Prior to Ventura, when you would put a memory card into your Mac, there was an option to delete the images from the memory card after the images were imported. That option appears to be gone.
Even more confusing, when I try to delete the images from the memory card using the Finder, there is no "Move to Trash" option. There's got to be an easier way to delete images than reformatting the memory card using the camera itself.
For a camera card you can still enable the "select the “Delete items” tick box below the toolbar. (Import photos from a camera or phone using Photos on Mac – Apple Support (UK)) It will depend on your camera model, if the option is available, however:
But you have to do it, before you start the import from the card. This is risky, because the items will be deleted from the card, before we can check, if there have been transmission errors. The photos will be deleted from the card, sight unseen. We cannot repeat the import, if Photos should crash, when indexing the new photos in the library or if some photos are showing a corruption.
I stopped using this feature years ago, after having seen in these forums, that quite a few users have lost precious photos to "Delete after import". I am now erasing the card in the camera only after the import has finished, after I have looked at all originals, not just the thumbnails, and I am having made the first backup copy of the imported photos.
Which camera model are you using? It would be good to know, which cameras are still supporting this feature.
For a camera card you can still enable the "select the “Delete items” tick box below the toolbar. (Import photos from a camera or phone using Photos on Mac – Apple Support (UK)) It will depend on your camera model, if the option is available, however:
But you have to do it, before you start the import from the card. This is risky, because the items will be deleted from the card, before we can check, if there have been transmission errors. The photos will be deleted from the card, sight unseen. We cannot repeat the import, if Photos should crash, when indexing the new photos in the library or if some photos are showing a corruption.
I stopped using this feature years ago, after having seen in these forums, that quite a few users have lost precious photos to "Delete after import". I am now erasing the card in the camera only after the import has finished, after I have looked at all originals, not just the thumbnails, and I am having made the first backup copy of the imported photos.
Which camera model are you using? It would be good to know, which cameras are still supporting this feature.
The correct and best way to do it is to reformat the card in the camera. It is faster - literally takes seconds - and refreshes the structure of the card which will prolong its life and help avoid directory problems that can lead to dataloss.
Thank you for helping.
All I can say is in every version of Photos or iPhoto it was nice to have the ability to delete the images on the memory card. I've done this for 20+ years with zero problems.
I plugged the memory card into my Windows machine (that I rarely use). When I try to delete the file Windows told me that the SD card was locked. Nice feature in their operating system. When I moved the switch, I was able to delete the files on my Mac. I guess that switch was accidentally moved. Nice feature on Windows to tell you that the switch is in the locked position.
How to delete images from memory card in Photos
