Deleted photos still taking up space

[harry7914]

I have a 16gb iPhone 5s with iOS 8.1.2. I've been having problems with storage so I took the step of importing all my photos into iPhoto and deleted them off my phone. However, they still show up as taking up storage - I repeated this multiple times out of frustration, and as of now, although there are zero photos on my phone, iTunes tells me there are a 1080 photos taking up 2.27gb worth of space. How do I get rid of this?

 

[MacInWin]

There may be a "Recently Deleted" Album on your iPhone. Apple added that for folks who accidentally delete photos. I don't know how long they stay in that folder before they are finally erased, but you can try to delete them from there to see if they free up the space.

 

[IWT]

Yes, Jake, you're right. With the latest iOS 8, you go into photos as if to view them and under "Albums" there should be a folder called "Recently Deleted". It was introduced to cover the inadvertent deletion of a photo. It stores it for 28 or 30 days, forget which.

What Harry needs to do is open this folder. Unfortunately, he will have to choose "Select" and then touch each photo to select it and will be given the option of "Delete" or "Recover". He should choose "Delete". There is no "select all" function, so it's a bind.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

OR, he can wait 28-30 days and magic happens.

 

[IWT]

OR, he can wait 28-30 days and magic happens.

Indeed!

Ian

 

[RadDave]

Yes, Jake, you're right. With the latest iOS 8, you go into photos as if to view them and under "Albums" there should be a folder called "Recently Deleted". It was introduced to cover the inadvertent deletion of a photo. It stores it for 28 or 30 days, forget which.

What Harry needs to do is open this folder. Unfortunately, he will have to choose "Select" and then touch each photo to select it and will be given the option of "Delete" or "Recover". He should choose "Delete". There is no "select all" function, so it's a bind.

Hi Guys - I've been using the 'Recently Deleted' folder in the Photo App for several months and there is a 'delete all' option and the images do not even have to be selected - see the attachment - I put 4 Van Gogh paintings in the folder, then tap 'Delete All' and said yes to the confirmation window; and 30 days is the countdown. Dave
.

 

[IWT]

Hi RadDave

I think we are saying the same thing. There is a "delete all" for deleting photos into the "Recently Deleted" folder; but I don't have that function for deleting the photos which are in the "Recently Deleted" folder. I think you and Jake are saying the same when you state "and 30 days is the countdown".

The OP has over a thousand photos which he has deleted using the "Delete All" function which has put them, I assume, in the "Recently Deleted" folder. His point was that they are still taking up space. As Jake and, I believe, you are saying, wait 30 days and they're history. True.

I was simply adding that if the OP wanted the space sooner, he'd have to go into the "Recently Deleted" folder and select all 1080 photos individually to delete them permanently. At least that is how things are on my iPhone 6. (iOS 8.1.2).

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

IWT, I just tried it on my iPhone 5s and you are correct, there was not a Delete All or Select All option in the Recently Deleted Album.

 

[bobtomay]

None of my deleted photos ever go into the "Recently Deleted" album.

Whether using Windows or OS X, there is an option in Picasa to "Delete only copied photos" which can be set after import. They are immediately deleted, are not put into that "Recently Deleted" album and your space is restored for use.

I use that feature even when I have a bunch of pics that I just want to disappear. It's easy enough to delete them from your computer and no need to wait 30 days to get the drive space back on your iDevice. I often have 100-300 pics at a time I need to dump that way. Much easier than a two step deleting one at a time - afer you already deleted them. Cruel and unusual punishment for all iOS users because some complained they wanted pics back after they deleted them. Apple wants to do that, then give the rest of us an "Empty the trash" option.