Iphone 6- removing all photos?

I have read so many answers by googling and nothing works.
I have over 5,000 pictures on my ipone6, laptop and IMAC. When I delete them they do not stay deleted .
PLEASE help me to delete all on my iphone and only add those I want.

Plug your iPhone into your iMac and start Image Capture. Select all the images and delete them. If you have anything in your Photo Stream they should not be affected..

OK I will give it a try -THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!


I see where I can import all pictures, but see no way to delete.????

Make sure you already have these pictures saved elsewhere before you erase the pictures..

I LOVE my Apple products except icloud and photos.I just do not 'get it'.I am not a stupid person either.
I need someone to explain to me how icod photos works and how it syncs with all of my devices? I thought if I deeted them from icloud.com it would delete on all of m devices, but it doesnt.OR if it does it reinstates them.
Is there an EASY tutorial anywhere?
My phone is nearly full just because of pictures.

It's not difficult. Turn off the syncing of photos to your iPhone by going into setting and turning off the syncing of photos.

If you'd like to have a PORTION of your photos synced to the iPhone, that also is quite simple: you can create an album or smart album of photos you want to sync, then set iTunes to sync ONLY that album to your phone. There's also some presets in iTunes that allow you to sync photos from "the last three months" or some other time period. That works very well for most people.

I have my iCloud preferences set to only SEND photos I take on my iOS devices TO my Mac, but not for my Mac to send ANY photos to my iOS devices except for the albums I've specified.

OK great that makes sense.What is the difference between Camera Roll and photo stream?

Camera Roll -- photos taken on your device.
Photo Stream -- as the name implies, photos synced to your device from other devices.

Chas I really appreciate your help, thank you so much.
Photos gone in iphone