How do I Select All and Delete photos from iCloud?

[iMore Question]

Rather than purchasing more and more iCloud storage, I would like to remove photos from iCloud Photos (after I have loaded them into Lightroom for permanent storage).

The current solution is to select each and every photo one at a time and delete them. This could take hours with a library of thousands of photos. Surely there has to be a better way... no?

 

[Just_Me_D]

I do not know of a way to "mass delete" photos from iCloud without selecting them individually.

 

[Originalloverman]

Sorry this was an issue as well, not sure as to how myself.

 

[Anshul S]

You can follow below to do this:

- Select first photo.
- Keep scrolling down straight to last photo.
- Then press shift button first and click on the last photo.
- This will select all items in between.

 

[fiaaauuu]

This is not working (with shift), any other ideas? Thank you

 

[Ledsteplin]

If you delete them on your device, they will also delete in iCloud. You can upload them first to Box or Dropbox.

 

[Dfenigsohn]

I'm struggling with this as well. How could it be that functionality as simple as select all is missing?

 

[spidermanatwork]

If you use your device you can select multiple photos by

1. Open the album of photos
2. Click select in the top right corner to put the application into "Select Mode"
3. Tap and hold the first photo.
4. Without taking your finger off the screen slide it all the way to the right (last photo on the same row)
5. slowly move your finger to the bottom right photo of the last row.
6. Now you should see the screen start to move up and select row by row of photos until it gets to the end.
7. If you move slightly below the bottom bar it will move faster and faster.
8. Once all photos are selected click the delete icon in the bottom right.

You are essentially drawing a number 7 on the screen.

Note: the above was done on an Iphone 6s.

 

[Sherry_B]

If you use your device you can select multiple photos by

With the addition of Drag and Drop in iOS 11, it will not be possible to do it that way. You have to lightly place your finger (without pressing) over the top left photo, then lightly glide your finger across the glass all the way to the right, and then lightly straight down. This selects all photos. If you press on the photo it only picks up the photo so you can drag and drop it elsewhere.

 

[Lance_the_Unicorn_Prince]

If you hold down your ctrl button then you can select more than one photo at a time. It's not very fast but it's much faster than selecting them one at a time.

 

[aldudemore]

Two options. Turn off icloud backup on your device and wait 30 days. Or find yourself a mac and click on Apple Logo> System Preferences > icloud> Manage... > Photos > Delete. You get the storage back right away and can still reverse it in 30 days. And notice I said mac, for PC icloud software does not have that option at least as of 05/01/2018.

 

[Kirk Moreno]

This is ***. Everything Apple does is for Apples benefit. Notice in Recently Deleted screen you have the option to select all. However easy it would be for APPLE and its *** baboons to code in the same button, they want you to buy more storage. We throw tons of $$ at Apple to buy these machines, and they still try to screw us on the backend.

 

[Sherry_B]

This is ***. Everything Apple does is for Apples benefit. Notice in Recently Deleted screen you have the option to select all. However easy it would be for APPLE and its *** baboons to code in the same button, they want you to buy more storage. We throw tons of $$ at Apple to buy these machines, and they still try to screw us on the backend.

I'm not having any issues deleting photos. Are you sure it's not PEBKAC?

 

[Cauliflower]

You click on the first photo and then Alt click on the rest. Then press trash can at the top right hand corner.

 

[pauline_adrien]

Had the same problem for me I used ATL and it work

 

[John Lawton]

Plug your phone into USB port on your PC and then use windows explorer to select your iPhone and the "Internal Storage". You will then see the DCIM folder and its sub folders. You can then cut/copy/paste just like you would any windows file.
Note once you have deleted files form your iPhone they will then be deleted from iCloud so make sure you back up your PC.
Seems very odd given how easy this is that Apple don't make it easy from iCloud.

 

[Anuag Chandra]

press ctrl and alt button both and select multiple photos.


Regards

Anurag Chandra (India)