get out of here crap photos

June 5, 2012 7:50 AM

What's the best way to get rid of unwanted photos in iPhoto for iPad (iOS)?

So far I love using the iPad with iPhoto for editing my photos, but I haven't found a proper way to mange my photos. I use the camera connection kit to move photos from my camera's SD card to my iPad, and then reformat the camera's card. I then select and edit photos on the iPad. Any photos I edit I'd like to keep, but all the rest can be deleted, and that's where my problem lies. I can't figure out how to mass-delete all the non-flagged/non-edited photos. What's a good workflow? Do I need to connect the iPad to my computer in order to mass-delete unwanted photos? I don't want these things taking up valuable space on the iPad.

posted by splatta to computers & internet (7 answers total)

If I recall correctly, you should be able to manage all of your photos in the iPad's native photo app, which is just called Photos. To delete large quantities, you'll need to select the edit button in the upper right hand corner of your screen (it looks like a box with an arrow jumping out of it to the right). This will allow you to select multiple photos at one time and then trash them.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 7:58 AM on June 5, 2012

I know about that part, but I was kind of hoping for a "select all unflagged photos" option instead of having to touch each and every photo. When we're talking hundreds of photos a click-and drag select makes sense, tapping each photo and hitting delete doesn't.
posted by splatta at 8:01 AM on June 5, 2012

I also believe they can only be deleted from the Photos app, which sucks. With digital photography, people tend to take lots of extra pictures to get good results, and Apple's flagship photo management app ought to let folks delete the lesser photos.
posted by exogenous at 8:06 AM on June 5, 2012

You can use your Mac to batch delete photos on your iPad (here's the tutorial on how), but in your case that would also get those edited photos, I think.

So you need to either make sure those are not seen and synched when you connect the iPad to Mac, OR you might want to take the extra step of putting JUST those edited photos in a folder to synch with your Mac. Then, batch delete all the other photos as in the tutorial from your iPad and resynch to move the edited photos back on to the iPad. Does that make sense?
posted by misha at 8:32 AM on June 5, 2012

misha's linked tutorial has the solution: use Image Capture on a Mac. It has the ability to bulk delete photos off the iPad. It's the only program I've found that can do that in a usefully selective way. Some other programs let you delete all photos, or delete them on importing to the tethered computer.
posted by Nelson at 9:05 AM on June 5, 2012

Give this a try (tip from iPadInsight on how to tap and drag).
posted by inviolable at 9:44 AM on June 5, 2012

The tip from inviolable is fantastic! For the larger batch delete misha's link works as well.
posted by splatta at 1:58 PM on June 5, 2012