How to Permanently Delete iPhone Albums for More Space and Memories

Jason

By Jason

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How to Delete Albums from iPhone

Your iPhone photo library can quickly become cluttered with unwanted or redundant albums. Deleting albums you no longer need can help tidy up your Photos app and free up storage space on your device.

In this complete guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about deleting albums from your iPhone.

Why You May Want to Delete Albums

Here are some common reasons for deleting albums from your iPhone:

  • Free up storage space – The photos and videos saved in your albums take up storage capacity on your iPhone. Deleting unused or unneeded albums can help free up space.
  • Remove clutter – Having too many albums, especially empty or near-empty ones, can make your Photos library feel cluttered and disorganized. Deleting albums helps streamline your photo collection.
  • Fix album sync issues – Sometimes album deletions don’t properly sync between your iPhone and iCloud Photo Library. Deleting and recreating the album can resolve this.
  • Start fresh – If your photo library has become too cluttered, you may want to delete all albums and start fresh with a new organizing system.

How to Delete Photo Albums from Your iPhone

There are a couple different methods you can use to delete photo albums from your iPhone.

Delete Albums Using the Photos App

The easiest way to delete iPhone albums is directly in the Photos app:

How to Delete Albums from iPhone With Photo App
  1. Open the Photos app and tap the Albums tab at the bottom.
  2. Tap Select in the top right corner of the screen.
  3. Tap the circular icon beside each album you want to delete so a blue checkmark appears.
  4. Once you’ve selected all the albums to delete, tap the Delete button at the bottom of the screen.
  5. Confirm the deletion by tapping Delete Album in the pop-up prompt.

The photos and videos that were in the deleted albums will remain saved in your All Photos view. Just the album containers themselves will be removed.

Delete Albums Using iTunes

You can also delete entire albums from your iPhone using iTunes:

How to Delete Albums from iPhone using iTunes
  1. Connect your iPhone to your computer and open iTunes.
  2. In iTunes, click on your connected iPhone icon.
  3. Select the Photos tab.
  4. Uncheck the box next to any album you want to delete.
  5. Click Apply to confirm the album deletion.

Again, this will only delete the album while keeping the photos and videos on your iPhone.

Pro Tip: Use iTunes if you need to delete multiple iPhone albums at the same time. The Photos app only allows deleting one album at once.

How to Delete Music Albums from Your iPhone

Deleting albums from your iPhone’s Music library works a bit differently than with photos. Here are two quick ways to delete music albums.

Through the Music App

How to Delete Albums from iPhone with Music App
  1. Open the Music app and select the Albums tab.
  2. Swipe left on any album you want to delete.
  3. Tap the red Delete button.
  4. Confirm the deletion.

Through Settings

Delete Albums from iPhone on iPhone Settings
  1. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
  2. Tap Music.
  3. Tap Edit.
  4. Tap the red minus icons to select albums to delete.
  5. Tap Delete and confirm.

This will permanently delete the albums and their songs from your iPhone. Make sure you have backups before deleting music.

Permanently Deleting Photos from Albums

Deleting an album only removes the album itself – the photos will remain saved on your device. To permanently delete photos from your iPhone:

  • Open the Photos app, tap Select, choose the photos, and select Delete > Delete Photo.
  • Use the camera icon in the Photos app to quickly delete photos as you review them.
  • Offload unused apps and photos to your iCloud storage, then delete the local copies from your iPhone in Settings.

Permanently deleting photos will free up the most storage space on your iPhone.

FAQs About Deleting iPhone Albums

Can I recover a deleted album?

Unfortunately, you cannot directly recover a deleted album on your iPhone. However, you may be able to restore it from a recent iPhone or iCloud backup.

What happens when I delete an album?

The photos/videos in the album will remain saved on your iPhone. Only the album “container” is deleted so the content is no longer grouped together.

Can I delete the built-in albums like Screenshots or Recently Added?

No, you cannot delete the default, built-in albums on the iPhone. You can only remove albums you have personally created.

Will deleting an album on my iPhone remove it from iCloud?

No, deleting an album on your iPhone will not affect the contents of your iCloud Photo Library. The photos remain safely stored in iCloud.

Is there a way to bulk delete albums?

iTunes lets you select and delete multiple iPhone albums at once. The Photos app only allows deleting one album at a time.

Key Takeaways

  • Delete albums in the Photos app or iTunes to remove album containers while keeping their photos.
  • Permanently delete photos using the Photos app Delete options to free up storage space.
  • Music albums must be deleted through the Music app or Settings, which removes both album and content.
  • Deleting an iPhone album does not affect the photos stored in iCloud.
  • You can’t recover a deleted album directly on iPhone, only from a backup.
  • Built-in, default albums cannot be removed from the Photos app.

By regularly reviewing and deleting any unnecessary, unused or redundant albums, you can keep your iPhone organized, tidy and optimized for performance.

Jason
Jason

Skilled software testing specialist with expertise in comparisons and research, passionate about blogging, reviews, and creating video tutorials.

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