How to Delete All Photos on iPhone

On iPhone

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 1

Open the Photos app on iPhone. Tap the Photos app with the multicolored flower icon in a white frame.

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 2

Tap Albums in the lower right corner of the screen.

If the Photos app opens to a photo, tap the "Back" button in the upper left corner of the screen before tapping Albums .

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 3

Tap Camera Roll . This option is located at the top left of the screen.

If your iPhone uses iCloud Photo Library, this option will be All Photos .

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 4

Tap Select in the upper right corner of the screen.

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 5

Select all photos in the library. Tap the photo in the lower right, then tap and drag from the lower right photo to the upper left photo; All images in the middle will appear ticked, and the screen will also scroll up while marking the entire image.

You need to hold your finger in the upper left corner of the screen until the entire photo is selected.

On iPhone 6S and later, you need to make sure you tap and drag slightly instead of pressing down on the screen to avoid opening the 3D Touch menu.

Or you can just click on each photo one by one, but that will take a long time if the Camera Roll has more than 100 photos.

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 6

Tap the "Delete" button with the trash can icon located in the lower right corner of the screen.

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 7

Tap Delete # Items when the option appears. All photos in the album will be moved to the "Recently Deleted" folder.

The "#" sign will be replaced with the photo number you are deleting. For example, if you delete 100 photos, the option will now be Delete 100 Items .

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 8

Delete photos from the "Recently Deleted" folder. After deleting all photos in your iPhone's Camera Roll, you need to continue deleting these images in the "Recently Deleted" folder on your phone:

Tap the back button < Albums in the upper left corner of the screen.

Scroll down and tap Recently Deleted .

Click Select in the upper right corner.

Tap Delete All in the lower left corner.

Click Delete # Items when prompted.

On Mac

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 9

You need to understand the limitations of this method. If your iPhone photos are synced to iCloud Library, you can use the Photos app on your Mac to quickly select and delete images; However, we cannot use the iCloud website to batch delete photos, meaning you cannot perform this process on a Windows computer.

Although the iCloud website allows us to delete one photo at a time, you cannot select multiple photos at the same time

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 10

Turn on iCloud Photo Library if necessary. You need to enable iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone and Mac computer using the same Apple ID account to delete iPhone photos using Mac:

On iPhone — Open Settings , tap your name tag at the top of the screen, select iCloud , tap Photos , tap the white "iCloud Photo Library" switch, and select a storage option.

On Mac — Open Photos , click the Photos option in the upper-left corner of the screen, click Preferences. , select iCloud , check "iCloud Photo Library," then select a storage option.

It may take a few hours to sync photos from your iPhone to your Mac if you just turned on iCloud Photo Library.

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 11

Open the Photos app on your Mac computer. Click the Photos app, the colorful pinwheel icon in your Mac's Dock.

Skip this step if you opened the Photos app to enable iCloud Photo Library on Mac.

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 12

Click All Photos in the upper left corner of the window.

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 13

Select all photos. Click any photo on the page, then press ⌘ Command+ Ato select all photos in the "All Photos" album.

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 14

Click the "Delete" button with the trash can icon at the top of the Photos window.

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 15

Click Delete #Items when prompted. All photos you selected will be moved to the "Recently Deleted" folder.

Just like on the iPhone, the "#" sign will be replaced by the number of photos you are deleting. For example, if you delete 3000 photos, the option will be Delete 3000 Items .

How to Delete All Photos on iPhone Picture 16

Delete photos in the "Recently Deleted" album. Because when we delete photos in the "All Photos" album, the photos are not actually deleted from iCloud Photo Library, you need to complete the process by cleaning the "Recently Deleted" folder:

Click the Recently Deleted tab on the left side of the page.

Click Delete All in the upper right corner.

Click Delete # Items when the options appear.

Lesley Montoya

Update 03 November 2023