If you are a Windows user, you might think this is a silly question, but if you are using an Apple Mac, you will be grateful we brought it up, because you have been foraging the internet trying to find the way to delete images from your Ricoh Theta camera!
Unfortunately the Ricoh Theta 360º cameras are not very IOS friendly and have even gone as far to suspend their support to anyone using an IOS device with their product (who knows what’s happening there!!) so we have put a small tutorial together to help you along if you are and Apple lover.
Quick disclaimer though: We are NOT and official Theta Company and the below tips have worked for us but does not mean it will work for everyone so we are not liable if any of the below information breaks your camera! (shouldn’t do, but hey, there’s nutters out there and we don’t want any trouble!)
Access the SD card to view your images / videos
To access your SD card you need to do a bit of finger gymnastics 🙂 hold de WIFI & shutter button at the same time while plugging in your camera to your apple device using the USB (yes you need 2 hands and long fingers!)
Now you can see the SD show up in your USB menu and access the card to take the images off and put them as files on your laptop.
This is also the only way to get the 360 videos transfered to your computer without your IOS device converting the file.
Delete images from your SD card permanently
Here’s what you absolutely NEVER should do: reformat the SD Card (READ NEVER!!!) Trust us, we learned the hard way!
If you have already reformatted your card and now you are feverishly looking online for the solution, let me stop you there… there is no solution! You have deleted the memory and along with it the software that makes your camera work (yeah, great work Theta!) Get in touch with Theta and ask for a replacement if you still have a guarantee. You can also look at this blog: How to open your Theta to access the SD card if you feel ballsy!
Here’s what you should have done:
1- Delete images from your Ricoh Theta camera using your Smartphone. (see here how to from Theta Tutorials). If you are lucky, it will have deleted all your pictures and you can continue using the camera over and over without any trouble. However, it might be that you deleted the images but your memory still reads as empty… then move to option 2:
2 – You will now have to connect the camera to your computer. If you use Windows, LUCKY YOU!! you can stop reading now and follow the instructions given to you on-screen when you connect the camera 🙂 If you are IOS, here’s how:
- Connect the camera to your computer / laptop pressing the WIFI and shutter button at the same time while inserting the USB (try not to break any fingers in the process)
- Look for the RICOHDCX folder that should now appear in your finder menu and look for the .Trashes folder. (if you can’t see this folder you need to “activate” to view your hidden folders in Mac)
- Locate the .Trashes folder and within that folder, locate the 503 folder. In this folder you should find all your deleted items. Delete these items and you should have your memory back!
You would think after selling thousands of these nifty machines, Theta would have sorted their IOS issues out, but it seems they are not that bothered, so we shall continue to break out fingers to get the desired results. Perhaps the next version comes out with a removable SD card… wouldn’t that be bliss??
Let me know in the comments if you have found a better way to delete images from your Ricoh Theta camera or if we were able to help you out with this blog!
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