Deleting multiple photos from your iPhone does not seem to be exactly straightforward for many users: this is a question we are asked often by iPhone photographers. There are actually at least four methods of deleting multiple photos that are worth mentioning: the first can be done directly from the Camera Roll and is perfect when you need to delete a few dozens of images; the others require your iPhone to be connected to your computer (Windows or Mac).
Method 1: Delete photos from the iPhone Camera Roll
1. Launch your iPhone’s Camera Roll.
2. In the top bar, you should see a curved arrow icon – tap the icon.
3. You can now select as many photos as you want in the Camera Roll.
4. When you have selected all the photos you want to delete, tap the Delete button.
Method 2: Delete photos through Itunes
Sometimes, you have so many photos in your iPhone that even the method above becomes too time-consuming. A simple way to get rid of all the photos is to delete them while your iPhone is connected to iTunes on your PC. When you transfer the photos to your PC, iTunes will ask if you want to keep the photos on your iPhone or if you want to remove them.
1. Connect the iPhone to your computer and launch iTunes
2. Go to Devices, then select your iPhone
3. Click on the Photos tab
4. Uncheck the Synch Photos option and click on Remove Photos
5. Click Apply. WARNING: This will remove all your photos!
Method 3: Windows 7 – Connect your iPhone to your computer, and access the photos directly
Simply put, use your iPhone like an external HDD.
On Windows 7 (should work also on Vista):
1. Connect the iPhone to your computer.
2. Go to My Computer, and you should see the iPhone device icon.
3. Double click on the icon, and you should see your photos directory.
4. You can now delete or do whatever you want with the photos, as if they were on your computer HDD.
Method 4: Using Mac OS X Preview
Many Mac users do not know about this, but when you connect your iPhone to your Mac, you can move, delete, and access the photos on your iPhone through Preview. The tool is actually quite powerful, and ignored by some that (reasonably) tend to use only iPhoto to access the photos on their iPhone.
1. Connect the iPhone to your Mac.
2. Open Preview, then click the File menu and select Import From [iPhone Name].
3. An easy to use window will open, where you are free to play with your photos and delete them if you need to.
If you want to delete photos from your iCloud stream, please check our latest article, available here.
If you have other methods to share, please comment!
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You can also use ImageCapture on the Mac. That’s how I’ve been doing it.
Thanks for your help! easy breezy!
I can’t make it work in Image Capture. What am I missing?
Hi,
I didn’t know method #4. My favorite one.
Thanks from France.
Jean-Paul
#4 is sick. Thank you.
yes #4 has pretty much changed my life… fantastic!
Thanks
Jean-Paul, thanks to you for visiting.
Hello,
I used method 3 (I’m using Windows 7), and also tried method 2, and while the iPhone doesn’t have any photos in its photo library, iTunes still says that I have 7 Gb of photos on my phone. Why is this the case? Can anyone help?
Thank you.
hi there, i’m no expert but i think it’s because you’ve still got all your data backed up on your iphone so delete it?
where do you see the photo tab in itunes
Hey Mike,
first, thanks for posting and visiting.
I have seen that happening a few times when using an iPhone with Windows – what I know works in these cases is restarting your iPhone and plugging it to your computer to re-sync it. Annoying, but usually it works. I have also found this Apple Support Discussion which you might find useful, which says the same I am recommending:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2720864?start=0&tstart=0
It is an annoying issue, also because a mobile phone is often used while you are away from a computer. I suppose the new iCloud sync feature could be useful in these cases as well.
Hi
I am wanting to delete just a couple of photos from my iphone 4 and have followed #1 instructions only to find I have no delete button at the bottom of my camera roll!!! I have deleted them from my computer, but they remain on my iphone and its starting to frustrate me. As in the illustrations above, I have the option to copy share and print but no delete. Can anybody help me please?
Jess, are you by any chance using a jailbroken iPhone? Many apps for jailbroken iPhones allow disabling the delete button.
