Have you ever gone through your iPhone or iPad‘s photo album and felt overwhelmed by an endless sea of random, blurry pictures and screenshot duplicates you no longer need? As fun as snapshots are to capture and collect over time, most of that visual clutter winds up getting buried in storage for eternity rather than enjoyed again.
Meanwhile, your iOS device keeps pleading for mercy as critical system and app updates get rejected for lack of free space to finish installing properly.
Does this scenario sound familiar even in the slightest? Don‘t worry – you are far from alone in accumulating a bloated Camera Roll full of digital baggage on your iPhone! Let‘s walk through how to fully clear out all photos and reclaim storage breathing room once more. I‘ll also explain alternative backup options to sort out the keepers from those that deserve deletion for good.
Why Permanently Erasing iPhone Photos Matters
Beyond basic device housekeeping to alleviate a constantly full storage situation, purging iPhone and iPad photos serves a few additional motivations:
Protect Sensitive Images Before Selling or Trading In Your Used iPhone – Say you just preordered the fancy new iPhone XX Pro Ultra 5G Special Edition. To help fund the envy-inducing upgrade headed your way soon, trading in your current iPhone through an electronics buyback program just makes solid financial sense. HOWEVER….what about all those saved personal photos on your device featuring family memories, fun times with friends, your previous tropical vacation getaways, and more? You certainly don‘t want such moments carelessly winding up in a stranger‘s hands just because you forgot to remove the images permanently before shipment.
Reclaim Storage Space on a Maxed-Out iPhone – With modern iPhone camera technology rivaling traditional point-and-shoot standalone units, capturing 4K HDR-enabled photos and videos in the native Camera app has become incredibly simple. However, all that rich media gobbles up internal storage fast. Just listen to the weeping sounds coming from your iPhone as the "Storage Almost Full" notification haunts your home screen daily!
Delete Evidence of Awkward Life Stages Like Puberty or Bad Haircuts Gone Wrong – Come on now, we all have embarrassing pictures hiding somewhere in the iOS Photos app of ourselves or others that we would pay good money to banish into the ether forever! Stop subjecting yourself to periodic cringe attacks whenever that ghastly awkward shot from 8th grade randomly pops onscreen again. Just take charge and surgically remove such memories once and for all like that lingering skin blemish resolved itself eventually, too. Out of sight, out of mind!
Whichever scenario or motivation for initiating a complete iPhone photo purge applies to your situation, this guide serves as your definitive walkthrough. Let‘s begin!
Step 1: Back Up Any Photos You Actually Want To Keep First!
Look, permanently erasing iPhone and iPad images involves employing the nuclear delete option. Meaning that 30 days post-deletion, no amount of desperation swiping around the Photos app or pleas shouted into Apple Support‘s 1-800 void will suddenly make those accidentally vaporized baby photos from your child‘s first year magically reappear again untouched.
Moral of the story: always backup irreplaceable photos/videos somewhere safe before proceeding with any bulk removal steps on your iPhone!
Your backup options include:
- Manually transferring special images to cloud storage platforms [overview in next section]
- Using a Lightning to USB cable to copy precious pictures over to a Windows PC or Mac
- Emailing must-keep photos to a personal account or trusted contact as attachments
- Messaging memorable shots and clips to friends/family to store elsewhere at least temporarily
Bottom line – exercise an extra abundance of caution by proactively parking photos slated for secure keeping in an alternative location besides your iPhone before engaging throttle-down thrusters on deleting everything permanently. Otherwise, cue up lots of pointless tears or frustrated screams down the road!
Do You Rely on iCloud Photo Library Backups Currently? Critical to Address First!
One crucial early decision point in this iPhone photo purge process revolves around whether you currently have iCloud Photo Library enabled on your device.
What‘s iCloud Photo Library?
This toggleable setting available in iOS Settings => Photos automatically uploads any new pictures or videos you shoot to synchronized storage access online through iCloud – Apple‘s cloud platform running on remote servers.
