The fastest way to delete all photos at once
The quickest method is to use the Photos app's Select All feature, which lets you delete hundreds of photos in seconds rather than one at a time. Open the Photos app, tap "Select" in the top right corner, then tap "Select All" at the bottom. This highlights every photo in your library. Tap the trash icon and confirm the deletion. The photos move to your Recently Deleted album first, where they stay for 30 days before permanent removal.
If you want them gone immediately without the 30-day wait, open the Recently Deleted album right after deletion, tap Select, tap Select All again, and tap Delete Permanently. This removes them from your phone and iCloud immediately, so there is no recovery window.
This method works on any iPhone running iOS 14 or later. If your phone is older, you will need to delete photos in smaller batches because the Select All button does not exist in earlier versions.
Key Takeaways
- Use the Photos app's Select and Select All buttons to mark all photos at once, then tap the trash icon to delete them.
- Deleted photos sit in the Recently Deleted album for 30 days before they are permanently removed from your phone and iCloud.
- To delete permanently right away without waiting 30 days, go to Recently Deleted, select all again, and tap Delete Permanently.
- If you have thousands of photos, the deletion process may take a few minutes to complete, and your phone may slow down briefly.
- Deleting from the Photos app removes photos from iCloud as well if you have iCloud Photos turned on.
What happens to photos after you delete them
When you tap Delete in the Photos app, your photos do not disappear immediately. They move to a folder called Recently Deleted, where they stay for 30 days. During this time, you can recover them by opening Recently Deleted, tapping Select, choosing the photos you want back, and tapping Recover. The photos return to your main library as if nothing happened.
After 30 days, the photos are permanently removed from your iPhone and from iCloud (if you use iCloud Photos). At that point, they cannot be recovered through the Photos app. If you have a backup on your computer or an external drive, you might still have copies there, but the phone itself will not have them.
If you delete photos while iCloud Photos is turned off, they are removed from your phone only. Any copies stored in iCloud before you turned off iCloud Photos will remain there until you delete them separately through iCloud.com.
Deleting photos without using Recently Deleted
If you want photos gone immediately without the 30-day waiting period, you must delete them twice. First, select all your photos and delete them normally. They move to Recently Deleted. Then open Recently Deleted, select all those photos again, and tap Delete Permanently. This second deletion removes them from your phone and iCloud right away.
The reason for the two-step process is that iPhone treats Recently Deleted as a safety net. The system assumes you might change your mind, so it gives you a month to recover photos before they are truly gone. Permanent deletion bypasses that safety net.
Be certain before you delete permanently. Once you tap Delete Permanently and confirm, there is no way to recover those photos from your iPhone or iCloud. If you think you might want them later, let them sit in Recently Deleted for a few days before taking the permanent step.
Checking how much storage you will free up
Before you delete all your photos, you can see how much space they take up. Open Settings, tap General, then tap iPhone Storage. Scroll down and look for the Photos app. The number next to it shows how much storage your photos are using. This is the amount of space you will recover after you delete them permanently and the 30-day Recently Deleted period ends.
Keep in mind that the storage number in Settings updates slowly. After you delete photos, it may take a few hours or even a day for the storage count to change. If you delete permanently, the space is freed up faster, usually within minutes.
If your phone is almost full and you need space right now, deleting photos permanently is faster than waiting for the 30-day period. You will see the storage freed up almost immediately.
What to do if you have thousands of photos
If your library has thousands of photos, the Select All and delete process still works, but it may take longer. Your phone might slow down while it processes the deletion, especially if you are also running other apps. Close other apps before you start, and give your phone a few minutes to complete the task.
If the Photos app freezes or crashes during deletion, force-close it by swiping up from the bottom of the screen (or swiping down from the top right on newer iPhones) and closing the app. Open it again and try selecting a smaller batch of photos — perhaps 500 at a time — and delete them in groups. This is slower but more reliable on older phones or phones with very full storage.
Another option is to delete photos by date. Tap the Years view at the bottom of the Photos app, then tap and hold on a year to select it. Tap Delete to remove all photos from that year. This breaks the deletion into smaller chunks and is often faster than selecting all at once.
Deleting photos from iCloud if you use multiple devices
If you have iCloud Photos turned on, deleting photos from your iPhone also deletes them from iCloud and from any other device signed into the same iCloud account. This means if you delete all photos from your iPhone, they disappear from your iPad and Mac as well. If you want to keep photos on other devices, turn off iCloud Photos before you delete.
To turn off iCloud Photos, open Settings, tap your name at the top, tap iCloud, tap Photos, and toggle off iCloud Photos. A menu appears asking whether you want to keep photos on your iPhone or remove them. Choose Keep on My iPhone. After that, deleting photos from your iPhone will not affect your other devices.
If you have already deleted all your photos and want to recover them from iCloud, you can turn iCloud Photos back on. Your phone will download the photos again from iCloud, but this process takes time depending on how many photos you have and your internet speed.
Recovering photos after you have deleted them
If you deleted photos by mistake and they are still in Recently Deleted, open the Photos app, tap the Albums tab at the bottom, scroll down, and tap Recently Deleted. Select the photos you want back and tap Recover. They return to your main library immediately.
If the 30-day period has passed and the photos are gone from Recently Deleted, you cannot recover them from your iPhone. However, if you have a backup, you might be able to restore them. Check whether you have a backup on your computer (Mac or Windows) or in iCloud. If you do, you can restore your phone from that backup, but this will also restore everything else on your phone to the state it was in when the backup was made.
Before you restore from a backup, think carefully about what you will lose. Any photos, messages, or other data you created after the backup was made will be gone. If you only want to recover photos, restoring from a backup is usually not worth it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does deleting photos from my iPhone delete them from iCloud too?
Yes, if you have iCloud Photos turned on. Deleting from your iPhone removes them from iCloud and from any other device using the same iCloud account. If you want to keep photos in iCloud, turn off iCloud Photos in Settings before you delete them from your phone.
Can I recover photos after the 30-day Recently Deleted period ends?
Not from your iPhone or iCloud. Once the 30 days pass, they are permanently gone from Apple's systems. If you have a backup on your computer or an external drive, you might have copies there, but restoring from a phone backup will undo all changes made after the backup was created.
What if my iPhone freezes while I am deleting thousands of photos?
Force-close the Photos app by swiping up from the bottom (or down from the top right) and closing it. Open it again and try deleting photos in smaller batches of 500 at a time. You can also delete by year in the Years view, which breaks the process into smaller chunks.
Will deleting all my photos free up storage space right away?
Not immediately. Photos in Recently Deleted still take up storage for 30 days. If you delete permanently, the space is freed up within minutes. If you wait for the 30-day period to end, it may take a few hours for the storage count in Settings to update.
Can I delete photos from iCloud without deleting them from my iPhone?
Yes, but you have to do it from iCloud.com rather than from your phone. Sign in to iCloud.com, open Photos, select the photos you want to remove, and delete them. Your iPhone will keep its copies. This only works if you have iCloud Photos turned on.