How to Mass Delete Images and Photos in Bulk on iPhone, iPad

Free up space on your iOS device by getting rid of old pictures

What to Know

  • In the Photos app, tap Photos, locate the date or group of photos you want to delete, tap Select, then tap the trash can.
  • To permanently remove deleted items, tap Albums, scroll down and tap the Recently Deleted folder, then tap Select > Delete All.
  • If you sync your photos to iCloud Photos, deleting the images on your iPhone deletes them from every synced device.

This article explains how to mass delete photos from iPhones and iPads with iOS 10 or later.

How to Bulk Delete Photos on an iPhone or iPad

Although there's no option to delete all photos from an iPhone at once, you can highlight large groups of pictures for easy deletion:

  1. Tap the Photos app on the iPhone or iPad Home screen.

  2. Tap Photos at the bottom of the screen to see all your photos grouped by the date they were taken.

  3. Locate the date or group of photos you want to delete. Tap Select at the top of the screen to select every photo in the group.

    If there are a few photos in a group that you don't want to erase, tap them after all the photos are selected to remove the check mark and deselect the images.

  4. Tap the Trash can icon to remove the selected images.

    Using Select option in Photos app

If you sync your photos to all your Apple devices using iCloud Photos, deleting the images on your iPhone or iPad deletes them from every synced device.

Permanently Delete Photos

After removing the files, you may notice that they still take up space on your device. That's because Apple automatically places your deleted photos in the Recently Deleted album in case you want to recover the images later. They sit there for 30 days unless you remove them. After that, they are gone forever.

To permanently remove the deleted items:

  1. Open the Photos app.

  2. Tap the Albums icon to go to the Album view.

  3. Scroll to the bottom of the Album view screen and tap the Recently Deleted folder.

  4. Tap Select at the top of the screen.

    The Recently Deleted images album in Photos
  5. Tap Delete All at the bottom of the screen and confirm the deletion.

    Screens for deleting all images from the Recently Deleted folder in Photos

To clear up more storage, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage (or iPad Storage) to view which apps use the most memory.

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