How to delete all photos from iPhone

Starting over, selling the iPhone, or just done with 20,000 photos you never look at: there are good reasons to want everything gone. The Photos app makes it harder than it should be, because the library has no Select All. Here are the three ways that work on iOS 27, tested in the Simulator, plus the checks to run first so you do not delete your only copy. The steps are the same on iOS 26.

Before you delete everything: three checks

1. Do you have a copy? iCloud Photos is not a backup: it keeps the same library on every device, so deleting here deletes everywhere, and iCloud Backup does not include photos that are in iCloud Photos. If anything in the library matters, import it to a computer first. Apple’s guide to transferring photos to a Mac or PC covers the cable and the Windows steps.
2. Is iCloud Photos on? Check Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos. If it is, read Method 3 before you delete anything, because it may be what you actually want.
3. Are you handing the iPhone to someone else? Then skip this guide. Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings removes your photos along with everything else, and Apple’s erase guide lists what to do before you tap it.

iPhone storage

Space on the phone itself

• Fixed by the model you bought: 128 GB, 256 GB and up
• Shared by apps, photos, messages and iOS
• Shown in Settings > General > iPhone Storage

iCloud Photos links them

Originals are stored in iCloud. With Optimize Storage, the phone keeps smaller versions and downloads originals when you open them. Deleting a photo removes it from both.

iCloud storage

Space in your Apple Account

• 5 GB free, more with an iCloud+ plan
• Shared by iCloud Photos, backups, iCloud Drive and Mail
• Shown in Settings > your name > iCloud

Method 1: drag to select in the Photos app

There is no Select All for the library, but a drag selects a whole run of photos in one move:

1. Open Photos. The library opens on the grid of your newest photos. If it shows Years or Months instead, tap All at the bottom.
2. Tap Select at the top right. The bottom bar changes to a share button, a Select Items pill and a trash button.
3. Touch the first photo and, without lifting your finger, drag along the row and then down the grid. Every photo you pass gets a checkmark, and the pill counts them: Show Selected (11).
4. Tap the trash button and confirm. The button counts your selection, for example Delete 11 Items, and if some of them are in albums Photos says so.

Lift your finger, scroll, and drag again from the next photo to continue. A few hundred photos take a few minutes this way. For a library of thousands, the shortcut below does it in one run.

Two tricks inside Photos help before you start. The Screenshots and Videos collections under Media Types do have Select All, so you can clear them first in one tap each: our guide to deleting all screenshots shows the steps. And the Months view shows how many items each month holds, so you can see how much is left.

Method 2: a shortcut that deletes every photo

The Shortcuts app can select what Photos cannot. Two actions are enough:

1. Open Shortcuts and tap the add button. If it offers to describe the shortcut, tap Edit to build it yourself.
2. Search for Find Photos and add it. With no filter, it finds every photo and video in your library.
3. Search for Delete Photos and add it below. It deletes what the first action found.
4. Tap the play button. Shortcuts asks you to confirm before deleting anything, and the items go to Recently Deleted like any other deletion.

To keep your videos, tap Add Filter on Find Photos and set Media Type is Image. To delete only old photos, add a Date Taken filter instead. A large library can take a while to process; keep the iPhone unlocked until the shortcut finishes.

Method 3: keep them in iCloud and clear the iPhone

If the goal is a clean iPhone rather than a clean library, you do not need to delete anything. With iCloud Photos on, turning off syncing on this iPhone leaves the whole library in iCloud and on your other devices:

1. Open Settings, tap your name, then iCloud, then Photos.
2. Turn off Sync this iPhone.
3. When iOS asks, choose Remove from iPhone. The photos leave this iPhone and stay in iCloud.

The full version, including what happens when you turn syncing back on, is in our guide to deleting photos from iPhone but not iCloud. If what you want is space rather than an empty library, Optimize Storage, under iPhone Storage on the same screen, keeps everything and frees space on its own.

Then empty Recently Deleted

Whichever method you used, the photos are not gone yet. They wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days, still using space on the iPhone, and with iCloud Photos on, in iCloud too.

1. Tap Collections, scroll to Utilities and open Recently Deleted.
2. Tap View Album and unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
3. Tap Select without choosing any photo, tap the More button, then Delete All.

There is no undo after Delete All. If you are unsure about anything, leave Recently Deleted alone: iOS empties it on its own after 30 days, and our recovery guide explains what can and cannot come back. One exception to the 30 days: when your iCloud storage is over its limit, Apple removes deleted photos immediately.

What deleting everything misses

All three methods are all-or-nothing. The drag selects every photo in a run, the shortcut finds every photo in the library, and turning off iCloud Photos clears the whole iPhone. None of them helps with the more common wish: delete almost everything, but keep the hundred photos that matter. Picking those out of a grid of thumbnails means deselecting them one by one while the rest stay checked, and one slip selects a keeper.

Delete almost everything with PrunePic

PrunePic shows your library one photo at a time, full screen. Swipe left to send a photo to the PrunePic Trash, up to keep it, right to add it to Favorites or an album. For a near-total cleanup, open the Everything mode, choose oldest first, and swipe left through everything that can go. A photo that deserves to stay takes one swipe up, and it never comes back in a later session.

Nothing is deleted on a swipe. The photos wait in the PrunePic Trash, where you can put any of them back, until you tap Delete All and iOS asks you to confirm. From there they follow the same path as any deletion: 30 days in Recently Deleted, then gone. The free plan includes 10 decisions a day; PrunePic Pro removes the limit, which a library of thousands needs. Your photos never leave your device.

Common mistakes

• Deleting the only copy. iCloud Photos mirrors deletions. Import to a computer first if anything matters.
• Expecting the space back at once. Deleted photos keep their space for 30 days in Recently Deleted. Empty it if you need the space now.
• Forgetting the other devices. With iCloud Photos on, the iPad and the Mac lose the photos too.
• Erasing photos before selling, one by one. Erase All Content and Settings does it all, and removes your account from the iPhone as well.
• Running the shortcut without a filter when you meant to keep videos. Find Photos with no filter includes every video.

The bottom line

Select, drag, delete, repeat: that is the Photos app’s way, and it works for a few hundred photos. For thousands, a shortcut made of Find Photos and Delete Photos empties the library in one run. If you just want a clean iPhone, turn off iCloud Photos on it instead and keep the library in iCloud. Then empty Recently Deleted to get the space back, or read how to free up storage on iPhone if space was the point. And if what you really want is to keep a few hundred and lose the rest, cleaning up your camera roll one swipe at a time is the safer route.