# Mass deletion via API?

**URL:** <https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159>\
**Category:** Imagery\
**Created:** [January 4, 2026, 10:02am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159 "2026-01-04T10:02:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![enteq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@enteq](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/enteq)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 10:02am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159/1 "2026-01-04T10:02:32Z")

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I have found that I apparently erroneously uploaded some sequences over 10 years ago with multiple copies of each picture, some of them small thumbnails.

As I don’t have the originals anymore, I didn’t want to delete the sequences and re-upload, but instead I wrote a script that lists the duplicate picture IDs. Now I have text files with about 1400 IDs that should be deleted.  
Is there any way to use the API to delete those pictures?

The affected sequences are:

H0cvMAIwO6x4jE0zwyTG4A  
yhN9IqPk6XnrsDi6UUdgyw  
3fxA8Kg4VEvY0FDqXSUY4w  
aybop2JZjvIpm3NaUfzffA  
Dc4Vfrn1j5dy9yvf7qRTJA

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![boris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.mapillary.com/boris/32/71767_2.png) [@boris](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/boris)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 11:53am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159/2 "2026-01-05T11:53:46Z")

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Unfortunately I don’t believe that the API has a call to delete images. You could maybe record a little macro to load each image and click the delete button? E.g. [https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=\](https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=%5C)[image id here]

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**Author:** ![asturksever](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.mapillary.com/asturksever/32/72007_2.png) [@asturksever](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/asturksever)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 6:38pm UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159/3 "2026-01-08T18:38:29Z")

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Hey @enteq ,

Thanks for keeping Mapillary coverage clean. I’ve scheduled deletion for these sequences and it should be deleted in a matter of days.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![enteq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@enteq](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/enteq)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 7:48pm UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159/4 "2026-01-08T19:48:27Z")

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Glad to help, but there might be a misunderstanding: I had hoped to have specific images deleted, while keeping the sequence good ones 😕 as I don’t have the originals anymore.  
So I now have these files:

delete\_list\_3fxA8Kg4VEvY0FDqXSUY4w.txt  
delete\_list\_Dc4Vfrn1j5dy9yvf7qRTJA.txt  
delete\_list\_H0cvMAIwO6x4jE0zwyTG4A.txt  
delete\_list\_aybop2JZjvIpm3NaUfzffA.txt  
delete\_list\_yhN9IqPk6XnrsDi6UUdgyw.txt

where the shortest one “delete\_list\_Dc4Vfrn1j5dy9yvf7qRTJA.txt” contains the “bad” 3/4 of the sequence Dc4Vfrn1j5dy9yvf7qRTJA:

> 741144176551702  
> 839278726940612  
> 174112707812000  
> 300111148376573  
> 325647555794421  
> 1393017897714818  
> 574787690108004  
> 317553506411021  
> 522961405736505  
> 292915262288673  
> 286293202994407  
> 620302629367771  
> 294924812268322  
> 490696842119912  
> 1046145252457947  
> 4003978963031853  
> 459279495155645  
> 456243038785849  
> 1626473647542349  
> 474370107015099  
> 533825040966052  
> 167921448567864  
> 769185230411535  
> 151898883542764  
> 765319600851512  
> 248362917073189  
> 191132069509205  
> 493874751798946  
> 4187732511245021  
> 495642038288631  
> 776245609696722  
> 877023679525718  
> 510361330371919  
> 204636677908164  
> 469558770925633  
> 945198489589929  
> 3782464841866474  
> 497637784694216  
> 150701986995271  
> 781095232525508  
> 2859409517658776  
> 273702657742675

Luckily I managed to download the “good” files and might be able to re-upload them, although naturally they will be processed a 2nd time then…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![enteq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@enteq](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/enteq)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159/5 "2026-01-08T19:52:07Z")

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This is my current script for this:

