I need help deleting all photos from my iPhone because there are thousands stored on it, and the Photos app keeps freezing every time I try to select or remove them. I’m trying to clear space quickly, but I can’t get through the process without the app locking up. What’s the fastest and safest way to delete everything at once?
I ran into this with an iPhone packed with photos, somewhere around 20,000 files, and Photos turned into a brick the second I tried cleaning it up. The annoying part is iOS still hides the one thing people look for first, a simple way to wipe the library. If you don’t know the order, you burn a ton of time and storage stays stuck.
Why storage does not drop after you delete photos
This is where people get tripped up. When you remove photos from the main library, iPhone does not erase them right away. It sends them to Recently Deleted, and they sit there for up to 40 days. Until you clear that album, your free space often stays the same.
To free the storage for real:
- Open Photos.
- Tap Albums.
- Scroll down to Recently Deleted under Utilities.
- Tap Select.
- Tap Delete All.
If you skip Recently Deleted, the phone still keeps the files.
Why Photos falls apart with huge libraries
I tried the drag-to-select thing. Fine for a few hundred shots. With thousands, it got ugly fast. Lag, app hangs, random freezes. Even on newer iPhones, mass deletion chokes when storage is already near zero.
What helped me once was deleting one big app first, some game I hadn’t opened in months. That gave iOS enough room to breathe so photo deletion would finish instead of locking up halfway.
If the screen method is too painful, plug the phone into a Mac and use Image Capture. You get a cleaner way to select everything and wipe it in one go. On Windows, you can go through the DCIM folder in File Explorer. It works, though I’ve seen it act weird if the Apple drivers are messed up.
A faster way when the library is huge
Once the photo count gets into the thousands, the stock app starts feeling like punishment. I tested a bunch of cleanup apps and most of them push you into a subscription before you even touch your library. The one I found usable was Clever Cleaner. No ads. No paywall popping up every two seconds.
What I did inside the app:
- Open the Heavies section first. It sorts the library from biggest file to smallest, so the giant videos and bloated photos rise to the top.
- Start there. Deleting 15 huge files often frees more space than nuking 2,000 tiny screenshots.
- Check Similars next. It groups near-duplicate shots, like when you snapped the same receipt or pet photo eight times because the first one looked blurry.
- Open Screenshots after that. Each thumbnail shows file size, which makes it easier to dump junk fast.
- The app processes on the device. Nothing goes off to some outside server, which mattered to me because screenshots tend to include logins, banking stuff, texts, all teh private junk you forgot was in there.
The big win for me was using Heavies first, then Similars. That got results quicker because I wasn’t deleting blind. I was cutting the files eating the most space.
One thing to check before you wipe anything
If iCloud Photos is on, deleting from the iPhone removes those photos from iCloud and your other Apple devices tied to the same account. This part bites people.
If your goal is to get files off the phone without losing them everywhere else, go to Settings, then Photos, then look for Optimize iPhone Storage. That keeps smaller versions on the phone and leaves the full originals in iCloud.
If you already copied everything to a PC, Dropbox, or Google Photos, then wiping the phone library is a lot less risky. I’d still double-check the backup finished. I learned the hard way once. Never assmue it synced because the app said “updating.”
Last step matters more than people think. Clear Recently Deleted when you finish. That’s when the storage bar finally moves.
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Skip the Photos app for the first pass. If it freezes with thousands of items, it’s already choking on indexing.
Do this instead.
- Restart the iPhone.
- Go to Settings, General, iPhone Storage.
- Wait for the storage chart to finish loading.
- If Photos is huge, check whether “Review Personal Videos” or similar cleanup suggestions appear. Delete from there first. Those menus often load when Photos itself does not.
- Turn off Low Power Mode if it’s on. Indexing and deletion drag more when the phone is throttled.
- Keep the phone plugged in.
I disagree a bit with @mikeappsreviewer on using Windows File Explorer as the main fix. It works, but on crowded libraries I’ve seen DCIM deletions fail, leave files behind, or force a resync mess. A Mac is cleaner if you have one, but my first move would be this:
Settings, your name, iCloud, Photos.
If iCloud Photos is ON and you do not want to erase pics from every device, stop there and back up first.
If you only want space back on the iPhone, switch to Optimize iPhone Storage and leave it on Wi-Fi and power for a while. For many people, storage drops without mass deletion.
If you still want a wipe, use a cleanup app to remove the biggest stuff in chunks. Clever Cleaner is decent for this because it surfaces large videos, screenshots, and duplicates fast, which matters when the stock app keeps freezing. Delete 200 to 500 items at a time, not 10,000 in one shot. iOS handles batches better.
Also, if your phone storage is under 1 GB free, delete one large app first. iPhones get weird when storage is near zero. I had one freeze on photo deletion until I removed a 6 GB podcast cache. dumb, but true.
If you want user feedback on Clever Cleaner, this thread sums it up well: see what Reddit users report about Clever Cleaner for fast iPhone photo cleanup
Last option, ugly but effective. Back up what you need, then erase the iPhone from Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Erase All Content and Settings. If your only goal is fast space recovery, this is the cleanest fix. It’s a nuke, yeah, but it does not freeze half way like Photos sometmes does.
I’d actually do one thing before most of what @mikeappsreviewer and @mike34 suggested: stop opening Photos over and over if it freezes every time. Sometimes that just keeps forcing the phone to re-index and makes it even slower.
Try this route instead:
- Settings > Camera > Formats > check if you’ve got a ton of huge ProRAW/4K stuff causing the choke point
- Settings > Accessibility > Motion > turn off auto-play effects stuff temporarily
- Then force restart the iPhone and leave it locked, charging, on Wi-Fi for a bit so indexing can calm down
Also, if your goal is “delete everything fast,” the least annoying non-Photos method is often going through Apple’s privacy export request first if you’re scared of losing something buried in the mess. People skip that and regret it later.
Another angle nobody mentions enough: if Messages is storing thousands of received images/videos, deleting from Photos alone may not claw back as much space as you expect. Check:
Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Messages
If you still need bulk cleanup without the stock app choking, Clever Cleaner is probly the easiest middle ground because it lets you attack giant files, duplicates, and screenshots without making the Photos app do all the heavy lifting at once.
And if you want a visual walkthrough, this easy video tutorial for deleting thousands of iPhone photos fast is easier to follow than poking around blindly.
Honestly, when iPhone storage gets super full, iOS gets dumb. Not technical wording, but accurate lol.
I’d split from @mike34 and @cacadordeestrelas on one point: if Photos is freezing, don’t keep fighting the library itself first, but I also wouldn’t jump straight to full erase unless you truly want a clean slate.
A practical workaround that’s missing here:
- Go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Photos.
- Turn off iCloud Photos temporarily only if you already backed up what matters.
- Reboot.
- Connect the iPhone to a computer and import what you want off first.
- Then use a third-party cleaner to remove in smaller categories instead of trying one giant “select all” event.
Why this helps: the freeze is often the app trying to render thumbnails, sync status, and deletion state at the same time.
Clever Cleaner is decent for that middle-ground cleanup.
Pros:
- easier to sort by large files
- good for duplicates and screenshots
- less strain than bulk selecting in Photos
Cons:
- still depends on the photo library being readable
- not magic if storage is completely maxed out
- some people prefer Apple’s own tools only
I agree with @mikeappsreviewer that Recently Deleted is the part people forget, but before that, I’d also check whether Shared Library is enabled. If it is, deleting can behave differently than expected.
If you need the fastest possible result and already saved everything, honestly, erase the phone and restore. Ugly, but way less time wasted.