In other words, activating iCloud Photo Library means a second copy of your iPhone photos gets maintained in the cloud for accessing across Apple devices logged into the same account.
The Permanent Backup Catch
However convenient having a redundant online home for all iPhone/iPad media sounds, the hidden permanence catches many off guard during attempts to mass delete photos the wrong way.
You see, removing images directly within the Photos app or from Recently Deleted also wipes that media from iCloud servers after 30 days too! So unless you closely managed backups first, kiss both local and cloud-based access goodbye simultaneously at the end that initial grace period Apple grants.
Clearly less than ideal if retaining any sentimental shots matters for the long haul in your situation specifically.
Options If Currently Using iCloud Photo Library
Before moving ahead on removing all photos permanently from your iPhone itself, please consider how reliant on iCloud Photo Library you remain currently:
- If backing up photos online does not matter anymore, disabling iCloud Photo Library ensures deleting all local iPhone shots does NOT also wipe iCloud backups after 30 days automatically. Continue forward.
- If you do wish to maintain cloud access still through iCloud-based storage however, first transfer special images to an alternate backup source like Google Photos or Dropbox. Continue forward once finished.
More to come shortly on helpful alternate photo backup options worth investigating momentarily!
Walkthrough: Removing All Photos From Your iPhone Permanently
Alright, alright – no more stalling or distractions! Let‘s dig into the tactical sequence focused on decisively deleting every single excess photo and video draining precious storage on your iPhone currently.
Average Storage Utilization on iPhones
Before jumping in, some quick statistical context around typical iOS device media bloat. According to 2022 research analytics pulled by Apple:
- Photos occupy around 60-65% of used capacity on most modern iPhones
- 4K-resolution videos as supported on newer iPhone models bloat storage quickly
- Average iPhone users now capture +100 images and +20 videos per week
In other words, safely assuming Photos and Camera app abuse ranks among the primary forces gradually consuming more internal storage over time makes plenty sense for many!
Now, onward to slimming down…
Step 1: Open the Photos App and Select All Images/Videos
Tap into the Photos icon found alongside all other installed apps on your iPhone‘s home screen to launch the application.
Once Photos opens, it should automatically pull up the Library view listing all stored media chronologically as horizontal thumbnail previews.
Next, tap the Select icon visible in the upper right corner of the Photos display. This action bar holds key to manually choosing the images and videos you want mass removed.
With Select toggled on, press down on the farthest thumbnail preview populating the bottom of your Photos timeline. While firmly holding finger pressure, steadily drag upward until your grip lands on the the very first image preview box located at top.
Assuming your iPhone Camera Roll overfloweth with ridiculous quantities of random snaps resembling my own at times, keeping one steady finger drug along the entire vertical feed should successfully select all photos/videos populating within Photos Library currently.
Pro Tip: For super storage hogs juggling many thousands of stored shots in Photos, this single select all gesture may crash unexpectedly. No worries – just repeat the drag down motion in chunks targeting a few hundred thumbnails at a time before lifting your finger and repeating over again from the new current bottom image.
Either way once satisfied every last media file has been queued up for removal based on all items displaying checkmarks in upper left corners, move onto firmly executing the permanent deletion phase next.
Step 2: Complete the Permanent Photo Purge
Still within the Photos app with all images and videos selected after Step 1 finishes, tap the trash can icon visible on the bottom toolbar of the app display.
After confirming the mass deletion prompt, your iPhone should display a new reassuring "No Photos" placeholder view.
Not So Fast!
However, before celebrating the sweet salvation of reclaimed storage capacity just yet, what actually happened behind the scenes?
All freshly erased media now temporarily lands inside Photos‘ Recently Deleted bucket – essentially a quarantined holding tank housing your pictures and videos for 30 more days.
This is an unfortunate necessary evil granted for users grappling regret over having second thoughts on wiping certain images.