> `import argparse`  
> `import requests`  
> `import os`  
> `import piexif`  
> `from datetime import datetime`  
> `from tqdm import tqdm`
> 
> `# export MAPILLARY_TOKEN='your_token_here'`  
> `ACCESS_TOKEN = os.getenv('MAPILLARY_TOKEN', 'YOUR_ACTUAL_TOKEN_HERE')`
> 
> `def to_deg_high_prec(value, loc):`  
> ` """Convert decimal coordinates to DMS with 1,000,000x precision."""`  
> ` abs_value = abs(value)`  
> ` deg = int(abs_value)`  
> ` t1 = (abs_value - deg) * 60`  
> ` min = int(t1)`  
> ` sec = (t1 - min) * 60`  
> ` ref = loc[0] if value < 0 else loc[1]`  
> ` return (deg, 1), (min, 1), (int(round(sec * 1000000)), 1000000), ref`
> 
> `def write_full_metadata(file_path, lat, lon, alt, heading, captured_at, orient, make, model):`  
> ` """Writes GPS, Heading, Orientation, Date, and Camera info to the image."""`  
> ` try:`  
> ` dt_obj = datetime.fromtimestamp(captured_at / 1000.0)`  
> ` exif_date = dt_obj.strftime("%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S")`
> 
> ` zeroth_ifd = {`  
> ` piexif.ImageIFD.Make: str(make) if make else "Unknown",`  
> ` piexif.ImageIFD.Model: str(model) if model else "Unknown",`  
> ` piexif.ImageIFD.DateTime: exif_date,`  
> ` piexif.ImageIFD.Orientation: orient if orient else 1`  
> ` }`
> 
> ` exif_ifd = {`  
> ` piexif.ExifIFD.DateTimeOriginal: exif_date,`  
> ` piexif.ExifIFD.DateTimeDigitized: exif_date,`  
> ` }`
> 
> ` lat_deg, lat_min, lat_sec, lat_ref = to_deg_high_prec(lat, ["S", "N"])`  
> ` lon_deg, lon_min, lon_sec, lon_ref = to_deg_high_prec(lon, ["W", "E"])`  
> ` `  
> ` gps_ifd = {`  
> ` piexif.GPSIFD.GPSLatitudeRef: lat_ref,`  
> ` piexif.GPSIFD.GPSLatitude: (lat_deg, lat_min, lat_sec),`  
> ` piexif.GPSIFD.GPSLongitudeRef: lon_ref,`  
> ` piexif.GPSIFD.GPSLongitude: (lon_deg, lon_min, lon_sec),`  
> ` piexif.GPSIFD.GPSVersionID: (2, 2, 0, 0)`  
> ` }`
> 
> ` if alt is not None:`  
> ` gps_ifd[piexif.GPSIFD.GPSAltitudeRef] = 0 if alt >= 0 else 1`  
> ` gps_ifd[piexif.GPSIFD.GPSAltitude] = (int(round(abs(alt) * 1000)), 1000)`
> 
> ` if heading is not None:`  
> ` gps_ifd[piexif.GPSIFD.GPSImgDirectionRef] = "T"`  
> ` gps_ifd[piexif.GPSIFD.GPSImgDirection] = (int(round(heading * 100)), 100)`
> 
> ` exif_dict = {"0th": zeroth_ifd, "Exif": exif_ifd, "GPS": gps_ifd}`  
> ` exif_bytes = piexif.dump(exif_dict)`  
> ` piexif.insert(exif_bytes, file_path)`  
> ` except Exception as e:`  
> ` print(f"Error tagging {file_path}: {e}")`
> 
> `def process_sequence(sequence_id, size_threshold):`  
> ` headers = {"Authorization": f"OAuth {ACCESS_TOKEN}"}`  
> ` list_url = f"https://graph.mapillary.com/image_ids?sequence_id={sequence_id}"`  
> ` `  
> ` try:`  
> ` res = requests.get(list_url, headers=headers)`  
> ` res.raise_for_status()`  
> ` image_ids = [item['id'] for item in res.json().get('data', [])]`  
> ` except Exception as e:`  
> ` print(f"API Error: {e}"); return`
> 
> ` valid_data = []`  
> ` to_delete_report = []`  
> ` delete_ids_only = []`  
> ` seen_metadata = set()`  
> ` `  
> ` fields = "id,width,height,geometry,compass_angle,thumb_original_url,captured_at,exif_orientation,make,model"`  
> ` `  
> ` # 1. Analysis Phase`  
> ` for img_id in tqdm(image_ids, desc="Analyzing Sequence", unit="img"):`  
> ` try:`  
> ` data = requests.get(f"https://graph.mapillary.com/{img_id}?fields={fields}", headers=headers).json()`  
> ` w, h = data.get("width", 0), data.get("height", 0)`  
> ` coords = data.get("geometry", {}).get("coordinates")`  
> ` heading = data.get("compass_angle")`  
> ` `  
