Running out of storage on your iPhone can be a frustrating experience, and photos and videos often take up the most space. Whether you’re looking to free up memory, declutter your photo library, or prepare your iPhone for a sale or trade-in, knowing how to delete photos effectively is essential. This guide will walk you through various methods to delete photos on your iPhone, from removing individual images to clearing out your entire photo library, and managing your Recently Deleted album.
Before you begin deleting, it’s crucial to back up any photos and videos you want to keep. Deleting photos is a permanent action, and while iOS offers a temporary recovery period, it’s always best to ensure your precious memories are safely stored elsewhere. You can back up your photos to iCloud, your computer, or an external storage device. If you’re using iCloud Photos, remember that deleting photos on your iPhone will also remove them from all other devices synced with the same Apple ID.
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 understand how much space you can reclaim by deleting photos.
Deleting Photos Directly from Your iPhone
The most straightforward way to delete photos is directly from your Photos app. Here’s how to delete individual photos and multiple photos at once:
How to Delete a Single Photo
iPhone showing Delete Photo option
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
- Navigate to the photo or video you wish to delete.
- Tap on the photo to view it in full screen.
- Tap the Trash icon located at the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Confirm your action by tapping Delete Photo in the pop-up menu.
How to Delete Multiple Photos
iPhone showing multiple photos selected in the Photos app
- Open the Photos app.
- Tap Select in the top right corner of the screen.
- Tap on each photo you want to delete to select them. Alternatively, you can drag your finger across multiple photos to select them quickly. Selected photos will have a blue checkmark.
- Once you’ve selected all the photos you want to delete, tap the Trash icon at the bottom right corner.
- Confirm your action by tapping Delete to remove the selected items.
Understanding the “Recently Deleted” Album
When you delete photos using the methods above, they are not immediately and permanently removed from your iPhone. Instead, they are moved to the Recently Deleted album within the Photos app. This acts as a safety net, giving you a chance to recover photos you might have deleted accidentally.
Photos and videos in the Recently Deleted album will remain there for 30 days. After 30 days, they will be automatically and permanently deleted from your device.
Accessing and Managing the “Recently Deleted” Album
- Open the Photos app.
- Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap on Recently Deleted.
- In iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, and later, you may need to use Face ID or Touch ID to unlock and view the Recently Deleted album for privacy. Tap View Album and authenticate if prompted.
Recovering Photos from “Recently Deleted”
- In the Recently Deleted album, tap Select in the top right corner.
- Select the photos or videos you want to recover.
- Tap Recover at the bottom right. To recover all items, tap Recover All.
- Confirm by tapping Recover Photos or Recover All Photos. The recovered items will be moved back to your main Photos Library.
Permanently Deleting Photos from “Recently Deleted”
If you want to permanently delete photos and free up storage space immediately, you need to empty the Recently Deleted album:
- Access the Recently Deleted album as described above.
- Tap Select.
- Select the photos or videos you want to permanently delete, or choose Delete All to remove everything in the album.
- Tap Delete at the bottom left.
- Confirm your action by tapping Delete Photo or Delete [Number] Photos. Be aware that this action is irreversible, and you will not be able to recover these photos.
Deleting Duplicate Photos
If you have many duplicate photos cluttering your library, iOS offers a built-in tool to identify and merge them, helping you save space and organize your collection.
- Open the Photos app.
- Scroll down to the Utilities section.
- If duplicates are detected, you’ll see a Duplicates album. Tap on it.
- Review the duplicate sets. Tap Merge to combine duplicates.
- Confirm by tapping Merge [Number] Items. iOS will keep the highest quality version and move the duplicates to the Recently Deleted album.
The Duplicates album is available on iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, and later. The duplicate detection process runs automatically in the background and may take some time to complete.
Dealing with Photos Synced from a Computer
If you have synced photos to your iPhone from your computer using iTunes or Finder, you cannot delete them directly from the Photos app on your iPhone. You’ll notice the Trash icon is grayed out when you try to delete such photos.
To remove these synced photos, you need to stop syncing photos from your computer. You can find instructions on how to do this on Apple’s support website by searching for “stop syncing photos from computer”. Generally, this involves reconnecting your iPhone to your computer, accessing the sync settings in Finder (or iTunes on older macOS versions), and deselecting photo syncing.
Conclusion
Deleting photos on your iPhone is a straightforward process, whether you want to remove a few images or clear out your entire library. Remember to always back up your important photos before deleting and to manage your Recently Deleted album to either recover accidentally deleted photos or permanently remove them to free up storage space. By following these steps, you can effectively manage your iPhone photo storage and keep your photo library organized. Regularly reviewing and deleting unwanted photos is a good practice to maintain your iPhone’s performance and storage efficiency.
