As you may agree, the easiest way to free up storage space on an iPhone or iPad would be to delete photos, which usually occupy the most amount of storage space.
However, as you must have experienced, going through hundreds of photos and deleting them manually can be a frustratingly slow process.
Hence, a better way to clear-up storage space on iPhone would be to transfer photos from iPhone to an external storage device and delete all photos from iPhone.
Delete All Photos from iPhone or iPad
If you have already transferred all or required photos from iPhone to an External Storage Drive or iCloud, you can find below the steps to Bulk Delete Photos from iPhone.
1. Select and Delete All Photos From iPhone
As you must have noticed, there is no ‘Select All’ or ‘Delete All’ option on iPhone, which makes it really difficult to select and Delete All Photos at once on your device.
Hence, you need to make use of a workaround as provided below to select and delete multiple photos on iPhone. The only disadvantage of this workaround is that it takes a bit of practice to get used to.
1. Open the Photos App on your iPhone > tap on Albums tab in the bottom-menu.
2. On Albums or My Albums screen, open the Recents Album by tapping on it.
3. Once you are in Recents Album, tap on the Select option located at top-right corner of the screen.
4. Next, scroll down to end of “Recents” Album and drag your finger from the Last Photo towards the diagonal opposite edge of the screen (as shown in the image below).
Keep your finger pressed at the diagonal edge of the screen, as more Photos continue to be selected.
If this action is performed correctly, you will see multiple photos being continuously selected and check mark appearing against the selected photos.
Continue to hold your finger at the diagonal upper edge of the screen, until all the photos are selected.
5. Once all photos are selected, tap on the Trash can icon located at the bottom of the screen.
6. On the confirmation pop-up, tap on the Delete option to delete all the selected photos from your iPhone.
Note: Your iPhone may appear as stuck, if you select and delete more than 1,000 photos. Give your device enough time to delete the Photos.
2. Permanently Delete All Photos From iPhone
Although, you have deleted all photos from iPhone, the deleted photos will still be available in “Recently Deleted” Folder, where they continue to occupy storage space, until they are deleted by the system after 30 to 40 days.
Hence, the need to to delete photos from “Recently Deleted” Album, in order to gain or free up storage space on your iPhone.
1. Open Photos App > tap on Albums tab in located in the bottom menu.
2. On the Albums screen, scroll down and tap on Recently Deleted.
3. In Recently Deleted Album, use the diagonal scroll trick to select All Photos and tap on the Delete option.
4. On the Confirmation pop-up, tap on Delete to permanently delete All Photos from iPhone.
3. Backup & Delete All Photos from iPhone Using Image Capture
The easiest way to Backup All Photos from iPhone to Mac and Bulk Delete them from iPhone is by using Image Capture Utility as available on your Mac.
Note: If iCloud Photos are enabled on iPhone, you won’t be able delete Photos using this method.
1. Plug iPhone into the USB Port of your Mac.
2. Click on the Finder icon > Select Applications in the left pane. In the right-pane, double-click on the Image Capture App.
3. Once Image Capture App is Launched, click on your iPhone in the left pane. In the right-pane, you will see all the Photos on your iPhone.
4. To Backup All iPhone Photos to a Folder on Desktop, click on the Import All button.
Once you click on Import All, Image Capture Utility will automatically create a Folder with the Name of your iPhone and start importing All the Photos on iPhone into this Folder.
Note: You can also select other destination for the imported photos by clicking on the Down-arrow next to Desktop.
After All Photos from iPhone are transferred to Mac, you can safely Delete All Photos from your iPhone by following the steps below.
1. Press Command + A keys on the keyboard of your Mac to select all Photos available on your iPhone.
2. Once All Photos are selected, right-click on any selected Photo and click on the Delete option.
3. On the Pop-up, click on Confirm to begin the process of deleting all Photos from your iPhone.