If not, which OS and device are you using?
When I use method 3, the only photos I can access are those in the “Camera Roll” album, which, for me, is only a tiny portion of my photos. Even then, no “Delete” option shows on my iPhone 4s.
I am more interested in the iPad and not the phone.
Such a convoluted way to delete photos from an App.
How do I upload a whole lot of pictures to Facebook from my iPhone 4S all at one time instead of the tedious one at a time?
You could use (if you have):
1. Top Camera: Import pictures, select them then it will be uploaded to Facebook in Top Camera folder–no custom folder yet it seems. Top Camera is special because it is a really great all-in-one camera/video/photo editor app but with almost no analog effect.
2. PhotoManagerPro: Same as in the case of Top Camera but it has an option to not compress video i.e. using Import instead of Old Import. Folder in Facebook will be named as PhotoManager Photos. PhotoManagerPro is special because it can easily transfer photos to and fro between Mac/PC and iOS.
3. iLoader: A 3rd party just made for uploading photos to Facebook. I think it can create custom folders. There is iLoader 1 and 2 currently in the App Store, better stick to the latest one I guess.
Hello.
I have set up seperate albums within my “photos”. I’ve taken them from my camera roll and copied them into different albums so they are easier to find. Now I want to delete them from the camera roll only but, when I try to do this I am only given the option of deleting them from everywhere and not JUST the camera roll.
Does anyone know how I can do this?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Sorry I couldn’t help because I never bothered with albums. Maybe you could use 3rd party apps like PhotoManagerPro to avoid redundant copies in albums.
Does deleting the photo move it to an area where it can be overwritten (rather than completely remove it?)
There are programs that can retrieve deleted photographs.
Is there any way to remove them completely (by wiping the overwrite area, or something?)
Hm, never thought of that. That sounds more like a Windows thing. iOS is a limited OS, unless you jailbreak. But iOS (and Mac) is also very secure.
Is it possible to delete a picture from the camera roll but keep it in a separate album on the iPod/iPhone?
I don’t think so. If you want to make albums without having redundant photos, I’d suggest use 3rd party album app like PhotoManagerPro.
I have this problem and it’s very irritating me, due i need more space in my iphone for other important things then certain images. what i. did was i put the images onto the phone by syncing them through itunes, but somehow i dont have access to remove photos with method 3. i can only see the images captared by the phone camera. What else can i do?
wow,this hole idea of having to get a third party app to be able to keep your photos separrate an in order is really bad,i was really trying to figure out how come i couldn’t have a different albome and delete the pics from the camera roll,thanks guys for your answer!
Hey! This site is extremely helpful, I am just encountering one silly little problem. I want to delete a photo from only one album on my phone. For instance, I have taken pictures, they have been saved on camera roll and then I selected them and created a new album for just them. Now, I want the photos to be saved in only one album, which is to say, I want them deleted from camera roll whilst being saved in there new file. The only options it gives me are ‘delete from everywhere’ and ‘cancel’.
Any thoughts!?
thanks:
Damn. Sorry, Will read more first next time.
Thanks
I have downloaded pics from my pc via iTunes I have then exported them to individual folders in photo pro but they are still on view in my orginal photo app and I can’t delete them, so buying pro app waste of time as I got to replug my iPhone into iTunes to delete them. totally totally stupid come on apple get a grip I’m so going back to Sony , way more up there and they have apps to use iTunes ……
Hmm, if I understand this correctly, you synced your photos between your PC and your iPhone using iTunes, right? If that so, it’s true that you cannot simply delete the photos in your iPhone. It’s SYNCED, not TRANSFERRED. That’s why it is suggested to use 3rd party apps and not sync at all. Syncing isn’t fun.
I was screwed with the large number of unnecessary pics in my iphone but method 2 worked very well and now i am glad to have only camera roll.
Thank you very much..
See if I took pictures and put them in another album how do I delete them in camera roll but not in the new album ?
