Keep reading, as this article will answer those questions. Plus, we’ll reveal even more tricks that make it as easy to delete many photos from your iPhone as it is to delete one.

How to delete photos from your iPhone

If you’re trying to clean up your photo library on your iPhone, it’s going to take you a long time to go through and delete individual pictures one at a time. Here are some tips for cleaning up the photo library on your iPhone.

How to delete all photos from your iPhone at once

Although there’s no native way to delete all of your photos at one time, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. While our very own app, Gemini Photos, is primarily used to find duplicate pictures, it has a hidden feature that will help you out.

Here’s how to delete all photos from your iPhone or iPad using Gemini Photos:

1. Download Gemini Photos from the App Store.
2. Open the app and tap the Menu button in the top right.
3. Tap Delete Photo Library at the very bottom.
4. Tap Delete to confirm.
5. In the Photos app, scroll down to Recently Deleted.
6. Tap Select > Delete All.

How to delete duplicates and other redundant pictures from iPhone

Maybe you’re just looking for a way to quickly clean up your photos by deleting the duplicates and similar-looking pictures on your phone. If so, you can download Gemini Photos from the App Store and follow these steps:

1. Open Gemini Photos and let it scan.
2. Tap Duplicates.
3. Go through each grouping to select the pics you want to delete.
4. When you’re done, tap the Delete Duplicates button at the bottom.
5. Tap Your Library to go through other categories like Similar, Blurred, Notes, etc.

How to mass-remove thousands of photos from your iPhone

While deleting photos in bulk isn’t impossible, it may take some time — especially if you want to be selective about which pictures you remove. But you can follow these steps to help speed up your batch-deleting:

1. Open the Photos app.
2. Tap Library > All Photos.
3. Tap the ellipses > Zoom Out.
4. Tap Select.
5. Instead of tapping each picture, touch the first picture and drag your finger to the top of the screen. This will select all of the photos along the way.
6. After you’re done selecting all the pictures, tap the trash can icon in the bottom-right corner.

If there are specific pictures you want to deselect, just tap those photos to uncheck them.

How to delete photos from your iPhone but not from iCloud

Before you start deleting your pictures en masse, it’s important to keep in mind that in some cases, anything you delete from your iPhone will also be deleted from iCloud. So, if you want to free up space on your phone without losing those pics forever, follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap Photos.
3. Turn iCloud Photos off.

Once iCloud Photos is turned off, deleting a picture will only remove it from your iPhone.

How to permanently delete pictures from your iPhone

A common misconception is that when you delete photos, they’re gone from your iPhone forever. However, that’s not true — at least, not for 30 days. Anytime you delete a picture, it remains on your phone in the Recently Deleted album for a 30-day period. So, to permanently delete pictures from your iPhone, follow these steps:

1. Open the Photos app.
2. Tap Albums > Recently Deleted > Select All.
3. At the bottom, tap Delete All.

Why can’t I delete photos on my iPhone?

In some cases, you may try to delete photos, only to discover that your iPhone won’t let you. Here are three of the common reasons why this can happen.

1. You synced the photos from your computer

If you add pictures to your iPhone by connecting it to your computer, you can’t delete them on your iPhone. Instead, you have to choose to not sync that particular photo the next time you sync your devices.

2. The pictures are in a Shared Album

One of the downsides to Shared Albums is that if you’re not the creator of an album, you can only delete the pictures you add to it. If you try to delete a photo you didn’t add, the trash can icon is grayed out.

3. Photo Stream is turned on

Perhaps you deleted a picture on your iPhone, but it’s still showing up in your Photos app. That could be because you have Photo Stream turned on. Even after you delete a picture from your Camera Roll, you’ll still need to go into your Photo Stream and remove it from there, too.

How to delete photos from iCloud

If you’re signed in to iCloud when you add or remove a photo on your iPhone, Apple will automatically add or remove it on iCloud, too. But you might find yourself in a situation where you want to delete a picture only from iCloud or simply locate a picture that’s still on iCloud but no longer on your phone. Here are a couple of tricks for managing your photos on iCloud.

