How to delete all photos from your iPhone

Decide where your photos should end up

Ask what you want left afterward. If the answer is "nothing anywhere," you are deleting your library. If it is "nothing on this phone, everything still safe somewhere," you are moving it. Most people mean the second.

Also think about who else sees the library. A Shared Library or shared albums involve other people, and a full wipe can affect what they see too. Photos you posted to shared albums are stored with the album, not your Library.

Make a copy before anything else. Import the library to a Mac with the Photos app or Image Capture, or to a Windows PC with the Apple Devices app and the Windows Photos app. Apple notes that if iCloud Photos is on and originals are stored in iCloud, you need to download the full-resolution versions before importing to a PC. Our guide on how to back up iPhone photos lists the options. Open a few files from the copy to make sure it worked.

Choose what happens to iCloud

Apple is clear that with iCloud Photos on, deleting a photo on one device deletes it on all devices using the same Apple Account. Selecting every photo and deleting it will empty your iCloud Photos library too.

If you only want the phone cleared, turn off syncing first: open Settings, tap your name, iCloud, Photos, and switch off Sync this iPhone. iOS asks what to do with the photos already on the phone; choosing to remove them clears the device while the iCloud library stays as it was. Read the prompt carefully, because the wording depends on your settings and iOS version. Our guide to deleting photos from iPhone but not iCloud goes into the details.

Select and delete everything

1. Open Photos, go to your Library, and tap Select.
2. Press on the most recent photo and drag your finger up and across the grid. Keep holding near the top edge and the grid scrolls back through the years, selecting as it goes.
3. Check the count at the top, then tap the Trash button and confirm.
4. Open Recently Deleted under Utilities, unlock it, tap Select, then Delete All, and confirm.

Until you complete step four, everything stays in Recently Deleted for 30 days. With a very large library, it can help to work in chunks, such as one year at a time, so a mistake is easier to spot. The step-by-step deletion guide has more selection tips.

If you are selling or giving away the phone

Do not delete photos by hand for a sale. Back up the phone, then use Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings. That removes everything on the device in one step. Signing out of your Apple Account as part of the process keeps your iCloud data in iCloud and off the next owner's phone. Your photos stay in iCloud or in the copy you made.