Reset photo library on iOS devices

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57 points

Reset photo library on iOS devices

I have been using iCloud photo library for years, and things have gone awry. I am curating the best library on my Mac, and I want to delete the libraries on my other devices (iPhone, iPad, and a MacBook) and reset those devices so they sync with the Mac photos library on iCloud.

I turned off iCloud photo sync on my iPhone, and it asked if I wanted to keep or delete the cloud photos. I chose "delete". But they're all still there. With 28K photos, I can hardly select them all and delete them.

Is there some way to just delete all those photos, then start syncing with the cloud again?

iPhone 14 Pro

Posted on Aug 19, 2023 5:45 PM

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Answer 1

Poiks2 Author

Level 1

57 points

Aug 19, 2023 8:35 PM in response to Poiks2

So bizarre. On my iPhone, I turned off iCloud photo sync. Lots of photos remained, so I deleted them all. Some albums created on my Mac were also still there, so I deleted them. My photo library is now empty. But when I go to the Albums link, the People album is still there. And when I click it, this message displays. There are no photos, but the people album is updating.

I'm terrified that when I turn iCloud photo sync on again, all my photos on my Mac will, mirroring my iPhone, be deleted.

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Reset photo library on iOS devices

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