Where to find deleted photos on iCloud

If you deleted a photo from iCloud but have since changed your mind about it, you may still be able to recover the photo from the Recently Deleted album. To find deleted photos on iCloud:

1. Open Safari and go to iCloud.com.
2. Log in with your iCloud account.
3. Tap Photos > Albums > Recently Deleted.
4. Find the photo you accidentally removed.
5. Tap Recover.

How to permanently delete photos from iCloud

Like the Photos app on your iPhone, when you delete a picture from iCloud, it doesn’t immediately disappear. Rather, it survives in your Recently Deleted album for up to 30 days. You can, however, follow these steps to permanently delete a photo without the wait:

1. In Safari, go to iCloud.com.
2. Log in with your iCloud account.
3. Tap Photos > Albums > Recently Deleted.
4. At the top, tap Select > Select All > Delete.

How to delete pictures from iCloud but not from your iPhone

Deleting pictures from iCloud without removing them from your phone requires two steps: turning off iCloud Photos and deleting the images. Follow these instructions to turn off iCloud Photos:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Scroll down and tap Photos.
3. Toggle iCloud Photos off.

If you have the option set to Optimize iPhone Storage, it’s likely that not all of your pictures are currently downloaded to your iPhone. In any case, make sure you have the Download and Keep Originals option selected. That way, your entire photo library will remain on your phone even after you turn off iCloud Photos.

Next, follow these steps to remove a picture from iCloud.

1. In Safari, go to iCloud.com.
2. Log in with your iCloud account.
3. Tap Photos and select the picture you want to delete.
4. Tap the trash can icon.

Whether you’re trying to purge your photo library or just want to free up a little space, batch-deleting pictures is a great solution. Trying to remove photos one by one is going to take a lot longer than it’s worth. Hopefully, this article has provided you with some tips to help you feel confident when deleting pictures from your iPhone and iCloud.

The post How to delete photos from iPhone, iPad, and iCloud: Tricks you didn’t know appeared first on Backlight.

Duplicates and similar-looking photos can waste a lot of space in your photo library if you’re not careful. This article goes over how to locate and dispose of duplicate photos. Plus, we’ll share some other tips and tricks on how to keep your library clutter-free.

How to find and delete duplicate photos on iPhone

While manually searching for duplicate and similar photos is one way to clean up your library, it isn’t the only way. Below, we’ll share how to clean up your duplicates manually, how to purge similar photos in Google Photos and iCloud, and — the easiest option — how to delete duplicates using the app Gemini Photos.

How to remove duplicate iPhone photos using Gemini Photos

Gemini Photos not only scans your iPhone for duplicate photos but also identifies things like similar images, blurry photos, and even screenshots. Here’s how to use Gemini Photos to clean up your photo clutter:

1. Download Gemini Photos from the App Store.
2. Open the app and let it scan.
3. Tap on one of the categories, such as Duplicates.
4. Select a group of pictures to review, then decide which individual photos you want to delete.
5. After you’re done selecting, tap Delete Duplicates at the bottom of the screen.
6. Tap Delete to confirm. 

It’s important to remember that even after you delete your pictures with Gemini Photos, they’re still on your phone. To permanently delete them:

1. Open the Photos app.
2. Tap Albums > Recently Deleted.
3. Tap Select > Delete All.

How to delete duplicate photos manually in Photos

Of course, you can always manually search for duplicates on your iPhone. This process is self-explanatory, but there are a couple of tricks you can use in the Photos app to help you find them:

• View by date: In the Photos app, tap Library > All Photos at the bottom to view your pictures in chronological order, which will help you spot the similar photos and duplicates as you scroll through.
• Sort by location: You can also sort your pictures by geographic location. At the bottom, tap Search and scroll down to Places.

To remove the duplicates when you find them:

1. Tap Select.
2. Choose the pictures you want to delete.
3. Tap the trash can icon in the bottom-right corner and select Delete Photo.

How to remove duplicate photos from iCloud

Maybe you have some duplicate pictures on iCloud. The good news is you can use Gemini Photos to help you clean those up, too. The same instructions apply, but you’ll need to ensure that you have iCloud Photos turned on, on your iPhone. Here’s how you turn on iCloud Photos:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Photos.
3. Toggle the slider to turn on iCloud Photos.

