It’s annoying – you have this awesome phone and you should be able to take photos whenever you want too but:

“My phone is full and I can’t take a photo – it drives me mad!!”

STOP MISSING important moments by learning in a few simple steps how to delete photos from your phone.

Deleting photos use to be so much simpler – deleting photos from your phone can be too!

Three easy options to delete photos from your phone:

• Delete photos using the trash can – you are probably already familiar with this – tap the little rubbish bin at the bottom of the screen to delete a single photo.

• Delete ‘groups’ of photos – delete a group of photos, called ‘moments’ on iPhones. ‘Moments’ are collections of photos based on when and where you took them (e.g. your lunch with friends on Sunday, photos of flowers taken on Tuesday would be classified as two separate ‘moments’ on your phone. (Note: the number of photos in each moment will vary depending on how many photos you took at that particular point in time.)

• Delete photos using ‘Image Capture’ – Mac computers come pre-installed with some wonderful software that most people do not know about: ‘Image Capture’. Using Image Capture allows you to delete 500 or 1000 photos or any number you like quickly and easily. If you have a Mac it will already be on your computer.

How do I delete photos on my iPhone using the ‘trash can’?

This option is one that is most useful for quickly deleting that blurry photo, or for when you have a lot of time on your hands to go through each photo one by one (maybe in the car park waiting for someone). It does the job, but it’s no Rolls Royce.

How do I delete groups of photos using ‘moments’?

This is a great option if you need space quickly. I often find it best to scroll through to find ‘older’ moments or moments which are made up of screen shots which were useful at one point in time but not really  now. As with all of these options – be sure that you have already downloaded the photo/image onto your computer or that you are sure that you really do not want the photo.

Step 1 – Open ‘Photo’s’ on your phone
Step 2 –  Tap the ‘Photos’ icon to make it blue – bottom left of screen.   Step 3 – Check you are in ‘Moments’ – top of screen.  If it says ‘Years’ or ‘Collections’ tap a photo (any photo) until the word at the top of the screen changes to ‘Moments’.
Step 4 – Tap ‘Select’ at top right of screen.
Step 5 Scroll through for an old set of photos that you are happy to delete. Tap ‘Select’ and then tap the ‘rubbish bin’ icon. It will delete all the photos on that particular date e.g. – the 12th April has 3 photos which means 3 photos will be deleted.   To quickly delete multiple ‘moments’ tap ‘select’ on as many moments as you wish – once you have selected them all – tap the rubbish bin icon – bottom left of screen.   This is a fast way to free some space on your phone when out and about.

How do I use ‘Image Capture’ to delete hundreds of photos?

If you have 500+ photos on your phone and you are getting the ‘no space on your phone’ message time and time again – this may be the option for you. Make sure that you have downloaded any photos first, and that these photos have then been backed up elsewhere (e.g. external hard drive, printed out etc). Once you delete your photos using this method you can’t get them back, so you want to be sure. Once you have taken care of that, you will love the ease of this method – it will blow your mind to how quick and simple it is and you will be left telling friends about it when you see them deleting photos one… by…. one.

Step 1 Get your iPhone charger. Pull the white cord out of the plug bit (most iPhone chargers will allow you to do this) Step 2 Plug your phone in and attach the USB end to the USB port of your Mac.  See picture. Step 3 ‘Image Capture’ will open automatically. If ‘iPhoto’ opens up instead – close it down. If ‘Image Capture doesn’t open, check to see if you have any icons ‘jumping up and down’ at the bottom of your computer screen – if you do – click on it (to open ‘Image Capture’). If there is no ‘jumping up and down’ icon, go to Finder < Applications < Image Capture to open ‘Image Capture’.
Step 4 You will now be in Image Capture and will be able to see all your photos (and screen shots) that are on your camera roll. Scroll through to have a quick look.
Step 5 Select the photos you want to delete: –       “Control-A” is a short-cut to select all of your photos. –       “Command (and click with mouse)” – allows you to manually pick which photos you want to delete (vs keep).
Step 6 At the bottom of the screen you will see a red circle with a line through it – click this. A box will box up asking if you are sure if you want to delete. Important: Be sure that you have downloaded your photos (and ideally backed up) prior to saying ‘yes. Once they are deleted they are gone.
Step 7 Close “Image Capture’ and unplug your phone.

Claire’s important proviso’s before getting started:

• When importing photos onto your computer it is a good idea to back up your photos to a second source (e.g. an external hard drive, to the cloud, or have them printed) prior to deleting anything.

There is also another option of having photos stored in the cloud – this means that any photo that you take on your phone is automatically put in the cloud (you can control privacy settings – e.g. whether you share it with someone else, or whether it is completely private). Your phone will make a ‘thumbnail’ of sorts – which is basically a very small picture that takes up to no space on your phone – so you can still show your friends even when you are not online!