Top 7 Ways to Fix iPhone Not Deleted Recently Deleted Photos

Getting rid of old and unwanted photos can help you regain some storage space. However, deleting such photos can be a pity. Sending pictures to the Recently deleted or trash folder found in a phone’s gallery apps is not enough. It continues to store. And it doesn’t happen when you try to free up storage space. No matter how hard you try, the photos in the Recently Deleted folder on iPhone will not be deleted and this can be confusing and frustrating at times.

Yup. Some iPhone users are unable to do so when they try to free up storage space by clearing the Recently deleted folder. They get an error like photos cannot be deleted. In some cases, photos still remain in the Recently deleted folder despite pressing the delete button.

So, if deleting recently deleted photos is not working for you on iPhone, here are some ways to fix it. Before that, read our post on what happens when you delete photos from iPhone.

1. Reboot Phone

You should start troubleshooting the problem by restarting your phone. Try deleting the photos after restarting the phone. Hopefully the error will go away and if you had deleted some photos that reappeared before, they would have been removed as well.

2. Try Alternative Way to Clean Up Recently Deleted Album

The usual way to clear the Recently Deleted folder is to open it in Albums and hit the Delete all button. If that doesn’t work, you should try doing it from settings.

For this, follow these steps:

Stage 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General.

Step 2: Tap iPhone Storage. You will find installed apps listed along with the storage consumed. Tap Photos.

Stage 3: Tap Empty next to Recently Deleted Album.

3. Delete in Groups

If you have more than 500 photos, you should delete the files in smaller batches rather than deleting them all at once.

For this, go to the Recently Deleted folder and tap on Select. Tap a photo to select it, and then drag your finger over the photos to select it. Follow the selected photos at the top. Select and delete 400-500 photos at once. If that doesn’t work either, try choosing a batch of 100.

4. Give it time

Don’t worry if the photos don’t disappear as soon as you hit the delete all button. If you plan to delete a lot of photos, give it at least 5-10 minutes. Because there is a lot of data and it will take time to delete.

5. Turn Off Auto Lock

Many iPhone users suggest that keeping the Apple Photos app running in the foreground helps delete photos for them. This may be because the Photos app completes the deletion while the App is in the foreground. So if the screen turns off, the process may pause.

So, if you are trying to delete a lot of photos from the Recently Deleted folder, you should prevent it from sleeping for a while. For that, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock. Set it to never. Wait 30-60 minutes. Next, check out the Photos app. If the photos are lost, you can change the auto-lock setting.

6. Disable Low Power Mode

For the same reason as mentioned above, you should also disable low power mode. It also interferes when you have a large number of photos to be deleted from the Recently Deleted folder.

To turn it off, go to Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode.

Pro Tip: Keep tapping the screen to stop it from sleeping.

7. Delete from Web

In case the Apple Photos app fails to delete the photos, you should take the help of the web version of iCloud. For that, visit icloud.com/photos. Sign in with your Apple account. Click on Recently Deleted. Then click Delete All. Wait for a while before the status of your deleted photos syncs to your phone.

Bonus Tips for Using the Apple Photos App

Here are some tips and tricks for getting the most out of the Apple Photos app.

1. Back to Photos

While viewing a photo, instead of tapping the back icon, swipe down on the photo to return to the all photos screen. You will be taken to the previous screen.

2. Change View Mode

On the Photos screen, use the back button at the top to change the view mode. Tap any photo from the available images to see more photos.

3. View Photo Size

Photo size is hard to find in the Apple Photos app. Check out our guide on how to find out the size of a photo on iPhone.

Storage Matters

We hope the above solutions cleared your Recently deleted folder and helped you clean up storage space on your iPhone. You should also try other ways to free up storage space on iPhone and iPad. You can even move photos to Google Photos; this frees up more space on your phone.

Next: Considering switching from iCloud to Google Photos? Learn how iCloud Photos differs from Google Photos in our next link.