How can I delete all photos from my iPhone?

Yopevo

Hey all, quick question, I’m trying to delete all the photos off my iPhone, but can’t find a way to select all of them in the Photos.
Do I really have to tap every single photo one by one? 😩
Is there a faster way to just delete everything at once? Thanks in advance

HopeInSleep

Yopevo Look closer, there is a “Select All” option. When you tap ‘Select” in the top right look again at the top left corner you should see “Select All” show up there. Once you tap that, you’ll be able to bulk delete everything in Photos on your iPhone.

SocialImpactCoder

Yopevo are you sure you want to delete ALL your photos? I mean, I get it. I’ve had a messy library too.
But this feels like overkill unless you're really trying to start from scratch.
If you’re just looking to tidy things up, I’d suggest deleting only waste that you don’t need. That’s what I usually do. These days I mostly use free Clever Cleaner app.

It has two features I rely on all the time: the automatic Smart Cleanup to clear out all the duplicates/similar looking photos. And the Swipe feature to quickly flip through shots and decide what to keep or delete with a quick tap. That's my advice.

crimsonKing

@HopeInSleep your advice is valid if you’re in an album. But if you’re in the main library, tapping Select doesn’t show a Select All option.
I think that’s what OP was referring to, trying to clear everything from the main gallery at once, not just a single album.
I just checked on my phone to be sure, there’s no way to delete all photos from the main camera roll on iPhone in one go (I’m on ios18, maybe in new ios26 things are different?)

SocialImpactCoder

crimsonKing I just recently updated to iOS 26 and went ahead to check- there’s no Select All option in the main Library. So, the iOS version doesn’t matter here.

crimsonKing

SocialImpactCoder Oh and how is iOS 26 so far? Is it worth updating now or are there still a bunch of bugs? I’ve been holding off for a bit. Last time iOS 18 had some anoying issues on my iPhone right after launch so I don’t wanna rush into it again.

Yopevo

@SocialImpactCoder thanks for the advice but I do actually want to delete ALL photos from my iPhone.
Like @crimsonKing said there’s simply no way to do this in the main library.
I’m not trying to clean up bad shots or a few albums. I’ve already backed everything up to my computer, and now I wantto delete all pictures from iPhone, whole library clean. I honestly thought it would take two seconds, but it seems like iPhone only lets you tap Select and then slowly scroll up to highlight older photos.
I mean…. it’s ridiculous. Surely there should be easier way to do this.

Naheri

@Yopevo Do you have those synced with icloud? If your iPhone is using the same icloud account and has icloud Photos turned on, maybe try deleting them from your computer instead?
I’ve never actually tried to nuke my entire library, but in theory, if everything’s synced, deleting from one device (like your Mac or even via iCloud.com) should also remove them from the phone. Has to be easier than scrolling forever. Might be worth a shot if you're backed up already. Though I’m assuming you didn’t mean iCloud for the backup right?

EDIT: You could also just restore your iPhone to default if you’re trying to wipe it all clean anyway.
Here’s the official Apple guide for that https://support.apple.com/en-us/108931
Though this will nuke everything, like it just came from the factory. So make sure you’ve backed up everything you want to keep(not just photos) because once you do this there’s no undo.

DanyOrtega89

I can’t believe no one here mentioned this trick. @Yopevo here’s how you can actually select and delete ALL PHOTOS on your iPhone at once ,without tapping every single one or scrolling forever.

Tap Select in the Photos app (in the main library of course).
Start selecting by dragging your finger across the bottom row, then begin swiping upward to highlight older photos.
Now here’s the trick: without lifting your first finger, use another finger to tap the top of the screen (like the clock/battery area).
you’ll instantly jump to the top and everything in between is selected.
From there, just hit the trash icon like usual. Done. Thank me later.

SocialImpactCoder

crimsonKing From what I’ve seen so far, iOS 26 is generally pretty solid. No major daily crashes or anything for me, but there are little quirks and some people have reported bugs, stuff like UI glitches, battery drain, weird behavior in some apps..I don’t think it’s a huge overhaul or anything groundbreaking. Mostly visual bells and whistles.
I’m kinda getting used to the new glass design, it doesn’t look as bad in real life as some people made it sound, actually looks pretty cool.

HopeInSleep

@crimsonKing I’ve seen some glitches on iOS 26, occasionally a menu will just show up completely blank, and you can’t tap anything until you close and reopen it. Also feels like my battery’s draining a bit faster than usual, but could just be me.
Totally agree with @SocialImpactCoder though mostly bells and whistles. I’d probably recommend waiting a bit if your current setup’s stable. Let the early bugs shake out first.

Yopevo

@Naheri nah, I don’t use iCloud forphotos, so that’s not an option for me, but appreciate the suggestion.

Yopevo

@DanyOrtega89 you sir are a gentleman and a scholar. THANK YOU!!!
I’ve been trying to figure out how to delete all photos on iPhone literally all day.
Didn’t find this method anywhere online I looked. And it did work, can’t believe that actually works like that. Total lifesaver.

KindnessCatalyst

@DanyOrtega89 Okay wait😅 I’ve used iPhones for most of my life and somehow never knew about that tap thing to delete all photos on iphone. Kudos Dany.

Also maybe this will help somebody: there’s a way to do it on a Mac too, using the Image Capture app.
Just connect your iPhone to your Mac, open Image Capture from Applications, and you’ll see all the photos on your phone. Then just do Command + A to select everything, hit the trash icon, and boom - clean slate.
Or if you really want to erase all photos from iphone with everything else, just go with a factory reset like was mentioned earlier.

roman-demian

Looks like I can mark this one as Solved ✅

Quick reminder for anyone else landing on this thread: we have a full guide on the site titled How to Delete All Photos from iPhone that covers just about everything mentioned here, and then some. Definitely worth a quick read if you're planning to clear out your library.
If I had to quickly summarize the methods from our guide, it’d go something like this:

You can remove everything straight from the Photos app: tap Select, start swiping upward to highlight older photos, and keep going until everything’s selected (or tap the top of the screen to instantly jump to the top). Then tap the trash icon and confirm.
If you’re using iCloud Photos, you can also go into Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Photos and toggle off Sync this iPhone. Choose Remove from iPhone, and your local copies will vanish while iCloud keeps the originals online.
And for anyone with a Mac, there’s an even easier route: just plug in your iPhone, open the Image Capture app, press Command + A to select everything, and hit the trash icon. It’s by far the fastest way to delete the entire camera roll in one shot.

Also, don’t forget the Recently Deleted folder. To fully wipe them from your iPhone and free up space, you’ll need to open Recently Deleted, tap Select, then choose Delete All. That’s what actually clears them out for good.