Bulk Deletion of Folders in Photos App

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No, I mean turn Photos off completely. Then after an hour, turn it back on. As long as Photo Stream is on on your PC, and you turn it back on on your device, it will all sync back.

Well, it turned out that didn't happen. Before I turned My Photo Stream OFF on the iPad it had 1000 photos dating back to December 18th. After turning it back ON, it now has only 288 photos dating back to February 18th. So, this little exercise caused me to lose 712 photos from my iPad. (My iPhone still has 1000 photos dating back to December 18th.)

I am not a happy camper….
 
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This photos shows how Photo Steam is supposed to work. Images are not supposed be kept over 30 days so I don't know what was happening before. But I repeat, Photo Stream is a temporary holding facilty for syncing and you have find an alternative way of storing images if you want a substantial amount on more than one device.
 

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Sue is absolutely correct.

This very up-to-date article from Apple explains in detail how My Photo Stream works and the FAQs towards the bottom are also enlightening.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201317

Ian
 
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I guess I was fooled by @ferrarr's statement that:

As long as Photo Stream is on on your PC, and you turn it back on on your device, it will all sync back.

My Photo Stream on my iMac has about 290 photos that go back 30 days. My Photo Stream on my iPhone has 1000 photos that go back four months.

Why is it that the Mac limits My Photo Stream to only the most recent 30 days while My Photo Stream on my iPhone is only limited to the most recent 1000 photos? This behavior seems inconsistent. Which should it be? Thirty days or a thousand photos? (Before I turned My Photo Stream OFF and then ON on my iPad, it too had 1000 photos going back several months.)

And, how is it that when I turned on My Photo Stream on my iPad about a year ago it immediately loaded up 1000 photos spanning a period of fifteen years?

iPhone_stream.jpg
 
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@Ratsima, Sorry about that. I was under the impression you understood how Photo Stream worked. Everything that is no longer there, is able to sync back from your Mac. Or, you can make a shared folder on your Mac and that will sync to your devices.
 
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This photos shows how Photo Steam is supposed to work. Images are not supposed be kept over 30 days....

Apple said:
Photos are stored in My Photo Stream for 30 days.

I waited some time to respond to this to observe what I could. In spite of what @badshoehabit and Apple say, both my iPhone and iPad have photos that are much older than 30 days. My iPad has photos going back to February 18th of this year and my iPhone has photos going back to May 11, 2018. What happened to the 30 day limit?

Can someone explain exactly how this is supposed to work?

1970-01-01_06.59.59.jpg

2019-04-20_10.07.24.jpg
 

IWT


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@Ratsima,

Both Sue and Apple are correct - BUT - the 30 day limit is frequently extended. I too, have pictures going back months in My Photo Stream on my iPhone X.

It doesn't matter that much to me because (a) I have a lot of available storage on the phone and (b) these same photos are permanently stored on my iMac in the Photos app and synced/stored in iCloud.

Every now and again, when the mood grabs me, I delete a bunch of pictures from My Photo Stream.

This said - don't count on pictures remaining in My Photo Stream for more than 30 days. Yes, they frequently do; but if they are important to you, store them in Photos app on the Mac, or in any other place you want on the Mac, or on an External Hard Drive (EHD).

Ian
 
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I've never seen My Photo Stream limited to 30 days on either my iPhone or iPad. I have seen it on my iMac. As I mentioned, when I first started My Photo Stream on my iPad a little over a year ago it immediately loaded up 1000 photos that spanned fifteen years. From my point of view it seems entirely unpredictable.
 

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Well, suddenly all of the empty folders in the Photos app have disappeared from my iPad. They are still there on the iPhone and the iMac. I have no idea what I or anyone else did to delete all these empty folders (over 1000). But, I'm glad it happened.

Now, if I could only have the same thing happen on my iPhone and my iMac. All the empty folders are still there on both of those devices.
 

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