If I have added photos to my iPad by connecting it to my computer, does is mean that I can never delete them?

Peter Scanlan wrote:

I guess I am not being clear. I want to delete photos on my iPad not my iPhone. I do not want to delete them from my Mac. I did sync the photos from my Mac to my iPad with a cable connection to the Mac. An article on the Apple website says that I cannot delete the photos from my iPad since I did the sync with cable connection. When I select the photos I want to delete from my iPad, the trash bin stays gray and will not work. Am I doomed to keep on my iPad the photos that I synced from my Mac unless I also delete them from my Mac? Or is there another alternative?

Apple refers to an iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch as a “device”, and I’m going to use that same nomenclature here.

You have a device. You use cable sync from your photo library on your Mac to your device. You want to delete specific photos from the device. You do not want to delete those same photos from your Mac photo library.

You want a solution, or an alternative.

Direct answer: There is no means to do what you want. In short, no.

Cable sync means either selecting and syncing some albums, or syncing all albums. No deletion of synced photos is possible on a device. This includes no means of deleting photos individually, and no means of deleting synced albums, on the device. What is synced is present until re-synced.

Alternative You Don’t Want, One: iCloud Photos will sync all photos across all devices. A photo deleted in one place is deleted everywhere. iCloud Photos can be configured to maintain which photos are cached on devices with insufficient storage if and as needed.

Alternative You Don’t Want, Two: If you want a Mac photo library as your primary photo library, your remaining option here is to use hidden photos, and to organize your photos into albums and sync specific of those you do or do not want to sync. I use a mix of albums and smart albums with keywords to control which photos appear in which albums. As the devices I deal with have sufficient storage, I don’t bother with album sync. I sync all. But I’ve tried that per-album sync setting, and it works.

Inferring from your use of underlines and repetition, none of this is acceptable to you, so log feedback with Apple: Product Feedback - Apple

Peter Scanlan wrote:

Thank you. I understand what you are suggesting. However, I want to keep the photos on my Mac. I only want to delete them on my iPad. Is that possible?

You can selectively sync folders; select specific albums for sync.

Individually select and sync specific photos, no.

See: Sync your photos manually using the Finder - Apple Support

Peter Scanlan wrote:

Thank you. However, when I select photos to delete, the trash bin is gray and does not work. Apple online says that if I used a cable to sync to my Mac to download the photos onto the iPad, I cannot delete them. This does not make sense to me. There must be some way to get them off of my iPad. Could you explain how I can delete them?

You can delete the photos from your Mac. Re-sync to propagate the changes; any added and any deleted and any edited photos.

If you want to migrate your photo library to iCloud Photos, you can then delete your photos anywhere, and they’ll delete everywhere.

Peter Scanlan wrote:

Thank you. This clarifies that I cannot do what I would like and am stuck with the photos I have synced onto my iPad from my Mac. Perhaps resetting the iPad is an option. I will look into that.

If the requirements here have shifted from deleting selected photos to deleting all photos, then a factory reset and no subsequent sync will work, as will a resync with no photos selected for sync.

No. You can delete them in Photos on your iPad.

Yes. Once they are on your Pad they are independent of the Mac.