Canon Camera Connect: How to delete thousands of empty EOS R folders on iphone XR

[mmcclain]

A few months ago I thought I'd try to transfer my photos from EOS R via Canon Camera Connect. I guess something went wrong because it only copied 1 photo out of 100+ . It was stuck on 1 of XXX so I stoped it. The result was over three thousand empty Canon EOS R photo folders. Yes I can delete them 1 at a time, but that would take years. Since Camera Connect put them there is there anything Canon can do to delete them? I've tried a dozen suggestions but non work. Can you create a new app to check if empty canon folders exist and if so then delete all them. 

[Mark35mmF2 · Accepted solution]

Hey there,

The most successful solution I have heard to something like this is making sure your iCloud account is set up to mirror the files on your phone and then batch delete them from a computer via iCloud. Since iPhones don't have a mass selector function for deleting file folders there is not really an easy way to do this directly from the phone aside from what you already mentioned which may take forever, but the iCloud method seems to have worked for a lot of people.

[Mark35mmF2 · Accepted solution]

Hey there,

The most successful solution I have heard to something like this is making sure your iCloud account is set up to mirror the files on your phone and then batch delete them from a computer via iCloud. Since iPhones don't have a mass selector function for deleting file folders there is not really an easy way to do this directly from the phone aside from what you already mentioned which may take forever, but the iCloud method seems to have worked for a lot of people.

[mmcclain · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the quick response. It worked. What I did was:

Copied all my pictures, except a hand full, from iphone to backups.

Turned on iCloud on my iphone and then on my mac.

After 10 minutes or so all the images were up on iCloud. I only had a few images on phone so it would not take very long.

Logged into icloud and selected My Albums on the left side of screen.

On the right side showed all 2200 EOS R albums.

I selected first one and scrolled down to last one.

I selected trash can at top right and it took about a minute and they were gone.

About two minutes later they were all gone from my iphone.

Thanks again.

[LoRob]

This is not really a solution. It is a work-around for a sloppy Canon Connect app that has created this problem for some time. Canon needs to fix this so we don't end up with thousands of empty albums on our iPhones. Lazy!

[vinceryan0]

Well it’s February 2022 and the Canon connect app is still broken!! I see absolutely no attempt be Canon to fix what should be a simple fix. Is there another App we can use to transfer photos from a Canon camera because theirs is an embarrassment!! I would never recommend anyone but a canon camera until this issue is fixed. 

[TJ1]

Canon Camera Connect has created 6458 empty albums on my phone that is replicated to Icloud. Thay are so many that Icloud can not cope with it and crashed or freezes. This mean I can not delete them in Icloud as per propesed work around. So this app has destroyed my albums function om my Iphone and Icloud. Talkde to Apple thay can not help. How do I fix this problem?

[JHarryF]

The problem: THOUSANDS of empty “albums” on my 6th Generation iPad with iOS 15.1 after recently downloading photos from my Canon Rebel EOS SL2 using Canon Connect WiFi — and having pulled my hair out trying unsuccessfully to use various suggestions here and elsewhere;

Goal: Get rid of the empty EOS Rebel SL2 albums without deleting my pictures from my iPad nor from iCloud;

Solution: here’s what FINALLY did the trick for me:

SETTINGS

Click on YOUR NAME

Click on ICLOUD

Click on PHOTOS

Turn OFF iCloud Photos. It will warn you about removing photos. Click on Continue. Wait a couple of minutes, then turn it back on.

Voila! At last, all the empty Canon albums were gone and my photos were still on my iPad. 

[vinceryan0]

So you managed to delete the albums created by the Canon bug, but how do you stop that app from doing it again every time you connect???

[mmcclain]

After I got the folders deleted, I never use Canon Connect to transfer my files. I use a SD card reader. 

[vinceryan0]

Thanks , but that defeats the purpose of buying a camera with a Wi-Fi connect feature!!