How to delete duplicates in Google Photos

If you’re using Google Photos, you can search through your photos manually, or you can use the Search feature to help you find specific groups of pictures. To search for duplicates in Google Photos, just follow these steps:

1. In Google Photos, tap Search.
2. In the Search bar at the top, type a keyword to identify the pics you’re looking for (e.g., zebra).
3. Tap and hold the pictures you want to delete.
4. After you’ve selected all the images, tap the trash can icon at the top.
5. Tap Move to Trash > Delete.

How to prevent duplicate photos on your iPhone

Now that you have all the duplicates and clutter removed from your photo library, you may be wondering how you can prevent more duplicates in the future. Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind.

Tip 1. Sync photos using only one method

There are a couple of ways to sync your photos across all your devices. For example, you can use iCloud Photos or connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable. Whatever your preferred method for syncing your iPhone, sync it that way — and only that way. Syncing from both your computer and your cloud accounts can mean you upload the same photos multiple times.

Tip 2. Turn off auto-downloads in third-party apps like WhatsApp

Some third-party apps like WhatsApp will automatically download pictures and videos to your phone. So if you manually save an image you’ve been sent, you will end up with multiple copies of it in the Photos app. To turn off auto-downloads, just follow these steps:

1. Open WhatsApp.
2. Tap Settings > Data and Storage Usage > Photos.
3. Choose Never.

Tip 3. Transfer all photos from your DSLR camera at the same time

Newer DSLR cameras allow you to transfer pictures to your phone over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. If you only import a couple of photos at a time, you leave room for a mistake the next time you transfer pictures. You might accidentally sync the same photos twice, creating copies of your pictures on your iPhone.

The cleanest way to transfer pictures from a DSLR camera is to import all of the photos to your iPhone and then wipe the card. This way, you can’t accidentally import the same images a second time.

Tip 4. Don’t use AirDrop with iCloud Photos turned on

If you have multiple Apple devices with iCloud Photos turned on, don’t transfer pictures between devices using AirDrop. It’s tempting to use AirDrop when your photos aren’t syncing quickly enough, but the result will be duplicates of the same photos. A little patience here will save you some headaches later. 

Tip 5. Use Shared Albums

When you go to an event with friends or family, everyone typically shares the pictures they took. Instead of emailing photos or texting them to each other, it’s best to keep a Shared album. That way, all your shared photos live in the Photos app. And you don’t have to worry about going back to find them or saving them again, accidentally creating duplicates. 

Does iCloud recognize duplicate photos?

If you have multiple devices trying to sync the same picture, iCloud will recognize it as a duplicate. But if you have copies saved on your iPhone, then iCloud will upload both versions of the photo. 

Duplicates happen to everyone. Especially if you’re using your iPhone as your primary camera. The more you practice your iPhone photography, the more likely you are to fill up your library with similar-looking photos and duplicates. But if you apply some of these tricks and regularly scan for duplicates with Gemini Photos, you can prevent your photo library from filling up with clutter, optimizing your iPhone’s storage space.

The post How to delete and prevent duplicate photos on your iPhone appeared first on Backlight.

If you’ve ever accidentally deleted a treasured photo, you know how anxiety-inducing it can be, and you may be wondering if you can recover deleted photos from your iPhone, how to retrieve deleted photos from a backup, and even how to recover deleted images from iCloud. 

Here are some steps you can take to recover photos that you’ve accidentally deleted. Step number one — don’t panic!

How to find deleted photos on iPhone

Where do deleted photos go when you tap the trash can on your iPhone? Because we all make mistakes, photos that are deleted from your phone are stored in a recently deleted album, where they are saved for 30 days. In other words, you can breathe your first sigh of relief.

How to recover photos from Recently Deleted

1. Open the Photos app and tap Albums.
2. Scroll down to the Other Albums section and tap Recently Deleted.
3. Here you will find all the photos you’ve deleted in the past 30 days. 
4. Choose the photo you want to recover and tap Recover. Your photo will be saved in your Photo Library.

Can you recover permanently deleted photos on iPhone?

The short answer to this question is maybe. Whether or not you can recover permanently deleted photos will depend on if your photo was saved in iCloud or if you have a backup from which you can recover your photo. In many but not all cases, it is likely that you will still be able to recover your photo.

How to recover deleted photos from iCloud

If you were signed in to iCloud when you deleted your photo, then your photos will remain on the iCloud platform for 30 days. If, for some reason, you were signed out of iCloud when you deleted your photo, you may be able to retrieve it past the 30-day mark. Visit icloud.com on the web and then follow these steps:

1. Sign in to iCloud and click on Photos.
2. Start your search by checking the Recently Deleted folder. 
3. Select the photo you want to retrieve and click Recover.
4. Depending on how long you’ve been signed out of iCloud, you may find your photo in your iCloud photo library. Open iCloud and click Photos.
5. Scroll through until you find the photo you’re looking for. Click the download icon at the top of the screen to save the photo to a folder on your computer. 

How to retrieve deleted photos from a backup 

If you’ve been backing up your iPhone data to your Mac, then you may be able to recover your photos that way. To help reduce the risk of losing a photo in the future, here’s a tip — back up your iPhone data to iTunes or Finder using a Mac. Apple Support has instructions on how to do this. 

The downside to this method is that iTunes only allows you to restore your entire backup, overwriting everything currently on your iPhone. This means you may manage to find your photo, but you also might lose more recent data from your phone. 

If you’re only looking to retrieve photos, the best way to extract them from your iPhone backup is to use a third-party app. Here’s how to retrieve deleted photos from your iPhone using EaseUS MobiSaver. 

1. Download EaseUS MobiSaver and open it on your computer (EaseUS makes this software for Macs and PCs).
2. Choose Recover from iTunes and then choose your iPhone from the menu and click Scan.
3. You will be able to preview your lost photos. Choose the ones you want to restore. Then save them to a folder on your computer. 

Can you recover permanently deleted photos without a backup? 

Okay, so you deleted your favorite photos months ago, and you haven’t backed up your iPhone. Have you reached the end of the road? There’s one more course of action you can try, and it involves third-party software. PhoneRescue is a professional data recovery tool that can be used as a last resort. The only caveat is that it will work only if your photos haven’t been overwritten by other data.

PhoneRescue can be downloaded to your PC or Mac. Plug your iPhone into your computer using a USB port and scan your device for your deleted photos using PhoneRescue. You can restore all of your deleted data, or you can choose to scan only for lost images. You will be able to preview photos before restoring them. 

Mistakes happen, and there’s a good chance that you will, at some point, accidentally delete a photo before realizing that you want to keep it. Hopefully, the solutions outlined in this article will help with the recovery. 

The post How to recover the photos you deleted from your iPhone appeared first on Backlight.

If you’re starting to run out of space on iCloud, the obvious answer may seem like paying to upgrade your account. Keep reading to see what other steps you can take first to free up space and to learn about what else is stored in your iCloud — and what might be taking up a lot of storage without you realizing it.

Why is my iCloud storage full?

If you’re not familiar with iCloud, you might not realize what’s taking up all your storage space. Because iCloud is used for iPhone or iPad backups, as well as to store your entire photo library, the 5GB you get with a free iCloud account may not be enough. 

Some of the data that you can sync to iCloud includes:

• Photos
• Videos
• iPhone/iPad Backups
• Contacts
• Calendars
• Files
• Photos
• Notes
• Safari data (bookmarks, reading lists, and passwords)

How to see what’s in your iCloud storage

Thankfully, it’s easy to manage your iCloud storage directly on your iPhone (no computer required). To check what’s taking up so much space on your iCloud account:

1. On your iPhone, open Settings.
2. Tap [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage.

At the top of the screen, you’ll see what’s taking up space on your iCloud account based on categories. And then, further down on this screen, you’ll see how much storage space each app specifically is using.

How to clear iCloud storage

Just because you’re starting to run out of space on iCloud doesn’t mean your only option is to pay to upgrade your account. There are actually quite a few steps you can take to clean and free up some of your iCloud storage.

• Clean up your photo library.
• Delete old backups.
• Remove old files.
• Clean up text messages.
• Delete unused app data.
• Empty your trash.

Step 1. Clean up your photo library

When you have iCloud Photos turned on, every picture and video you take automatically gets synced. But the same is true for all those other photos you took where the angle was bad or it came out blurry. And actually, the same is true for every screenshot you’ve taken; it all gets automatically synced to iCloud.

Fortunately, you can use our very own app, Gemini Photos, to scan your photo library and quickly remove the pictures you don’t want anymore. Before you start cleaning up your library, it’s important to double-check that iCloud Photos is turned on on your phone by going to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos. Then start cleaning up your photo library using Gemini Photos.

1. Download Gemini Photos from the App Store.
2. Open the app and let it scan your library.
3. Tap Similar.
4. Your similar photos will be grouped together by month. Tap on a month, then tap on a group of pictures to start with.
5. Select which ones to get rid of.
6. Tap Move to Trash.
7. Once you’ve gone through the similar pictures, tap Similar > Your Library.
8. Now you can clean up other categories like Duplicates, Screenshots, Blurry, and more.

Why is my iCloud storage full after deleting photos?

As a safety feature, iCloud will hold onto your photos for 30 days in case you delete a picture by accident. So after you’ve used Gemini Photos to clean up, you’ll need to also remove them from your Recently Deleted section in Photos.

1. On your iPhone, open Photos.
2. Tap Albums > Recently Deleted.
3. Tap Select > Delete All.
4. Confirm Delete All.

Step 2. Delete outdated backups  

If you have both an iPhone and iPad using the same iCloud account or you regularly upgrade your device each year, then you probably have multiple backup files taking up space on iCloud. You can check what backups you have saved on your iCloud account directly from your phone.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage >Backups.
3.  Tap on the old device backup > Delete Backup.
4. Confirm Delete Backup.

Step 3. Remove old files

One of the great features of iCloud is iCloud Drive. Not only does it keep all of your content in sync across your devices, but it also acts as a cloud service like Google Drive or Dropbox. But again, the biggest you’re likely to run into is the 5 GB of free storage. 

You can view what’s taking up space in your iCloud Drive using the Files app.

1. Open the Files app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Browse > iCloud Drive.
3. Tap Select and choose the files you want to delete.
4. Tap the trash can icon at the bottom. 

Step 4. Clean up text messages 

If you send a lot of texts in Messages — or, more specifically, if you send a lot of pictures and GIFs — then you could be using up a lot of storage on iCloud without even realizing it. Here’s a quick way to see how much space your individual conversations are taking up:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Messages > Top Conversations.
3. You can delete entire conversations by tapping Edit.
4. Select all of the conversations you want to delete, then tap the trash can icon.

Step 5. Delete unused app data

Other third-party apps that you download from the App Store can also use iCloud to help sync your data across all of your devices. So, if you have an app you don’t use much anymore, you might want to remove that from your iCloud account to save space.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage.
3. Scroll down and tap on the app.
4. Tap Delete Data. 

Step 6. Take out the trash  

When you’re cleaning up, you usually spend so much time sifting through your data that it’s easy to forget that, in most cases, you still have to empty the trash in various apps. But, like pictures in the Photos app, if it’s sitting in the trash and was on your iCloud account, then it’s still eating up storage on iCloud for the time being. Here are a couple of other places you can go back and check.

The Files app on your iPhone:

1. Open the app.
2. Tap Browse > Recently Deleted > Select > Delete All.

If you’re using an @icloud.com account in the Mail app on your iPhone:

1. Open the app.
2. Tap Trash.
3. Tap Edit and then Delete All.

Getting more iCloud storage

If you’ve gotten rid of everything you can from your iCloud account but it’s still not enough, don’t worry. As you read earlier, you can easily upgrade your storage as long as you don’t mind paying a bit for it.

How to buy more iCloud storage

You can buy more iCloud storage directly on your iPhone using your Apple ID.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Change Storage Plan.
3. Choose the storage plan you’d like.
4. Follow the prompts to complete the purchase.

How much does it cost to upgrade iCloud storage?

Apple currently offers three storage tiers. The great thing is that if you’re on a family account, you can choose to share the storage with the other accounts.

• 50 GB for $0.99/month
• 200 GB for $2.99/month
• 2 TB for $9.99/month

Can I get more iCloud storage for free?

The only iCloud storage that you can get for free is the default 5 GB. There is no way to get more iCloud storage for free.

If you’ve been seeing that iCloud Storage Full message, it’s time to clean things up. Hopefully, one of the tips above will help you free up enough space to keep using your free iCloud account. But if that’s not enough for your pictures and videos, you can always upgrade to get more storage.

The post iCloud Storage Full: How to free up space in iCloud for your photos appeared first on Backlight.