DB Labs
The Quickest Method (30 Seconds)
Open Photos → Library. Tap Select in the top right. Tap the first photo you want to delete, then — without lifting your finger — drag down through the grid. iOS highlights every photo your finger touches. Keep dragging to select as many as you need, then tap the trash icon to delete them all at once. Afterward, go to Albums → Recently Deleted → Delete All to permanently free up the storage.
Why Bulk Deleting Photos Is Tricky on iPhone
Apple's Photos app does not have a true "Select All" button — a deliberate design choice to prevent accidental mass deletion. But there are several workarounds, and some are surprisingly fast once you know the trick. The methods below are ordered from quickest to most selective, depending on whether you want to delete everything or be more precise about what goes.
Method 1: Drag-to-Select in Library View
1 Drag Through the Grid (Best for Large Batches)
This is the fastest native method for deleting a large chunk of your camera roll at once.
- Open the Photos app and tap Library at the bottom.
- Tap Select in the top-right corner.
- Tap your first photo, then immediately drag your finger downward through the grid without lifting it. iOS will select every photo your finger passes over.
- Keep dragging — scrolling will happen automatically as you reach the bottom of the screen.
- Once you've selected what you want, tap the trash icon at the bottom right.
- Confirm the deletion, then go to Albums → Recently Deleted → Select → Delete All to permanently free up storage.
Limitation: The Photos app loads photos in batches as you scroll. If you have 10,000 photos, you need to scroll all the way to the bottom once (to load them all) before you can drag-select from top to bottom in one motion. This pre-scroll takes a minute or two but only needs to happen once.
Method 2: Select All Photos in an Album
2 Delete by Album (Best for Specific Categories)
Albums in the Photos app let you select everything in a category with much less work than dragging through your full library. Several built-in albums are especially useful for cleanup:
- Screenshots — Often hundreds of screenshots you forgot about. Open this album, tap Select, then drag to select all, or use the drag method on the smaller grid.
- Recently Added — All photos added in the last 30 days, chronologically. Good for clearing a recent import or burst.
- Bursts — If you shoot in burst mode, this album collects them. Select all, then delete the ones you don't need.
- Videos — Videos use far more storage than photos. Deleting all unwanted videos here can free gigabytes instantly.
To select everything in an album: open the album, tap Select, then tap the first item and drag through the grid exactly as in Method 1. Because albums are smaller than your full library, the pre-scroll isn't usually necessary.
Method 3: Delete by Month
3 Tap a Month Header (Best for Clearing Old Months)
The Photos app's Library view groups photos by day, month, and year. In the Months or Years view, tapping a month or year header selects all photos from that entire period at once — no dragging needed.
- Open Photos → Library.
- Pinch out to zoom to the Months view (or tap the "Months" label at the top).
- Tap Select in the top right.
- Tap a month header (e.g., "June 2023"). Every photo from that month is instantly selected.
- Tap the trash icon and confirm.
You can select multiple months at once by tapping additional month headers while already in Select mode. This method is ideal when you know you want to clear out a specific trip, event, or time period.
Method 4: Swype Photo Cleaner — Intelligent Bulk Deletion
4 Swipe-Based Review (Best When You Want to Keep the Good Ones)
The three native methods above are best when you want to blindly delete everything — a whole album, a whole month, or a large selection. But what if you have 2,000 photos and want to delete the bad ones (blurry shots, accidental taps, duplicates, dark photos) while keeping the good ones?
That's exactly what Swype Photo Cleaner is built for. The app shows you one photo at a time, full screen. You swipe left to delete, swipe right to keep. It's faster than tapping through individual photos in the native app and much more selective than bulk-deleting entire months.
Where the native drag method might take 5 minutes to delete 500 photos (and risks deleting photos you wanted), Swype lets you make a keep-or-delete decision on each photo in under a second — so 500 photos takes about 10–15 minutes with a much lower chance of regretting a deletion.
Learn more about Swype Photo CleanerSpeed Comparison: Which Method Is Fastest?
| Method | Time for 1,000 photos | Risk of deleting keepers | Effort level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drag-to-select in Library | 2–5 min (after pre-scroll) | High — no review | Medium |
| Delete by Album | 1–3 min | Medium — depends on album | Low |
| Delete by Month header | Under 1 min | High — deletes everything in period | Very low |
| Swype Photo Cleaner | 10–20 min | Very low — you review each photo | Low (swipe gestures) |
When to Bulk-Delete Everything vs. When to Be Selective
Bulk-delete everything when you're clearing photos you know you don't need: a full album of screenshots you've already acted on, a month from a period when you took no memorable photos, or all burst shots after you've already picked the best one from each burst.
Be selective when you're going through a mixed library — travel photos mixed with accidental taps, family events where some shots are keepers and others are blurry duplicates, or any situation where "good" and "bad" photos are intermixed. Blindly deleting by month or album will take out photos you'll miss.
For a complete walkthrough of the permanent deletion process, see our guide: how to permanently delete photos on iPhone.
Delete the Bad Ones — Keep the Good Ones
Swype Photo Cleaner makes intelligent bulk deletion fast. Swipe through your camera roll at your own pace — left to delete, right to keep. No risk of wiping out photos you wanted, and no tedious one-by-one tapping.
Free · iPhone · iOS 16+ · 100% on-device, no uploads
Free · iPhone · iOS 16+
Looking for even more detail? See our Swype Photo Cleaner app page or our guide on permanently deleting photos on iPhone. If you want to select all photos to delete them, our dedicated how-to at select all photos and delete on iPhone covers every step.