> ` meta_key = (coords[0], coords[1], heading) if coords else None`  
> ` `  
> ` reason = None`  
> ` if w <= size_threshold or h <= size_threshold:`  
> ` reason = f"Small Size ({w}x{h}px)"`  
> ` elif meta_key and meta_key in seen_metadata:`  
> ` reason = f"Duplicate Position/Heading"`  
> ` `  
> ` if reason:`  
> ` to_delete_report.append(f"ID: {img_id} | Reason: {reason}")`  
> ` delete_ids_only.append(img_id)`  
> ` else:`  
> ` if meta_key: seen_metadata.add(meta_key)`  
> ` valid_data.append(data)`  
> ` except: continue`
> 
> ` # 2. Output Deletion Reports`  
> ` with open(f"cleanup_report_{sequence_id}.txt", "w") as f:`  
> ` f.write(f"Cleanup Report for {sequence_id}\n" + "\n".join(to_delete_report))`  
> ` `  
> ` with open(f"delete_list_{sequence_id}.txt", "w") as f:`  
> ` f.write("\n".join(delete_ids_only))`
> 
> ` # 3. Download & Tag Phase`  
> ` if valid_data:`  
> ` folder = f"mapillary_{sequence_id}"`  
> ` os.makedirs(folder, exist_ok=True)`  
> ` for item in tqdm(valid_data, desc="Downloading & Tagging", unit="img"):`  
> ` img_res = requests.get(item["thumb_original_url"], timeout=30)`  
> ` if img_res.status_code == 200:`  
> ` path = os.path.join(folder, f"{item['id']}.jpg")`  
> ` with open(path, 'wb') as f: f.write(img_res.content)`  
> ` `  
> ` c = item["geometry"]["coordinates"]`  
> ` write_full_metadata(`  
> ` path, c[1], c[0], c[2] if len(c) > 2 else None,`  
> ` item.get("compass_angle"), item.get("captured_at"),`  
> ` item.get("exif_orientation"), item.get("make"), item.get("model")`  
> ` )`
> 
> ` print(f"\nDone. Flagged: {len(delete_ids_only)} | Downloaded: {len(valid_data)}")`
> 
> `if __name__ == " __main__":`  
> ` parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()`  
> ` parser.add_argument("sequence_id")`  
> ` parser.add_argument("--size", type=int, default=100)`  
> ` args = parser.parse_args()`  
> ` process_sequence(args.sequence_id, args.size)`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![asturksever](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.mapillary.com/asturksever/32/72007_2.png) [@asturksever](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/asturksever)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 11:49am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159/6 "2026-01-09T11:49:50Z")

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@enteq Apologising for the misunderstanding, I’m happy to revert deletion if needed. Since you got the original good files, it would be easier to upload them again. Please let me know how you want to move ahead.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![enteq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@enteq](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/enteq)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 11:52am UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159/7 "2026-01-09T11:52:26Z")

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I will then just try to reupload the downloaded \_original.jp files, still easier than creating a click-bot. Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![asturksever](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.mapillary.com/asturksever/32/72007_2.png) [@asturksever](https://forum.mapillary.com/u/asturksever)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 12:15pm UTC](https://forum.mapillary.com/t/mass-deletion-via-api/10159/8 "2026-01-09T12:15:16Z")

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Thanks @enteq for letting us know, also sharing your script 🙂