When Apple launched iCloud and its Photo Stream service, there was a glaring omission: Apple didn't include the ability to delete photos that had been uploaded to Photo Stream. This was a problem that could potentially lead to some embarrassing situations.
There was actually a roundabout way of deleting photos from Photo Stream, but it required you to delete your entire Photo Stream, which wasn't very convenient. When the iOS 5.1 developer preview was released, the ability to delete individual photos had been added. There was hope!
With the release of iOS 5.1 and iPhoto 9.2.2 for the Mac, users everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief when it comes to managing their photos on Photo Stream. Deleting photos on one device, whether it's an iPad, iPhone, or Mac, will delete the photo from every device connected to Photo Stream and running the latest software.
- Deleting a photo from your Photo Stream in iPhoto is as simple as viewing your Photo Stream album, selecting a photo, and either pressing Delete on your keyboard, or right-clicking on the photo and selecting "Delete from Photo Stream." You will be asked to confirm that you do want to delete the photo; it will then magically disappear from your Photo Stream.
- To delete a photo on your iOS device, you will need to go into the Photos app, view your Photo Stream album, and then tap on the share button. Select the photos you want to delete by tapping on them, and then tap the Delete button. Again, you will have to confirm you do indeed want to delete these photos from your Photo Stream.
If the option to delete photos isn't present for you, on either your Mac or iOS device, make sure you are running the latest version of iPhoto and iOS.
Judging from the traffic increase on the original story concerning deleting photos from Photo Stream the morning after Halloween, this is a feature that many of you are going to be very thankful for.