Screenshots are the easiest storage to forget about. Each one is small, but they arrive several times a day — a boarding pass, a recipe, a meme someone sent — and a few years later there are thousands of them.
Here are three ways to clear them, depending on whether you want them all gone or want to keep a few.
Method 1: Delete all screenshots from the Screenshots album
- Open Photos → Albums.
- Scroll to Media Types and tap Screenshots.
- Tap Select in the top right.
- Tap Select All if it appears. If not, tap the first screenshot and drag your finger across and then down the grid — iOS selects everything you pass over.
- Tap the trash icon and confirm.
- Go to Albums → Recently Deleted, tap Select → Delete All.
Step 6 matters. Until you empty Recently Deleted, the screenshots still use space for 30 days.
Method 2: A Shortcut that deletes them in one tap
If screenshots pile up again every month, automate it.
- Open the Shortcuts app and tap +.
- Add the action Find Photos.
- Tap Add Filter and set it to Is a Screenshot. Optionally add Date Taken is not in the last 30 days to keep recent ones.
- Add the action Delete Photos.
- Name it "Delete Screenshots" and add it to your Home Screen.
iOS will still ask you to confirm before deleting, which is a good safety net. You can also run it from Siri or schedule it under Automation.
Method 3: Swipe through them and keep the ones that matter
Deleting everything is fast, but screenshots often hold things you still need: a ticket, a receipt, an address. Reviewing them one by one in the Photos grid is slow.
FreeMemory's Screenshot cleaner shows them as cards — swipe one way to keep, the other way to delete — or switch to a grid to multi-select a batch. It finds screenshots using iOS's own screenshot tag, so it catches them even if they were renamed.
Everything you remove goes to the in-app Bin first, so a wrong swipe is one tap to undo. When you empty the Bin, iOS asks to confirm once and moves them to Recently Deleted.
The same scan also shows duplicates and your largest videos, which usually use far more space than screenshots do.
Stop them piling up again
- Share without saving. After taking a screenshot, tap the thumbnail, share it, then tap Done → Delete Screenshot.
- Use Copy and Delete. In the same screen, Done → Copy and Delete puts it on the clipboard without keeping a file.
- Run the Shortcut monthly from Method 2.