Disable confirmation on delete request in PHPhotoLibrary

Question

What I am trying to do is to save videos to PHPhotoLibrary, and then remove them when upload to clients remote server in the application completes (basically, photo library serves as temporary storage to add additional layer of security in case anything at all fails (I already save my vides it in the applications directory).

Problem:

The problem is for that to work, everything has to work without input from the user. You can write video to photos library like this:

func storeVideoToLibraryForUpload(upload : SMUpload) {

    if PHPhotoLibrary.authorizationStatus() != PHAuthorizationStatus.Authorized {

        // Don't write to library since this is disallowed by user
        return
    }

    PHPhotoLibrary.sharedPhotoLibrary().performChanges({ () -> Void in

        // Write asset
        let assetRequest = PHAssetChangeRequest.creationRequestForAssetFromVideoAtFileURL(NSURL(fileURLWithPath: upload.nonsecureFilePath!)!)
        let assetPlaceholder = assetRequest.placeholderForCreatedAsset
        let localIdentifier = assetPlaceholder.localIdentifier

        // Store local identifier for later use
        upload.localAssetIdentifier = localIdentifier

    }, completionHandler: { (success, error) -> Void in
        ....
    })
}

And that works flawlessly, I get local identifier, I store it for later use.. Unicorns and rainbows.

Now when I want to remove that video immediately after upload finishes, I call following:

func removeVideoFromLibraryForUpload(upload : SMUpload) {

    // Only proceed if there is asset identifier (video previously stored)
    if let assetIdentifier = upload.localAssetIdentifier {

        // Find asset that we previously stored
        let assets = PHAsset.fetchAssetsWithLocalIdentifiers([assetIdentifier], options: PHFetchOptions())

        // Fetch asset, if found, delete it
        if let fetchedAssets = assets.firstObject as? PHAsset {

            PHPhotoLibrary.sharedPhotoLibrary().performChanges({ () -> Void in

                // Delete asset
                PHAssetChangeRequest.deleteAssets([fetchedAssets])

            }, completionHandler: { (success, error) -> Void in
                ...
            })
        } 
    }
}

Which successfully deletes the video, BUT user have to confirm deletion first. That is a problem as that backing up won't work.

I obviously know why there is confirmation (so you don't clear entire user library for example, but the thing is, My app made the video - and so I thought there will be way around it, since as an "owner" I should not be doing that, or at least have option to disable confirmation.

Thanks in advance!

TLDR: How can I disable confirmation on delete request, if my application created that content? (I don't want to delete anything else).

Note: Somebody can probably say this is rather strange thing to do but the application is distributed internally and there is good reason to do it like this (the video content is too valuable to be lost, even if user deletes the application for some reason, or there is anything at all that goes wrong, we need to be able to preserve the videos), so please don't question that and just focus your attention on the question :)

Answer 1

I cannot see a way to avoid the delete confirmation. It is an implementation detail of the Photos framework, similar to the way you cannot prevent the device from asking the user's permission to use the microphone when your app tries to use it, and is a matter of security & trust. Once you have saved an asset to the device photo library your app is no longer the owner of that asset, so as you noted in your question the device must of course ensure the app has the user's permission before it goes about deleting such data.

You can never entirely safeguard your users' data against their own unpredictable behaviour - if they decide to remove your app, or delete a particular asset from within Photos, it is up to them. I think your best option is to either put up with the built-in delete confirmation, or to provide a guide to your users that makes it clear that they should be careful to protect this important data by backing up their device, and not deleting the app!

If you did decide to stick to this approach, perhaps the best thing you could do is to prepare the user for the fact that their device may ask them for confirmation to delete a file that is being uploaded to your own servers. For example, put up your own modal alert just before trying to delete the asset. I wouldn't normally suggest that kind of approach for a public shipping app, but since you're only distributing internally it may be acceptable for your team.