIS: How to reset Photo Stream without disabling it on all devices!

[Prodo123]

Photo Stream, the new feature which syncs photos across platforms, omitted a huge function: deleting individual photos from the server.
Until now, the only way to purge photos from Photo Stream was to disable it on every single iOS device and Mac, then reenable it.

I found a new way!

1. Log onto http://icloud.com
2. Click your name on the right top corner of the screen
3. Go to Advanced
4. Click "Reset Photo Stream

You don't need to disable/enable any devices this way.
Also, this only works on PCs and Macs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w6m-tBHlgw
Video demonstration for people like LIVEFRMNYC

 

[cshearer]

Photo Stream, the new feature which syncs photos across platforms, omitted a huge function: deleting individual photos from the server.
Until now, the only way to purge photos from Photo Stream was to disable it on every single iOS device and Mac, then reenable it.

I found a new way!

1. Log onto http://icloud.com
2. Click your name on the right top corner of the screen
3. Go to Advanced
4. Click "Reset Photo Stream

You don't need to disable/enable any devices this way.
Also, this only works on PCs and Macs.

I betcha I found it first.

 

[Patriot24]

That's fine and all, but Apple needs to give a way to remove individual photos. It is ridiculous that you can't.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Does not work for me & others I know. Have you actually tried this yourself?

 

[Prodo123]

Does not work for me & others I know. Have you actually tried this yourself?

Yep. Works great.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Yep. Works great.

So your telling me that turning off Photostream from the browser actually deletes the photos from all your devices and iPhoto without manually turning it off from the device and iPhoto.

I tried that many times with no luck.


Come to think of it ....... You can't be right because it says:

 

[Prodo123]

So your telling me that turning off Photostream from the browser actually deletes the photos from all your devices and iPhoto without manually turning it off from the device and iPhoto.

I tried that many times with no luck.

Well, I had at least 80 photos in Photo Stream and it instantly purged them out of the system.
I think the issue is on your side.

This removes photos from the PHOTO STREAM. Which means local photos will NOT be deleted. Photo Stream uploads, however, will be purged from iCloud.
Only photos taken after the reset will be uploaded to iCloud.

I betcha I found it first.

~4:00 PM EST, didn't bother to upload till now

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Well, I had at least 80 photos in Photo Stream and it instantly purged them out of the system.
I think the issue is on your side.

Apple clearly states as I posted in pics above. That you have to manually turn off Photostream on devices and iPhoto to clear pics from Photostream folder.

 

[Prodo123]

Apple clearly states as I posted in pics above. That you have to manually turn off Photostream on devices and iPhoto to clear pics from Photostream folder.

Well clearly this feature was not in the Beta phase, and was recently added.
Sometimes, just sometimes, Apple is wrong about their own products.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w6m-tBHlgw

 

[cshearer]

~4:00 PM EST, didn't bother to upload till now

Haha, I was kidding. I only found it today before I went into work around 2:30 EST, so I probably didn't bet many to the punch. I don't see myself using this feature though, I feel like I'd end up losing something important.

 

[Puonti]

So your telling me that turning off Photostream from the browser actually deletes the photos from all your devices and iPhoto without manually turning it off from the device and iPhoto.

I tried that many times with no luck.

Come to think of it ....... You can't be right because it says:

This might be a case of bad wording and people understanding the concept of Photo Stream differently.

Think of it like this:

Photo Stream does NOT exist on any of your devices, it's only on iCloud. Sort of like a web photo gallery if you will.

Your iOS devices only "cache" a copy of what's in your Photo Stream so that you don't need to re-download the photos whenever you want to view them, the same way a browser caches web content to speed up loading times of static content. These are contained in an album called "Photo Stream". If a picture is removed from Photo Stream at the iCloud end (which happens automatically to images older than 30 days or to oldest images when you go beyond 1000 photos), it vanishes from your iOS device, too, since it was never "stored" there in the first place. Only cached.

In addition to "caching" Photo Stream like iOS devices do, on Mac iPhoto (and I'm guessing Aperture) automatically STORES all photos it receives from Photo Stream to a local album. It doesn't rely solely on what is stored on iCloud. If you want to do that on iOS devices, you need to manually save the image from Photo Stream to a local album. That copy is safe until you remove it yourself and depending on your sync settings might get copied over to the Mac as part of the album you saved it to.

Thinking of Photo Stream like this - as an "online gallery" - you should realize that what "Reset Photo Stream" does is simply remove whatever is stored on iCloud. iOS clients will see this and clear the "cached" content since it is no longer available on iCloud. Macs will still have a local copy of everything since they aren't just caching Photo Stream, but rather saving everything that comes through it.

I hope this clarifies the situation

EDIT:

It appears I was right and wrong:

Yes, it's a case of confusing wording. I was confused myself apparently

No, resetting your Photo Stream from icloud.com doesn't automatically remove photos already stored on your iOS devices' Photo Stream. You'll need to individually turn off Photo Stream on them afterwards to do that.