How to Erase All Photos: A Complete Guide for iPhone and iPad

Managing photos on your iPhone or iPad can become overwhelming over time. Whether you’re freeing up storage, preparing to sell your device, or simply decluttering your digital life, knowing how to effectively erase all your photos is essential. This comprehensive guide will walk you through various methods to delete photos, ensuring you understand each step to manage your photo library efficiently.

Before you proceed with deleting your precious memories, it’s crucial to ensure you’ve backed up any photos and videos you wish to keep. Utilizing services like iCloud Photos, Google Photos, or even a local computer backup can save you from permanent loss. Remember, when using iCloud Photos, deleting a photo on one device will remove it from all devices connected to the same Apple ID. To manage your device storage effectively, navigate to Settings > General > [Device] Storage to see your available space.

Deleting Photos and Videos: Initial Steps

When you delete photos or videos from your iPhone or iPad, they aren’t immediately gone forever. Instead, they are moved to the “Recently Deleted” album for a 30-day grace period. This feature offers a safety net in case you accidentally delete something important. After 30 days, these items are permanently erased from your device and iCloud, if you’re using iCloud Photos.

It’s important to note that if your photos were initially synced from your computer to your iPhone or iPad, you cannot directly delete them from the Photos app. In such cases, you’ll need to stop syncing photos from your computer first. If the Trash icon appears grayed out when you attempt to delete, this is likely the reason. You can find instructions on how to stop syncing in Apple’s support documentation.

Step-by-Step: Deleting a Single Photo

iPhone screen showing the steps to delete a single photo, highlighting the delete icon and confirmation prompt.

To delete a single photo or video, follow these simple steps:

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Locate and select the specific photo or video you intend to delete.
3. Tap the Trash can icon, usually located at the bottom of the screen.
4. Confirm your action by tapping Delete Photo (or Delete Video).

Step-by-Step: Deleting Multiple Photos

iPhone display demonstrating how to select and delete multiple photos at once within the Photos app using the select feature.

For deleting multiple photos or videos simultaneously, the process is equally straightforward:

1. Open the Photos application.
2. Tap Select in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Tap on each photo or video you wish to delete, or drag your finger across multiple items to select them in bulk. Selected items will usually have a checkmark.
4. Once you’ve selected all the items, tap the Trash icon.
5. Confirm the deletion when prompted to remove the selected items.

Managing Duplicate Photos for Efficient Erasure

If you are aiming to erase all unwanted photos, dealing with duplicates is a crucial step in cleaning up your library effectively. iOS and iPadOS have a built-in feature to detect and merge duplicate photos, streamlining your photo collection and making deletion more efficient.

How to Delete Duplicate Photos

1. Open the Photos app.
2. Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap on Duplicates. This album automatically groups together photos and videos that appear to be duplicates.
3. Review the suggested duplicates.
4. Tap Merge to combine the duplicates. This process keeps the highest quality version and moves the other duplicates to the “Recently Deleted” album.
5. Confirm by tapping Merge [Number] Items.

This feature, available on iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, and later, intelligently identifies duplicates, helping you quickly reduce redundancy in your photo library before proceeding with further deletions. The duplicate detection process runs automatically in the background and may take some time to complete depending on the size of your library.

Recovering Deleted Photos: Reversing Accidental Erasure

Before you permanently erase photos, remember that you have a 30-day window to recover anything you’ve deleted. This is a crucial step if you’ve accidentally deleted photos you intended to keep.

Steps to Recover Deleted Photos

1. Go to your Photos app.
2. Scroll down to Utilities and select the Recently Deleted album.
3. On iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, and later, you may need to tap View Album and use Face ID or Touch ID to unlock this album for privacy reasons.
4. Tap Select, and then choose the photos or videos you want to recover. To recover everything, you may have an option like “Recover All”.
5. Tap the More button (often represented by three dots) and then tap Recover.
6. Confirm your action by tapping Recover Photo (or Recover Video).

Recovered photos and videos will be restored to their original locations in your Library. Utilize this recovery process before you proceed to permanently erase photos, especially if you are aiming to “erase all photos” but want to ensure no accidental loss of valuable memories.

Option to Unlock Recently Deleted Album by Default

For added convenience, you can adjust settings to make the Recently Deleted album accessible without Face ID or Touch ID each time. However, note that this might reduce privacy.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Photos.
3. Toggle off Use Face ID (or Touch ID).

Turning this off will also unlock the Hidden album by default. This setting can be useful if you frequently access deleted photos, but consider the security implications.

Permanently Erasing Photos: Final Deletion

If your goal is to truly “erase all photos” and ensure they are completely removed from your device, you need to empty the “Recently Deleted” album. This action is irreversible, so proceed with caution and ensure you have backups of anything important.

Steps to Permanently Delete Photos

1. Open Photos.
2. Scroll down to Utilities and tap Recently Deleted.
3. If prompted, use Face ID or Touch ID to access the album.
4. Tap Select.
5. Choose the photos and videos you want to permanently delete. To erase everything in this album, look for an option like “Delete All”.
6. Tap the More button, then tap Delete.
7. Confirm by tapping Delete Photo to permanently erase the selected items.

Once you delete photos from the “Recently Deleted” album, they are gone permanently and cannot be recovered. This is the final step to truly erase all photos from your iPhone or iPad.

By following these steps, you can effectively manage and erase photos on your iPhone and iPad, whether you’re deleting a few images or aiming to clear out your entire photo library. Remember to always back up your important photos before performing any major deletions to avoid permanent loss.