Reset iCloud Photos Completely

[ConnYoungy]

Not long ago I had an iCloud library upload that I cancelled because it was taking too long, set the files to delete from iCloud etc and was told they'd be gone after 30 days in case I changed my mind.

Now, two weeks later, I've set up Photos.app again with my library, ready to upload the lot, FRESH, but Photos is stuck trying to download these phantom images again. I've tried waiting for them to download and deleting them manually, but they just appear again in the main photos section (deleting them from 'recently deleted' also does not work).

Is there a way to just reset iCloud Photos to a completely blank slate? I don't want to wait another two weeks for the previous upload to expire...

 

[duky]

Not long ago I had an iCloud library upload that I cancelled because it was taking too long, set the files to delete from iCloud etc and was told they'd be gone after 30 days in case I changed my mind.

Now, two weeks later, I've set up Photos.app again with my library, ready to upload the lot, FRESH, but Photos is stuck trying to download these phantom images again. I've tried waiting for them to download and deleting them manually, but they just appear again in the main photos section (deleting them from 'recently deleted' also does not work).

Is there a way to just reset iCloud Photos to a completely blank slate? I don't want to wait another two weeks for the previous upload to expire...

Not that I could tell. This was very frustrating -- I ended up having to wait the full 30 days and they eventually were gone from my devices and they no longer attempted to download them. Now, after the fact, I wonder if you call iCloud support maybe they can manually force delete everything for you -- worth a try.

Now I'm in a strange situation where the photos are not trying to download to any of my devices but when I go to iCloud.com Photos in the browser all 9,000 photos are still there as ghosts and I can't get rid of them. So confused.

 

[Naio]

It can take up to 40 days after they're deleted. Unfortunately, you will probably have to wait 30 days and after that another 40 days.

 

[J.gerbes]

Have you tried contacting Apple about this?

 

[ConnYoungy]

Have you tried contacting Apple about this?

No - is there a way to beyond getting support to call me? I don't have AppleCare so I wouldn't be covered would I? No Apple stores near me

 

[J.gerbes]

No - is there a way to beyond getting support to call me? I don't have AppleCare so I wouldn't be covered would I? No Apple stores near me

I'm not sure sorry. How old is your newest device? You get like 30 (or 90) days of complimentary AppleCare support.