Delete Photos from iCloud

I don't use iCloud, but somehow several hundred photos from my iPad got uploaded there. I have turned off uploading and synching photos on my iPad through Settings/iCloud/Photos/iCloud Photos, My Photo Stream, and Shared albums, but my photos remain on iCloud. Since I have turned uploading off, there is a message on my iCloud that reads, iCloud Photos has been disabled.You have 18 days remaining to make sure you have a complete copy of your photos and videos,which I presume means the photos in the Deleted folder will disappear on their own in about 2 1/2 weeks, but I can't be so sure about all the pictures in my Library, which I also want deleted.

There is a Delete icon at the top in the toolbar when I am in my Library, but it is greyed out:  Library.jpg   3.64KB   0 downloads

The only one that isn't greyed out is the Download icon, which lights up when I select one or more photos in the Library. In the Recently Deleted folder there is a button that reads "Delete [1] item," but it, too, is greyed out:  Recently Deleted.jpg   1.82KB   0 downloads

I tried turning Photos and synching back on on my iPad, but that had noeffect. In fact, all of the methods I found upon doing some internet research on this topic did not work or offered instructions as to how to delete items of my iPad, which I do not want to do. My iPad is exactly the way I want it right now.

Any suggestions?  Thanks very much.

Edited by greg18, 21 May 2022 - 12:55 PM.

greg18, Yes, I have checked the Recently Deleted folder, and photos have been disappearing as they hit the 30 (?) day limit. I'm down to just a few left there (after more than a thousand). If that continues, they will all be gone in about a week. However, there are still almost 500 photos in my Library and I still don't see any way of getting rid of them. I've tried downloading a few to see if it would let me delete one after that, but no luck. The trash can is still greyed out. Thanks for your suggestion.

I finally gave up and called Apple support. They informed me this is "expected behavior." Once iCloud synch is turned off, the photos on iCloud become unavailable for any modification for 30 days. At that point, they will disappear. Even the tech who helped me did not know this. He had to look it up.

Thanks for looking into this tigerdg1.  I run into this once in a while.  Let us ponder "expected behavior" (it not working) versus "it just works."  Why Apple won't let us delete our own photos when we want = ???.  Another reason to avoid "the cloud."  The problem is if you don't want your photos or videos on icloud... if you had signed out of icloud on a device and then signed back in for whatever reason, it turns on all icloud stuff automatically, and vacuums up all of your photos, filling your icloud with stuff you don't want on it.  Then sending you "icloud is full" / buy more space messages.  "Nice feature?"  No I am not buying more icloud space because Apple won't let me delete my own data.  Apple does a lot of stuff right then they do something incredibly stupid like this.  I wonder what Steve Jobs would do if he couldn't delete his own photos?

Hey, leeward1, Yes, I think this is pretty much crazy, too. The main reason I don't want my photos on iCloud is I don't trust the security (I have a different backup method I do trust). But yes, the inability to do what I want with the data there is a huge drawback, too. Apple Support also told me that I could turn synching back on (something that I tried) and then deletion would work again--but it might take up to 24 hours for everything to synch up so that deletion is possible.  I didn't wait long enough, so it didn't work. Still, even if I did that, deletion from iCloud would result in deletion from my phone, too, which I didn't want. Now I check the synch settings on my Apple devices every so often to make sure they haven't turned on again without my intention.

agreed on security.  yeah i thought about turning icloud back on from the phone then re-trying delete, but i'm thinking that would delete them from phone And cloud... i want to keep some on phone and delete all from cloud.  so yeah.  maybe just wait out the 30 days and check back. 

1. On a computer, go to the iCloud website (www.icloud.com) and log in with your Apple ID and password.
2. Click on the Photos app.
3. Select the photos you want to delete by clicking on them. You can select multiple photos by holding down the "Command" key on a Mac or the "Ctrl" key on a Windows PC while clicking on each photo.
4. Click on the trash can icon at the top of the screen to delete the selected photos.
5. In the pop-up window that appears, click on "Delete" to confirm that you want to permanently delete the selected photos.

If the "Delete" button is still greyed out, it's possible that the photos are still in the process of being deleted. Wait for a few minutes and try again.

kencarter77, Yes, I tried that. It did not work. As noted above, I even contacted Apple support and they told me the inability to remove the pictures was "expected behavior." I waited the requisite 30 days and everything finally did disappear. Thanks for your suggestion.