2

Background

I just took a ton of photos on my iPhone 6 in order to capture a few good ones (I'm a lousy photographer I suppose).

My MacBook Air has been chronically short of disk space for years (I'm a lousy system manager I suppose).

Question

I'd like to preview images on the large screen of my MacBook one at a time before deciding which to import to my laptop and which to delete on the phone without importing. Is this possible?

Alternately, if I import say a group of photos at a time to my laptop, then delete the ones I don't want, can I simultaneously delete the originals on my iPhone from my MacBook? Does the Photos application have a "double-delete" or "delete here and on IOS device also" feature?

I just want to do this locally using the USB connection, "sans cloude".

There is a slider for the preview images but maxed out they are still only thumbnail size, and the differences I'm looking for require a full screen mode.

Thumbnail view only before import?

Improve this question
6
  • If I'm not mistaken, when you import photos through the Photos app, you are given the opportunity to preview what you're about to import. It works pretty much the same way as Lightroom and Photoshop does in this regard.
    – Allan
    Feb 16, 2020 at 1:17
  • @Allan Do you mean that one can preview full size on the laptop screen? Okay I will hunt for something like that. Being the "lousy photographer I suppose" I'm not familliar with those other applications.
    – uhoh
    Feb 16, 2020 at 1:19
  • I don't know if it does it full screen and can't test at the moment, but you should be able to adjust the size
    – Allan
    Feb 16, 2020 at 1:21
  • @Allan I've added a screen shot; there is a slider but maxed out the views are still only thumbnails.
    – uhoh
    Feb 16, 2020 at 1:33
  • 1
    Catalina may have the feature you're looking for since most things are now handled by Finder, but I haven't upgraded yet. I do know that in Lightroom, the previews can get fairly large in size, but never tried full screen.
    – Allan
    Feb 16, 2020 at 1:43

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Alternately, if I import say a group of photos at a time to my laptop, then delete the ones I don't want, can I simultaneously delete the originals on my iPhone from my MacBook? Does the Photos application have a "double-delete" or "delete here and on IOS device also" feature?

As far as I am aware there is not such a feature unless the photo is in iCloud (guessing it’s not) where the photo would be deleted from all iCloud devices.

I know this doesn’t use USB as you wanted but a alternative is you uploading your photos on your iPhone to an online storage service such as Google Drive which gives you 15 GB free storage (no affiliation), you can then go on to Google Drive on your Mac and view the photos without downloading them and the ones you like you can download straight from there.

I like this method as after you know which ones you like you can download them straight away without importing them again. The only negative is it might take a while to upload all the photos from your iPhone if you have a lot of the, and slow internet.

I have done this several times before.

Improve this answer
1
  • Thank for your answer! While I'm really hoping for something "sans cloude", it's good to remember that G.cloud is an alternative to iCloud. I have a hunch that Apple won't allow file deletion via USB for security or philosophical reasons, but I thought I'd ask just in case there's a way.
    – uhoh
    Feb 16, 2020 at 10:29

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .