How to Delete All Screenshots on iPhone at Once (2026 Guide)

How to delete screenshots on iPhone easily

Everyone takes screenshots. A restaurant address, a flight time, a funny WhatsApp conversation, a recipe from Reels, a discount code that expired six months ago. A screenshot is the fastest way to save information, and that is exactly why it is also the fastest way to fill your iPhone with junk.

The average user accumulates between 1,000 and 2,500 screenshots per year. Each screenshot weighs between 200KB and 2MB, depending on screen resolution and content. Do the math: if you have 2,000 screenshots, they easily take up 1-3 GB of storage. And that is before counting everything else piling up in your library.

The real problem is that most screenshots lose their relevance within hours. The address was already typed into Maps, the order was already confirmed, and the discount code is long dead. But the screenshots stay there, taking up space and making it harder to find the photos that actually matter.

Where Are Screenshots on Your iPhone?

Before deleting anything, it helps to know where to find them. Apple created a dedicated album that gathers everything in one place:

Open the Photos app
Scroll down to the Media Types section
Tap Screenshots

This album updates automatically and shows every screenshot you have ever taken, from oldest to newest. You might be surprised by the number you see there.

Method 1: Manual Deletion from the Album

The simplest method, best suited for when you have a few dozen screenshots to delete:

Go to the Screenshots album
Tap Select in the top corner
Mark the screenshots you want to delete
Tap the trash icon
Confirm the deletion

Tip: To select multiple screenshots in a row, press and hold on one screenshot and drag along the row. This is much faster than tapping each one individually.

This method works, but it gets exhausting when you are dealing with hundreds or thousands of screenshots. You have to review each one and decide whether to keep or delete it, which takes time and energy. If you have a large backlog, there are much faster ways to clean your library.

Method 2: Delete All Screenshots at Once

If you have decided you want to get rid of all your screenshots (or most of them), you can do it in a few steps:

Go to the Screenshots album
Tap Select
Tap Select All in the top left corner
Tap the trash icon

Keep in mind: this will delete all screenshots in your library. If there are some you want to keep, deselect them before deleting. Alternatively, move the important screenshots to a separate album before the big cleanup.

Ready to clean your gallery?

Download Tidy and start swiping. AI-powered duplicate detection, smart filters, and a built-in photo editor.

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Method 3: Automation with Shortcuts

Apple offers the Shortcuts app, which lets you create custom automations. You can build a shortcut that automatically deletes old screenshots:

Open the Shortcuts app
Create a new shortcut
Add the Find Photos action with the filter: Screenshot = Yes, and date older than 30 days
Add the Delete Photos action
Save and run

You can even set this shortcut to run automatically once a week. It is an elegant solution, but it has a significant downside: it deletes everything blindly, without giving you a chance to review what gets deleted. An important screenshot of a document or a meaningful conversation could disappear without you noticing.

Why Screenshots Pile Up So Fast

It is no coincidence that your screenshot album is so large. There are several reasons for this:

Taking a screenshot is too easy

Press two buttons and the image is saved. No friction, no questions, no confirmation. That convenience works against you when it comes to storage management. You screenshot without thinking, and you never go back to delete.

There is no automatic cleanup

Unlike messages in some apps that disappear after a set time, screenshots stick around forever. iOS does not offer a built-in mechanism for automatically cleaning up old screenshots. Once you take one, it stays there until you manually delete it.

Silent duplicates

You screenshotted a message, but it did not come out right so you screenshotted it again. Now you have two copies. Multiply that across hundreds of situations, and you have an entire layer of duplicate photos you did not even know about.

Mixed in with your photos

Screenshots are saved in the same place as regular photos. When you scroll through your gallery looking for a specific image, you have to wade through dozens of screenshots that clutter the view, hide your real photos, and slow you down.

How Much Space Do Screenshots Actually Take?

Let us put this in perspective. Here is a quick calculation:

iPhone 15 Pro Max - Average screenshot: ~1.5MB (large screen, high resolution)
iPhone SE - Average screenshot: ~400KB (smaller screen)
Full-page screenshot (scrolling capture): up to 5MB

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro with 1,500 screenshots, they take up roughly 2.25 GB. On an iPhone with 64GB or 128GB of storage, that is a significant percentage. And it is space you can reclaim in minutes. If your iPhone storage is full, screenshots are the first place to check.

Method 4: Smart Cleanup with Tidy

All the methods we have covered so far require you to do the heavy lifting: selecting, filtering, deciding. Tidy turns the entire process into something completely different.

Instead of sitting there and marking hundreds of screenshots one by one, Tidy shows you each photo full-screen and you simply swipe: right to keep, left to drop. It works exactly like it sounds, and at a pace of 8-12 photos per minute you can go through hundreds of screenshots in just a few minutes.

The big advantage: you see every screenshot at full size before deciding. There is no chance you will accidentally delete a screenshot of an important document or a conversation you wanted to keep. And Tidy's AI knows how to identify similar screenshots and group them, so you can make decisions on entire batches at once.

How to Prevent Future Buildup

A one-time cleanup is great, but without good habits the problem will come back. Here are some tips that actually work:

1. Delete right after use

Screenshotted an address? The moment you arrive at the destination, delete it. Screenshotted a discount code? The moment you use it, delete it. This habit takes one second and saves you hours of cleanup in the future.

2. Use Notes instead of screenshots

Instead of screenshotting text, copy it to the Notes app. The information will be more organized, searchable, and it will not take up space in your photo library.

3. Schedule a weekly cleanup

Dedicate 5 minutes at the end of each week to go through the screenshots that accumulated. When the number is small, it is quick and easy. When you wait months, it turns into a daunting task. Building a regular cleaning habit is the key to keeping your gallery tidy over time.

4. Save the important ones in a dedicated album

Create an album called "Important Screenshots" and move the ones you truly want to keep long-term. That way, when it is time to clean the screenshot album, you can delete with confidence knowing the important ones are already safe.

Do Not Forget the Recently Deleted Folder

A point that many people miss: when you delete photos or screenshots on iPhone, they do not actually disappear right away. They go to the Recently Deleted folder and stay there for 30 days before being permanently removed.

In terms of storage, this means the space is not freed until the folder empties out. If you want to reclaim space immediately:

Go to Photos > Albums > Recently Deleted
Tap Select > Delete All
Confirm the permanent deletion

Only after this step does the storage actually free up. If managing your iPhone storage matters to you, always remember to empty the Recently Deleted folder.

Summary

Screenshots are one of the biggest contributors to photo gallery clutter and wasted iPhone storage. They pile up quietly, take up more space than you would expect, and the vast majority of them stopped being relevant long after they were taken.

The good news: this is one of the easiest things to fix. Whether you choose manual deletion, automation with Shortcuts, or smart cleanup with Tidy, the result is the same: a cleaner photo library, more storage space, and an easier time finding what actually matters. Tidy photos are worth better memories.