How to Delete Screenshots and Screen Recordings on iPhone (Without Losing the Ones You Need)
Two albums Apple already gives you, why a bulk delete is risky, and sorting screenshots by what they show
Short answer: open Photos > Albums, scroll to Media Types and open Screenshots; tap Select, drag across the grid to select many at once and delete them. Do the same in Screen Recordings, which usually frees far more space because a single minute of recording can take 100 to 200 MB. Then empty Recently Deleted, or nothing changes for 30 days.
The catch is that a camera roll's screenshots are not all junk. Among the memes and chat captures sit boarding passes, parking tickets, receipts and QR codes you will need again. This guide explains how to find every screenshot and recording, how to delete them quickly without throwing those away, and how DiskMop for iPhone sorts screenshots by what they contain and spots repeated captures of the same screen.
Key Takeaways
- Photos > Albums > Media Types lists Screenshots and Screen Recordings separately; both can be selected in bulk by dragging across the grid.
- Screen recordings are the heavy part: a minute of recording typically takes 100 to 200 MB, while a screenshot is a few megabytes.
- Right after taking a screenshot, tap its thumbnail, tap Done and choose Delete Screenshot to use it once and never store it.
- On iOS 26 with Apple Intelligence turned on, DiskMop reads the text in each screenshot on the device and suggests which ones you may want to keep, such as receipts and tickets.
- Several screenshots of the same screen are grouped as similar screenshots, separately from your photos, so you can keep one and delete the rest.
- Deleted items stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days; the space comes back only after you empty that album.
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Typical sizes of screen captures on iPhone
| Item | Typical size | 100 of them |
|---|---|---|
| Screenshot | 2–8 MB | 0.2–0.8 GB |
| 10-second screen recording | 15–35 MB | 1.5–3.5 GB |
| 30-second screen recording | 50–100 MB | 5–10 GB |
| 1-minute screen recording | 100–200 MB | 10–20 GB |
Why Screenshots Pile Up, and Where the Space Really Goes
A screenshot takes a second and is usually needed for a minute: an address to send, a code to type, a funny message to share. Then it stays. After a few years, thousands of screenshots are normal, and because they look small on the screen, nobody counts them. At a few megabytes each, a thousand screenshots is still several gigabytes.
Screen recordings are a different scale. A recording of a game, a video call or a tutorial is saved as a full video at the screen's resolution, and a single minute typically takes 100 to 200 MB. Ten forgotten recordings can easily outweigh every screenshot on the phone, which is why it pays to look at both albums.
The iPhone helps with one habit: right after you take a screenshot, a thumbnail appears in the corner. Tap it, mark up or copy what you need, then tap Done and choose Delete Screenshot. Used this way, a screenshot you only need once never reaches your library at all.
Finding Every Screenshot and Recording in Photos
The Photos app already separates screen captures from camera photos. Open Albums, scroll to Media Types, and you will find Screenshots and Screen Recordings as their own albums. Inside either one, tap Select and drag your finger across the thumbnails to select a row or a whole block at once, then tap the trash icon.
A bulk delete is fast, but it is also how useful screenshots get lost. Boarding passes, event tickets, receipts for returns, parking tickets, QR codes and screenshots of instructions all look like ordinary screenshots in the grid. Scanning thousands of tiny thumbnails for those is exactly the kind of tiring work that makes people stop halfway.
Two simple rules make it safer. Delete by date, starting with the oldest screenshots, since a ticket from three years ago rarely matters. And go through the most recent months more slowly, or review them one at a time; cleaning up iPhone photos by swiping shows how a swipe review handles exactly this kind of list.
Sorting Screenshots by What They Show
DiskMop for iPhone lists screenshots as their own category, taken only from photos that iOS itself marks as screenshots, so a camera photo never ends up there by mistake. On iOS 26 with Apple Intelligence turned on, it goes a step further: it reads the text in each screenshot with Apple's Vision framework and has Apple's on-device language model classify it as a receipt, ticket, chat, note, map or other screen. Both steps run on the phone; nothing is uploaded.
The result is a suggestion, not a selection. Receipts and tickets appear under You may want to keep these; chats, maps, notes and other app screens appear under Probably safe to let go. Nothing is ticked for you, so you still decide on every group. On devices or iOS versions without the on-device model, the screenshots are simply listed together and the app says why they were not sorted.
Repeated captures get their own card. When you take several screenshots of the same screen, they form a Similar screenshots group, kept apart from the similar photos so that two different screenshots of the same app are not mistaken for duplicates of a memory. Keep the clearest one and let the rest go.
Screen Recordings: Delete, Shrink or Keep
DiskMop recognises screen recordings through the screen-recording type that iOS records, with the file names iOS uses for recordings as a backup check, and lists them in their own category with their sizes. Sort by largest first and you will usually find a few long recordings that are worth more space than hundreds of screenshots.
Not every recording should go. A recording of a bug for support, a tutorial you made or a moment from a game can be worth keeping, just not at full size. Shrinking it in DiskMop's Tools saves a smaller copy and moves the original to Recently Deleted; our guide on reducing video size on iPhone explains the trade-offs.
Whichever you choose, finish in Recently Deleted. Until you empty it, deleted screenshots and recordings still count against your storage. Scanning is free in DiskMop; without a subscription you can delete up to five photos a day, and DiskMop Pro, a monthly subscription with a 7-day free trial, removes the limit and unlocks shrinking. Deleting 100 screenshots also earns the Screenshot Hunter trophy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I delete all screenshots on iPhone at once?
Open Photos > Albums > Media Types > Screenshots, tap Select and drag across the grid to select them, then tap the trash icon. Check for tickets and receipts first, and empty Recently Deleted afterwards.
Why didn't deleting screenshots free up space?
Deleted items wait 30 days in Recently Deleted and still count against storage. Empty that album to get the space back now.
Where are screen recordings stored on iPhone?
In the Photos app, under Albums > Media Types > Screen Recordings, as well as in the main library. A minute of recording typically takes 100 to 200 MB.
What does DiskMop need to sort screenshots by content?
iOS 26 and Apple Intelligence turned on, because the sorting uses Apple's on-device language model. On other devices the screenshots are listed together, and the similar-screenshot groups work on every supported iPhone.
Are my screenshots uploaded to be classified?
No. Text recognition and classification run on the iPhone with Apple's frameworks. DiskMop has no server and no account, and its App Store privacy label states Data Not Collected.
Verdict
Start with the two albums Apple already provides: Screenshots and Screen Recordings under Media Types. Delete old screenshots in bulk, go slower through recent ones, and look at recordings first if you need space quickly. Finish by emptying Recently Deleted.
DiskMop for iPhone adds what the albums lack: screenshots sorted by what they show on iOS 26 with Apple Intelligence, groups of repeated captures, and screen recordings listed by size, all on the device and with nothing preselected. Scanning is free, up to five photos a day can be deleted for free, and DiskMop Pro, with a 7-day free trial, removes the limit.
Get DiskMop for iPhone on the App Store
DiskMop automatically scans, identifies, and safely cleans hidden caches, app leftovers, and system junk.