I selected a bunch of photos I want to delete from the Photos app on my Mac. When I right click, the choice I'm presented with is "Remove 27 photos from (null)" and when I select this nothing happens.
How do I fix this?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.4
Select the photos in the library view, then hold down the ⌘ key while pressing ⌫ to delete the photos.
As Richard explained, the ⌘ key is modifying the menus. When we select photos in an album the default is "Remove from album", but with the additional command key the command can be changed to "delete".
Your screenshot suggests that your Photos library may have a corruption. The message "Remove from Null" is not normal. There should be no album named (null). is your Photos Library in your Pictures folder or on an external drive? If it is on external drive, is the drive correctly formatted and has a wired connection?
You may want to make a backup copy of your Photos Library, then repair the library, if you have not done so. But only, if the Photos Library is in a supported location. Do not try try a repair, if the library is on external volume that is not supported, because it could make the damage worse:
As léonie says, a Library Repair is a good idea, and you should make a backup. If you have enough room in your Mac's storage, you can just use command-D (⌘D) to duplicate your Library. It's probably named "Photos Library. photoslibrary" in your Pictures folder. When you duplicate the Library, you'll get a new one cleverly named "Photos Library copy. photoslibrary" with all the same stuff. This is just in case something messes up, and that is especially important if you are using iCloud Photos.
If you don't have enough space on your Mac's internal drive, then you'll need to use the option ( ⌥ ) key to option-drag the Library to an external drive.
If you're using an external drive, you can see the format of the drive with by selecting the drive and using the Info Window with command-i ( ⌘i )
Mine is formatted APFS, so I know that it will work with a Photos Library.
Let us know how it goes…
Where are these pictures-- which "view" are you using? For instance, if I choose thumbnails in the Library view I get a different menu than the one I get when I choose pictures in an album. Neither looks like yours, so I'm wondering where you're seeing these pictures.
In an album, if you choose pictures and hit Delete, then those pictures will be removed from the album. If you choose command-delete, they will be removed from the Library and will be visible in Recently Deleted for 30 days (unless you purposely remove that safety net.) In Library view, you get a warning with Delete, but otherwise there is not warning.
What is it you really want to do?
I'm trying to permanently delete photos I don't want--fuzzy ones, accidental ones, etc.
I'm in the "Library" view.
The Photos apps shows me lots of albums on the side that I never created but that map to folders that were on the hard drive where I used to manually store my photos. Unfortunately, when I tried moving everything into the photos app, they were all just thrown into "Library" and all the albums are empty. I'm not sure if I want to bother spending the huge amount of time it will take to move tens of thousands of photos into albums, but I do want to get rid of some.
Unable to delete photos on my MacBook Pro Photos app
