How to Delete Photos from Your iPhone: A Complete Guide

Managing photos on your iPhone is crucial, whether you’re freeing up storage, decluttering memories, or ensuring privacy. This guide provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to delete photos from your iPhone, covering everything from removing single images to permanently erasing them. We’ll also explore how to recover accidentally deleted photos and manage photos synced from your computer or iCloud.

Understanding Photo Deletion on Your iPhone

Before you begin deleting, it’s important to understand how your iPhone handles photo deletion. When you delete photos and videos from your Photos app, they aren’t immediately gone forever. Instead, they are moved to the “Recently Deleted” album, acting like a recycle bin for your photos. This gives you a safety net to recover photos if you change your mind or accidentally delete something important. Photos remain in the “Recently Deleted” album for 30 days, after which they are permanently deleted.

If you are using iCloud Photos, deleting a photo on your iPhone will also delete it from all other devices signed in to the same iCloud account. Therefore, it’s vital to ensure you’ve backed up any photos you wish to keep before deleting them, especially if you use iCloud Photo Library.

To check your iPhone storage and see how much space photos are occupying, navigate to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. This will give you an overview of your storage usage and help you decide if deleting photos is necessary to free up space.

Step-by-Step Guide to Deleting Photos

Deleting photos from your iPhone is a straightforward process. Here’s how to do it for single photos, multiple photos, and even duplicate images.

Deleting a Single Photo or Video

If you need to remove just one photo or video, follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
2. Locate and tap on the photo or video you wish to delete to view it in full screen.
3. Tap the Trash can icon located at the bottom right corner of the screen.
4. Confirm your action by tapping Delete Photo (or Delete Video).

iPhone screen displaying the 'Delete Photo' option after tapping the trash icon.

Deleting Multiple Photos or Videos

To delete several photos at once, saving you time and effort, use the “Select” feature:

1. Open the Photos app.
2. Tap Select in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Tap on each photo or video you want to delete. A blue checkmark will appear on each selected item. Alternatively, you can drag your finger across multiple photos to select a range quickly.
4. Once you have selected all the items, tap the Trash can icon at the bottom right.
5. Confirm by tapping Delete to remove the selected items.

iPhone screen showing multiple photos selected with blue checkmarks in the Photos app, ready for deletion.

Deleting Duplicate Photos

iOS has a built-in feature to identify and delete duplicate photos, which is especially helpful for freeing up space. This feature is available on iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, and later.

1. Open the Photos app.
2. Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap the Duplicates album. If no duplicates are found, this album won’t appear.
3. Review the identified duplicates.
4. Tap Merge to combine the duplicates. This keeps the highest quality version and moves the others to the “Recently Deleted” album.
5. Confirm by tapping Merge [Number] Items.

Recovering Deleted Photos from the “Recently Deleted” Album

Accidentally deleted a photo? Don’t worry! You can recover it from the “Recently Deleted” album within 30 days.

1. Open the Photos app.
2. Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap the Recently Deleted album.
3. In iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, or later, you may need to use Face ID or Touch ID to unlock this album for privacy. Tap View Album and authenticate.
4. Tap Select in the top right corner.
5. Select the photos or videos you want to recover. To recover all, you can choose “Recover All” at the bottom.
6. Tap Recover at the bottom right, then Recover Photo (or Recover Video) to confirm. The recovered photos will be restored to your main Photos Library.

Permanently Deleting Photos from Your iPhone

If you want to permanently delete photos and videos immediately, without waiting for the 30-day period, you need to empty the “Recently Deleted” album. Be absolutely sure you want to do this, as photos deleted from this album cannot be recovered.

1. Open the Photos app.
2. Scroll down to Utilities and tap Recently Deleted.
3. Unlock the album if required by Face ID or Touch ID.
4. Tap Select.
5. You can select individual photos to permanently delete or choose Delete All at the bottom left.
6. Confirm permanent deletion by tapping Delete and then Delete Photo (or Delete Video).

Managing Photos Synced from Your Computer

If you sync photos to your iPhone using iTunes or Finder from your computer, you cannot directly delete these photos from the Photos app on your iPhone. The delete option will be grayed out. To remove these synced photos, you must stop syncing them from your computer.

To stop syncing photos:

1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.
2. Open Finder on macOS Catalina or later, or iTunes on older macOS versions or Windows.
3. Select your iPhone when it appears.
4. Go to the Photos tab.
5. Uncheck the box that says “Sync Photos.”
6. Choose to “Remove Photos” when prompted to delete previously synced photos from your iPhone.
7. Sync your iPhone to apply the changes.

After stopping the sync, the photos synced from your computer will be removed from your iPhone. You can then manage your photos directly on your device.

Conclusion

Deleting photos from your iPhone is an essential skill for managing storage and privacy. Whether you’re deleting single images or performing a major clean-up, understanding the deletion process, including the “Recently Deleted” album and iCloud implications, ensures you manage your photo library effectively. By following these steps, you can confidently delete photos from your iPhone, recover them if needed, and keep your photo collection organized and optimized.