Photos - delete on Mac, auto-delete on iphone?

Joined
Feb 27, 2011
Messages
97
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Your Mac's Specs
15" MacBook Pro Retina, 2.7 GHz quad core i7, 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM, 512GB flash...
When I delete a photo in Photos on my Mac, can the settings be made to auto-delete it on my iphone? Sometimes I take several photots of a situation to later pick the best photo. If I review and delete them on my iphone before I import them to Photos then it is no problem. But I'd like to be able to do that on my Mac, bigger better screen, delete the ones I don't want and when I do they are also deleted on my iphone. Possible?

A second alternative, not so great but acceptable, is that any photo that I have imported to Photos but later deleted does not appear under "New photos" when I connect my iphone to the Mac. I'd like to be able to click "import all new photos". But doing that now I also get all the ones I deleted in the Photos software.

A bit frustrating. Hope you can help :)
 
Joined
Aug 2, 2011
Messages
2,014
Reaction score
184
Points
63
Location
Tyneside, UK
Your Mac's Specs
MBP Retina mid 2015 15.4" 16GB 2.5 GHz OS Monterey; iPhone 12 128gb; iPad Mini 5, 64gb
When I delete a photo in Photos on my Mac, can the settings be made to auto-delete it on my iphone? Sometimes I take several photots of a situation to later pick the best photo. If I review and delete them on my iphone before I import them to Photos then it is no problem. But I'd like to be able to do that on my Mac, bigger better screen, delete the ones I don't want and when I do they are also deleted on my iphone. Possible?

Don't believe so. Photos taken on your phone are in its memory which is a separate entity from Photos on the Mac. The only sharing between devices is via My Photo Stream. If you delete images in My Photo Stream, they are deleted from all devices using it.

Can't help with the second part of your post.
 
OP
M
Joined
Feb 27, 2011
Messages
97
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Your Mac's Specs
15" MacBook Pro Retina, 2.7 GHz quad core i7, 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM, 512GB flash...
If you delete images in My Photo Stream, they are deleted from all devices using it.

Thank you. Good tip. Only problem is my internet line is a bit slow so it takes time doing it in icloud online. But I've tried it just now and it is an acceptable way of doing this.

Thanks again :)
 
Joined
Apr 16, 2016
Messages
1,096
Reaction score
51
Points
48
Location
CT
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Air Mid-2012 / iMac Retina 5K Late-2014
One alternative way that you could accomplish what you're trying to do is ditch Photos completely.

Photos take up an exorbitant amount of my iCloud storage, so I've stopped A) using My Photostream and B) backing up my photo library on any of my devices (I have three iOS devices and two macs that are all linked together via the same iCloud account - I need the space to back up my devices). Instead, I use the Google Photos app on all of my iOS devices. Every time I launch the app, it automatically backs up every photo that's "new" on the device into my Google account. And, as along as I allow Google to decrease the resolution on the photos to cap the file sizes, I can store an unlimited number of pictures. Anything that I absolutely need the full 12MP of my 6S Plus camera simply gets emailed back to myself or sent via iMessage to myself.

On the laptop and desktop, I simply access my library via a web browser and download any photos that I want to have locally (otherwise, they can all stay in the cloud).
 
Joined
Apr 16, 2016
Messages
1,096
Reaction score
51
Points
48
Location
CT
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Air Mid-2012 / iMac Retina 5K Late-2014
Sigh. I forgot to mention one important point...

If you're in the Google Photos library on any device, including a desktop/laptop via web browser, and you delete a picture, it will cause the photo to be deleted on all attached devices that are syncing the next time you open the Google Photos app on that device.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top