How to Delete All Screenshots on iPhone

Screenshots pile up quietly: a ticket, a map, a recipe, a chat you wanted to remember. The good news is that your iPhone already keeps them all in one place, so you can clear them in a few taps. This guide shows the built-in way for every iOS version from 16 on, how to handle screen recordings, how to actually get the space back, and whether your iPhone can do any of it for you.

On Android? Read the Android cleaning guide instead.

Delete all screenshots at once

The Photos app sorts your screenshots into a collection of their own. Open it, select everything, delete.

Step 1: Open the Screenshots collection

Where it lives depends on your iOS version:

• iOS 26 and later: open Photos, tap Collections at the bottom, scroll down to Media Types, then tap Screenshots. In iOS 26, Screenshots is also in the Pinned collection at the top by default.
• iOS 18: open Photos, scroll down, tap Media Types, then Screenshots.
• iOS 16 and 17: open Photos, tap Albums, then Screenshots under Media Types.

Step 2: Select them

Tap Select, then tap Select All. If you don't see Select All, slide your finger across the thumbnails to select many at once.

Want to keep a few? Skip Select All and tap or slide across only the screenshots you want gone.

Step 3: Delete them

Tap the Trash button, then confirm. The screenshots move to Recently Deleted.

Step 4: Empty Recently Deleted

Deleted screenshots wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days before they leave your iPhone. To get the space back today, empty it: the steps for each iOS version are further down.

Screen recordings have their own collection

Screen recordings are saved to Photos as videos, in a Media Types collection of their own. Clear them the same way: open the collection, tap Select, choose the recordings, tap the Trash button.

• iOS 26 and later: Photos → Collections → Media Types → Screen Recordings.
• iOS 18: Photos → scroll down → Media Types → Screen Recordings.
• iOS 17: Photos → Albums → Screen Recordings under Media Types.

Apple's guide for iOS 16 does not list a Screen Recordings album. There, it simply says to find the recording in Photos.

Can iPhone delete screenshots automatically?

No. iOS has no setting that deletes old screenshots on its own, and Apple's guides don't describe one. What your iPhone does give you is a chance to throw a screenshot away the moment you take it:

• iOS 26 and later: a new screenshot opens full screen, with tools to mark it up, share it or save it. If you only needed it for a moment, tap the Close button to cancel or delete it. You can switch back to the small thumbnail in Settings → General → Screen Capture by turning off Full-Screen Previews.
• iOS 16: tap the thumbnail in the lower-left corner, tap Done, then choose Delete Screenshot.

If screenshots only bother you in the main photo grid, you can hide them there without deleting anything. On iOS 26 and later, tap the Sort and Filter button in your library, tap View Options, then Screenshots. On iOS 18, swipe down on the photo grid, tap the Filter button, then View Options and Screenshots. Hidden this way, they stay on your iPhone and keep using space.

For everything that does get saved, a small habit beats a big yearly cleanup: open the Screenshots collection once a week and clear what you no longer need.

Free up the space: empty Recently Deleted

Deleted screenshots aren't gone yet. Photos keeps them in Recently Deleted for 30 days before removing them from your iPhone, iCloud and your other devices. To get the space back now:

1. Open Recently Deleted. On iOS 26 and later: Photos → Collections → Recently Deleted, under Utilities. On iOS 18: open Photos, swipe up, tap Recently Deleted under Utilities. On iOS 16 and 17: Photos → Albums → Recently Deleted, under Utilities.
2. Tap View Album and unlock it with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
3. Tap Select. To empty the whole album, tap the More button, then Delete All. To remove only some items, select them, tap the More button, then Delete. On iOS 16, Recover and Delete sit at the bottom of the screen.
4. Confirm. Once items leave Recently Deleted, you can't get them back.

To see what you won back, open Settings → General → iPhone Storage.

What iCloud Photos changes

• With iCloud Photos on, a screenshot you delete on your iPhone is deleted on every device where you use iCloud Photos.
• Items in Recently Deleted don't count toward your iCloud storage.
• If you're over your iCloud storage limit, photos you delete are removed right away and don't wait in Recently Deleted, so you can't recover them.

Swipe through them instead: Picmori

Select All is the quickest route when every screenshot can go. When some still matter, like a boarding pass or a receipt, a grid of tiny thumbnails makes it easy to delete the wrong one. Picmori, our app, shows you one picture at a time: swipe left to delete, right to keep, with undo.

• Screenshots mode (Premium): brings only screenshots and saved images into the review, heaviest first, so the ones taking the most room come up first.
• Repeated screenshots in one group (Premium): in Premium sessions, repeated screenshots are grouped. A badge on the card shows a group is nearby; tap it and the group opens side by side, with a suggested shot to keep, picked by resolution, file size and your favourites.
• Free: some chapters of the adventure map are built from your screenshots, and you swipe through them like any other level. The free version gives you 4 sessions of 25 photos a day and short pauses between chapters, with no ads and no account.
• Nothing is deleted while you swipe: Picmori collects your choices and you confirm at the end of the session. iOS asks once more and moves the photos to Recently Deleted, where they stay for about 30 days.

Premium (weekly, yearly with a free trial, or a one-time Lifetime purchase) removes the daily limit and the pauses and unlocks the Premium review modes. Photos are analysed on your phone and never uploaded. Picmori runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 16 or later, and on Android 7.0 or later. And if screenshots are your weak spot, one of the 8 gallery heroes Picmori can match you with is the Screenshot Hamster.

App Store · Google Play

Tips before you delete

• Mark the keepers, then leave them out. While viewing a screenshot you need, tap the Favorite button, or add it to an album. That makes it easy to find later, but it doesn't protect it from a bulk delete: it still shows up in the Screenshots collection, and deleting it there removes it from every album and your library. So when you select, skip the ones you marked.
• Look through Recently Deleted before you empty it. It is your last chance to recover a screenshot.
• Check Screen Recordings too. They are videos, so they are easy to forget and worth a look.
• Keep going with the rest of your library. Screenshots are one kind of clutter. For duplicates, bursts and large videos, see how to clean up your iPhone photo library and how to delete duplicate photos on iPhone.

Questions about deleting screenshots

How do I delete all screenshots at once on iPhone?

Open Photos and go to the Screenshots collection: Collections, Media Types, Screenshots on iOS 26 and later; Media Types, Screenshots further down the Photos screen on iOS 18; Albums, Screenshots on iOS 16 and 17. Tap Select, then Select All, or slide your finger across the thumbnails to select many at once. Tap the Trash button and confirm.

Do deleted screenshots free up space right away?

Not on your iPhone. Deleted screenshots stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days before they are removed from your iPhone for good. To get the space back now, open Recently Deleted, unlock it and delete the items there. Items in Recently Deleted don't count toward your iCloud storage.

Can iPhone delete screenshots automatically?

No. iOS has no setting that deletes old screenshots on its own. On iOS 26 and later a new screenshot opens full screen, and you can tap the Close button to cancel or delete it right away. For the ones already saved, clear the Screenshots collection every now and then.