Nevertheless, leaving the newly cleared media in this purgatory state does still occupy storage you want maximized. So complete the permanent erasure once and for all:
- Re-open Photos
- Swipe across the bottom options until Albums appears
- Scroll down and select Recently Deleted
- Review the contents inside and re-run another Select All => trash can icon routine to finish the job fully
Following Step 2, all selected photos and videos unlink from your iPhone (and iCloud if still enabled symmetrically).
But also know even if you did not manually empty Recently Deleted just now, all media sitting inside automatically disappears forever 30 days later anyway as the system auto-cleans itself behind the scenes.
For optimal storage gains immediately though, manually purge Recently Deleted yourself through Step 2.
Protect Yourself With Alternate Photo Backups Before Permanent iPhone Deletion
Especially when eyeing more sentimental images at risk of being inadvertently tossed during any bulk photo purge gambit on your iPhone, parking backups in alternate cloud sources remains highly advisable before proceeding initially.
As mentioned earlier, while Apple does grant 30 days to recover recently deleted items through Photos, resisting the urge to re-download or migrate anything marked for permanent deletion becomes vital at that point.
With this reality in mind, covering your bases by leveraging supplementary cloud storage ecosystems to retain special photos/videos as secondary backups offers protection if needed.
Here is a comparison overview of some reputable services integrating nicely with iOS devices as alternate photo repository options beyond Apple‘s own iCloud route:
| Photo Storage Service | Base Storage Tier | Storage Expansion Options | Platform Device Support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Photos | 15GB free | 100GB for $1.99/month 200GB for $2.99/month 2TB for $9.99/month 20TB for $199.99/month |
iOS, Android, Web |
| Dropbox | 2GB free | Dropbox Plus: 2TB for $9.99/month Dropbox Family: 2TB for $16.99/month (up to 6 users) |
iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Web |
| OneDrive | 5GB free for consumers 1TB free for Microsoft 365 subscribers |
100GB for $1.99/month 1TB standalone for $6.99/month Microsoft 365 Family: 1TB per user for $9.99/month per user up to 6 users |
iOS, Android, Windows, Web |
Based purely on bundled storage capacity alone right out the gate, Google Photos emerges as the most generous free offering allowing up to 15GB worth of images and videos uploaded from iOS before hitting monthly allotment cutoffs or billing triggers.
However, for already embedded Microsoft 365 subscribers, OneDrive delivers by permitting 1TB (1,024GB) per registered user – an enormous amount of supplementary cloud backup space perfect for entire iOS camera roll uploads if necessary.
And thanks to handy auto-sync options the likes of Google Drive and Dropbox provide in the background once configured properly, keeping alternate clouds populated with your latest iPhone shots requires virtually no thought or effort at all too!
Let‘s Recap – Permanently Wiping iPhone Photos in 5 Key Steps
Alright, that covers plenty of tactical ground if digesting everything in chronological order so far concerning wiping photos permanently on your iPhone!
Let‘s quickly recap the key steps:
Step 1️⃣ Back Up Irreplaceable Photos Before Deleting
Preserve sentimental images somewhere safe first!
Step 2️⃣ Decide If Disabling iCloud Photo Library Before Proceeding
Avoid accidentally removing online backups without planning!
Step 3️⃣ Select All Photos in Library & Delete
Photos app => Select => drag finger Down through entire timeline => hit trash can
Step 4️⃣ Also Manually Empty Recently Deleted Bucket
Skip the 30-day purgatory delay if wanting all media immediately gone for good
Step 5️⃣ Archive Special Images in Alternate Cloud Storage
Leverage free tiers from Google Photos, Dropbox, OneDrive etc. for redundant backups
And that‘s officially everything involved to fully purge all photos and videos you no longer need from your iPhone – while also intelligently archiving your most treasured memories elsewhere beforehand!
Questions? Reach out anytime! More than happy to help advise further.
