deleting old photos from an Iphone 12

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Level 1

4 points

deleting old photos from an Iphone 12

Hi, i have more than 1000 photos on my Iphone 12, old photos from previous iphones, wich might had been sync from my old mac book, that i cannot delete.

I understand its linked to my photo app from my old macbook but i cant install updates on it because of its oldness, therefore i cant connect my iphone to it to manage or desactivate the synchronisation.

These photos dont show up on modern Imac, or using the file transfer app.

Because of this, my iphone is always full (also because of the 20 GB of system files taking a third of my space thank you by the way, they should sell it as 40gb memory space, would be a bit more honest.)

Anyway, i cant find any solution online, so i guess there are none.

If anyone got anything, thanks in advance.

iPhone 12 mini, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 15, 2025 07:06 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 15, 2025 08:18 AM in response to amélie89

If you turn on iCloud Photos, the phone will erase all the pictures that can't be transferred. When it's done (pretty quick) you can turn off iCloud Photos so you don't have the rest actually transferred. If you haven't signed up for extra space, then it can't do more that the free 5GB, anyway. And if you get a bunch transferred to iCloud, you can just go to iCloud.com and delete them.

Let us know how it goes…

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Answer 2

Sep 15, 2025 12:08 PM in response to Old Toad

Old Toad wrote: …Another possibility is to connect your iPhone to your Mac with its charging cable and launch Image Capture. IC will let you select the photos you want and delete them directly.

Are you sure it will delete "On My Mac"-like "undeletable" pictures? I have no experience with them.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

214,362 points

Sep 15, 2025 11:20 AM in response to amélie89

Another possibility is to connect your iPhone to your Mac with its charging cable and launch Image Capture. IC will let you select the photos you want and delete them directly.

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