How to delete all screenshots on iPhone

Screenshots are the easiest clutter to clear. Most of them were useful for a few minutes, and they sit in your library forever. Here is how to delete them all at once in iOS 26, how to avoid losing the few that still matter, and how to keep them from coming back.

Delete all screenshots with the Photos app

Every screenshot you take is saved to your photo library, and the Photos app groups them in their own collection:

1. Open Photos and tap Collections.
2. Scroll down to Media Types and tap Screenshots.
3. Tap Select, then Select All.
4. Tap any screenshot you want to keep to deselect it.
5. Tap the trash button and confirm.

The screenshots move to Recently Deleted, where they stay for 30 days and still use space. To free the space right away, tap Collections, open Recently Deleted below Utilities, tap View Album, unlock, tap Select, pick the screenshots and delete them.

If Select All is not what you want, you can select a range instead: after tapping Select, drag your finger across the thumbnails to select many in one move.

Screen recordings are separate. They have their own collection under Media Types, called Screen Recordings. They are videos, so a few forgotten recordings can take more space than hundreds of screenshots. Check that collection too.

Before you select all: screenshots worth keeping

Deleting every screenshot in one go is fast, and it also deletes the useful ones. Look for:

• boarding passes, tickets and QR codes for upcoming trips or events
• receipts, order confirmations and warranty details
• recovery codes or setup information for accounts
• notes, recipes or directions you have not saved anywhere else

Photos can help you spot them. Under Collections > Utilities you will find collections such as Receipts, QR Codes and Documents, which gather photos and screenshots by what they contain. Check those before a mass delete, and save anything important where it belongs, such as Notes, Files or Wallet.

Stop screenshots from piling up

• Delete as you go. Right after you take a screenshot, the preview gives you the option to delete it. If you only needed it to paste somewhere, tap Done and choose Copy and Delete so it never reaches your library.
• Hide them from the library. In the library, tap the sort and filter button, tap View Options, then Screenshots. They stop cluttering your main view, but they still use storage, so this is tidying, not cleaning.
• Use a shortcut. In the Shortcuts app, a shortcut with Find Photos (filtered to screenshots, and optionally to items older than 30 days) followed by Delete Photos clears old screenshots in one tap. Shortcuts asks you to confirm the deletion. For very large batches you may need to turn on Allow Deleting Large Amounts of Data in Settings > Apps > Shortcuts > Advanced.

What the built-in way misses

Select All has one setting: everything. The alternative is tapping hundreds of thumbnails one by one, and at thumbnail size a boarding pass and a meme look much the same. The shortcut approach is even blunter, because it deletes by date without showing you anything.

What most people want is in between: see each screenshot, big enough to read, and decide in a second.

Going through screenshots with PrunePic

PrunePic’s Screenshots mode shows only your screenshots, one at a time and full screen, newest or oldest first:

• swipe left on the ones you no longer need
• swipe up on the ones to keep
• swipe right to add one to Favorites so you can find it again

Because the decision is usually obvious, you can get through a few hundred screenshots in one sitting. Everything you swipe left waits in the PrunePic Trash, so you can check the list and put anything back before it is deleted. When you empty it, iOS asks you to confirm and the screenshots go to Recently Deleted for 30 days.

Screenshots mode is one of PrunePic’s cleaning modes, next to Videos, On This Day and Trips & Moments. Your photos never leave your device.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting Recently Deleted. Until you empty it, deleted screenshots still use space for 30 days.
• Deleting a ticket you need next week. Check the Receipts and QR Codes collections first.
• Deleting from one device and expecting the others to keep them. With iCloud Photos on, a deletion syncs everywhere.
• Ignoring screen recordings. They are videos and often far bigger than screenshots. For other big videos, see how to find large videos on iPhone.

The bottom line

Photos > Collections > Media Types > Screenshots, then Select, Select All and delete is the fastest way. Check Receipts and QR Codes before you do it, and empty Recently Deleted afterwards. If you want to keep some and lose the rest, review them one by one instead. Screenshots are only one source of clutter: for the rest, see how to free up storage on iPhone, and for copies of the same image, how to delete duplicate photos.