Comments on: How to delete a photo from Photo Stream (updated)

By: How can I share Photo Stream pictures with my wife? (reader mail) | here's the thing

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:27:20 +0000

[…] Remember, too, that once a photo is shared through Photo Stream, it’s not easy to unshare it—meaning that if you accidentally snap a picture of a surprise holiday gift for your wife (and yes, there are other scenarios I can imagine that aren’t quite as sweet), you won’t be able to delete the snapshot from her phone unless you turn off Photo Stream manually on her iPhone. Update: Thanks to a recent iOS software upgrade, you now can delete individual pictures from Photo Stream. Read this article for more details. […]

By: mr_lizard13

mr_lizard13 — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:54:00 +0000

In reply to Ben Patterson.

Aha – that must be it! I updated to iOS5.1 about 24hrs ago, which is why I had thought it was time related.

Well spotted!

By: Ben Patterson

Ben Patterson — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:52:00 +0000

In reply to mr_lizard13.

Hey there — yep, you’re absolutely right. It looks like you can delete a Photo Stream image from all your devices, provided you took the photo *after* upgrading your device to iOS 5.1. Snapshots you took prior to that will give you the “This photo will only be deleted from the Photo Stream on this iPhone” message.

Anyway, many thanks for pointing this out; I’ll be correcting this article ASAP.

By: mr_lizard13

mr_lizard13 — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:27:00 +0000

Hi Ben,

I’ve noticed that when I delete a recently taken photo, the delete dialog reads “This photo will be removed from the Photo Stream on all your devices”, and sure enough, it disappears off my iPad too.

But deleting a photo that was taken awhile ago will instead show the dialog you have in your article – it’ll only be deleted from that device.

Deleting a mix of both recent and older photos shows the message “The most recent photos will be removed from the Photo Stream on all your devices, older photos will only be removed from this iPhone”

I can’t quite figure out at what point iOS stops treating a photo as ‘recent’ – although it seems to be a period of 24 hours (I could be wrong on that point though. I need to do more testing.)

By: 5 things you need to know about Photo Stream | here's the thing

5 things you need to know about Photo Stream | here's the thing — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:49:20 +0000

[…] Update [3/8/12]: Thanks to an update to Apple’s mobile iOS software, you now can delete photos from Photo Stream—but there’s a catch. Read this article for more details. […]