That’s impossible. It is suggested to use 3rd party apps for albums and abstain from using iTunes synchronized album. Photo Manager Pro is a good one.
Very simple to do. Thank you so much. Am just getting familiar with my new iphone.
I have the same problem with photos that i did not delete while i was importing. Now I want to delete them. I use an iPhone 3.
Before anybody goes to help, please note that there is NO delete button present because i did not delete on import. Is there a 3rd party App that will do this.
You would think that the iPhone was a cheap phone because it doesn’t come with a simple option to delete even after you decided not to use the delete after import option.
I don’t have a Mac and I don’t want to pay more money to get one and boost Apple’s profit line.
This Sync process to delete is like something from the dark ages. Apple wake up and smell the coffee. Include a simple delete option that remains even after photos are copied across.
Mac is not needed. Hmm, my guess is to remove photos completely using iTunes sync. Then use a 3rd party app to create your album.
The problem is that these methods don’t work for images that you have imported. Any suggestions?
Hi, how do I delete photos from my camera roll with out deleting them from my other albums?
How do I delete photos, not from the Camera app, but from the photo app. You know the app that has an icon with the picture of a sunflower on it?
I have two albums on my iphone, the camera roll and another that is simply called photo library and it is a picture of a sunflower like the photo app. When I go to the photo library album there is no option to delete from the phone and when I go to the internal storage for my phone on the laptop this album doesn’t even show up!
How do I delete this album??
HELP PLEASE
I’ve tried and tried to delete only the pictures on the camera roll. I have saved the pictures I want in an album but everytime I try to delete them from the roll, it states it will also delete them from the album. Why is this?
Preview technique is great! Thanks
I have an iPhone 4s. I have figured out how to delete pics in camera roll. Problem is I still have over 1500 other pics not in the camera roll. Not only is there no delete button (garbage can), but for some reason, there are 3 of every picture. Also, they are not on my computer anywhere and I don’t know how to delete them. Please help me import them to my computer and delete them. Thanks.
thanks, this helped me out alot!
It’t not the camera roll pictures I’m trying to delete off my phone. I’m trying to get the Photo Library and the Albums off my phone. I cannot find how to get them off. I can move them around I just can’t delete them, I can’t even put them on my computer library. I guess I’m just stuck with them.
AAaaaarrrrrrgggggg!!!!!
i am having the same issue… did you happen to figure out how to delete?
I am going to restore my phone which will wipe out all photos and then sync but only with specific albums.
Do you think that will work??
#4 rocks! Thank you Google and thank you You!
Ok. #4 sounds like what I’ve been looking for to weed out my iphone library. But start groaning. How do I open “Preview????” Where is it???
Disclaimer, have only had phone 4 days…
Hello! Preview is into your Mac Applications folder – not into your iPhone.
My iphone 3 has 3 folders in my photos – albums. They are Camera Roll, Photo Library, and Last 12 Months. My iphone was previously synced to my old Mac (which died). I have imported all photos from the Camera Roll on my phone in to iPhoto on my new Mac. I cannot see how to import the photos from the Photo Library that I want to keep, and i’m unable to delete photos from the Photo Library that I don’t want. Any ideas? I have tried method #4, this only imports photos from the Camera Roll. The photos i want to delete are in the Photo Library and Last 12 Months folders but not in the Camera Roll.
I think your best bet is to use an iPhone explorer software like iExplorer. You install it, plug your iPhone, and then you are able to access all directories. Be careful in not messing around, just look for the photos and do not delete any other file.
http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/
If somebody else has a better idea not requiring a 3rd party tool…
Yeah! Thanks this worked great and now my iPhone can update ALL apps and my photos are stored safely on my Mac and iCloud!
Many thanks, this is a powerful tool~
Peg
I am trying Method Two, but there is not a “Remove Photos” Option! I followed the method precisely, but again, No “Remove Photos” Option…am I doing something wrong?