Are you your friend group’s photographer? Do you travel quite a bit? Do you love capturing videos of life’s moments? Are you always sending memes to the group chat?
All those photos are probably taking up space on your iPhone. Lucky for you, there are ways to go about deleting quite a bit, or all of your photos at a time – this way, you can get back to capturing the moments you want without worrying about your phone’s storage. Just keep in mind that deleted photos aren’t gone immediately – your iPhone keeps them in the Recently Deleted album for 30 days before they’re permanently removed. And if you’re on iOS 16 or later, you’ll even need Face ID or Touch ID to access that album – it can add an extra layer of protection against accidental deletions.
Back up Your Photos Before Deleting Them
Deleting photos on your iPhone will free up space on your phone so you can use it for other things more freely. If you use your phone for other things more than photos, it will be helpful to have your images stored elsewhere and use the storage on your phone for messages, apps, or other pieces of data.
- Clear unwanted photos: If there are photos you do not want at all, take the time to sort through all of your photos and permanently delete the ones you don’t want backed up. Keep in mind that deleted photos and videos move to the Recently Deleted album, where they remain for 30 days before being permanently removed. Be sure you don’t need a photo before clearing it from that album.
- Merge duplicates: On iOS 16 and iPadOS 16.1 or later, the Duplicates album can automatically detect duplicate photos. When you merge them, your iPhone keeps the highest image quality version along with all relevant data, making it an easy way to slim down your library before backing up.
- iCloud: iCloud is Apple’s cloud storage service and will back your photos up to the cloud so you will still have access to them after deleting them from your device. A free iCloud account includes 5GB of storage, which may not be enough if you have a large photo and video library. You can upgrade your iCloud storage plan as needed. Note that if you disable iCloud Photos, your photos and videos stored on iCloud will be deleted after a maximum of 40 days.
- Mac or iPad: Having multiple Apple devices is beneficial when backing up your photos because transferring between them is straightforward. When you connect your phone to another Apple device, an import screen will automatically appear in the Photos app. You can choose where to import the photos and select which ones you would like to import specifically.
- Google Photos: Google Photos is a seamless and easy way to back up your photos. If you have the app on your iPhone, it will continuously back up your photos in the background.
How to Delete All Photos From iPhone Camera Roll at Once
Apple makes it pretty easy to delete your entire camera roll at once. Before you do so, know that if you have iCloud Photos enabled, you should toggle it off first. Otherwise deleting photos from your iPhone will also remove them from iCloud. To disable it, go to Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud, then Photos and toggle off the iCloud Photos option. Remember that after disabling iCloud Photos, any photos stored on iCloud will be permanently deleted after up to 40 days, so make sure your photos are backed up elsewhere before proceeding.
Once your photos are backed up and stored appropriately, go to your Photos library and tap All Photos. Tap Select and drag your finger across multiple photos. You will see a blue checkmark appear on the photos as you scroll and the page will automatically scroll up or down with your finger.
Once you have the photos selected, tap the trash button, then double-check that you want to delete the photos. Remember that deleted photos are not immediately gone – they are moved to the Recently Deleted album and kept there for 30 days before being permanently removed. If you’re on iOS 16 or later, then you’ll need to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID to access the Recently Deleted album. To permanently delete photos immediately, go to Albums, scroll down to Recently Deleted, unlock it, tap Select, then Delete All.
It also works if there’s a large chunk of photos you want to delete but not necessarily your entire library. Just stop dragging your finger at any point to stop the selection.
To delete a single photo, tap on it to view it, then tap the trash icon at the bottom of the screen and confirm by tapping Delete Photo.
If you’re running iOS 16 or later, it’s also worth checking the Duplicates album under Utilities in the Albums tab. Your iPhone will automatically find duplicate photos and allow you to merge them, keeping the highest quality version along with any relevant metadata – a helpful way to free up space without manually sorting through your library.
How to Permanently Delete Your Photos
Apple gives you a second chance at this point by moving your deleted photos to a “Recently Deleted” album. To free up the space the photos are taking up, you have to also delete them from there. If you leave them, they will automatically be permanently deleted after 30 days.
To delete the photos sooner than that, open the Photos app and find the “Recently Deleted” album. Remember that if you are running iOS 16 or later, you are going to need to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID to access this album, as Apple added this security measure to prevent unauthorized deletion of your photos.
Once inside the Recently Deleted album, tap Select in the upper right corner and you’ll see a Delete All option. You will then have to confirm again that you want to delete the photos. After this step, your photos are permanently deleted and the storage space is freed up.
It is worth mentioning that if your photos are synced to iCloud, they will be removed from your connected devices as well. Remember that a free iCloud account only gives 5GB of storage, so taking care of your deleted photos is a habit to stay on top of your available space.
How to Restore Photos
You can restore pictures if you accidentally delete a photo. But you have to do so within the 30-day period before photos are removed from your “Recently Deleted” album.
If you want to recover an image, make your way back to the “Recently Deleted” album. Remember that if you’re running iOS 16 or later, you’ll need to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID to access this album. Once inside, hit Select, choose the photo or multiple photos you want to recover, then tap Recover All on the bottom right — it will prompt you to confirm, so hit Recover again. Your photo will then be back in your normal photo library. You can then proceed to delete the rest of your Recently Deleted album if you wish.
If you feel you are missing photos, go through this list to see if they might simply be misplaced:
- iCloud: If you are looking for a photo on other devices, make sure iCloud Photos is turned on in your settings. If it is not, this would prevent your photos from syncing across your Apple devices. Keep in mind that a free iCloud account only provides 5GB of storage, which may not be enough to store all of your photos and videos.
- Recently Deleted: It is likely that your misplaced photo is in your “Recently Deleted” folder. Photos remain here for 30 days before being permanently deleted. This is one of those times it comes in handy if you delete a photo by mistake. On iOS 16 and later, you’ll need Face ID or Touch ID to access this album.
- Hidden photos: Apple devices have the option to hide photos so they only appear in a “Hidden” album. You can hide photos by going to the sharing options at the bottom left when looking at an individual picture and scrolling down to select Hide. To find the “Hidden” album, scroll down to the “Utilities” section. Tap the share button and choose Unhide to recover your photo.
- Duplicates album: If you’re running iOS 16 or iPadOS 16.1 or later, your iPhone can automatically detect duplicate photos and group them in a dedicated Duplicates album. When you choose to merge duplicates, your iPhone keeps the highest quality version of the image along with all relevant metadata, so you won’t lose any important photo data.
Find More Tips Through Gazelle
At Gazelle, we want to do more than help our customers securely buy their electronics. We give you tips for iPhone users and more on our blog. Read about factory resetting your iPhone, how to use Apple Pay, staying connected, screenshotting, and more.
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