When your iPhone says "Storage Full," deleting two or three photos will not help. You need to delete hundreds, or even thousands, of photos to make a real difference. But tapping photos one by one in your gallery is a nightmare.
Here are the three fastest ways to mass delete photos from your iPhone, depending on whether you want to delete everything or just the junk.
Method 1: The Drag-to-Select Trick (Native)
If you have large blocks of photos you want to get rid of (for example, you took 400 photos at a concert and want to delete almost all of them), the drag-to-select feature is your best friend.
- Open the Photos app and go to your Library.
- Tap Select in the top right corner.
- Tap and hold on the first photo you want to delete.
- Without lifting your finger, drag to the right, and then drag straight down or up.
Your iPhone will automatically scroll and select hundreds of photos in seconds. Once you have highlighted the block you want to remove, tap the trash can icon.
Method 2: Deleting Entire Albums or Dates
If you want to quickly wipe out an entire category of media, you can use the Albums view.
- Screenshots: Go to Albums > Screenshots. Tap Select, tap Select All, and hit the trash can. This alone can free up gigabytes.
- Recently Deleted: Remember, deleting photos only moves them to the Recently Deleted folder for 30 days. To free up space instantly, go to Albums > Recently Deleted, authenticate, tap Select, and tap Delete All.
Method 3: The Safe Way (Review First)
The problem with mass deleting photos using the drag-to-select method is that it is dangerous. If you drag too fast, you might accidentally select and delete important family photos hidden among the junk.
If you want to delete thousands of photos but still want to make sure you keep the good ones, you need a faster review process. This is where Swipe Photo Cleaner comes in.
Instead of squinting at tiny thumbnails and risking accidental deletions, the app shows your photos in full screen. You swipe right to keep the memories you want, and swipe left to send the junk to the trash. It gives you the speed of bulk deletion with the safety of manual review. You can easily process 1,000 photos during a short train ride.
A Quick Warning About iCloud
Before you start mass deleting, remember how iCloud works. If your iPhone is synced with iCloud Photos, deleting a photo from your phone will also delete it from iCloud and all your other Apple devices.
If your goal is to remove photos from your phone but keep them in the cloud, do not press delete. Instead, go to Settings > Photos and turn on "Optimize iPhone Storage." This shrinks the files on your phone while keeping the high-quality originals safe in iCloud.