How-to · iPhone & iPad

How to empty Recently Deleted on iPhone

Deleted photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days and keep using space. Here is how to delete them for good — and what to check before you do, because it can't be undone.

Before you start

  • This is permanent. Once deleted from Recently Deleted, photos and videos can't be recovered from the iPhone.
  • With iCloud Photos on, deleting here removes the items from iCloud and every device signed in to the same Apple Account.
  • Have a quick look through first. Recently Deleted is the last place to rescue a photo you deleted by mistake — tap Recover instead of Delete for those.

Steps

  1. Open the Photos app.
  2. Tap Collections.
  3. Below Utilities, tap Recently Deleted, then tap View Album and unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
  4. Tap Select, then choose the photos and videos to remove.
  5. Open the actions menu and choose Delete, then confirm.

The steps follow Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 26 and iOS 27. On iOS 16 Recently Deleted is in the Albums tab, under Utilities, and Recover and Delete are at the bottom of the screen. Some versions also offer a way to select everything at once.

If you do nothing, iOS removes each item by itself 30 days after it was deleted. Emptying Recently Deleted only makes that happen sooner.

If you can't find a photo there

Apple notes that photos missing from Recently Deleted may be in a Recovered collection; its page links to how to find and save or delete those.

Can an app empty it for me?

No. iOS doesn't let any app empty Recently Deleted or see what is in it, and there is no link an app can use to open it. Oxid Photos (not released yet) tells you this plainly: it shows what it deleted in the last 30 days as “Pending in Recently Deleted” and walks you through the steps above. See why storage didn't go down after deleting photos and Oxid Photos.

Sources

The iPhone steps on this page were checked on 13 October 2026 against Apple's own support pages. Menu names can move between iOS versions; if yours differs, Apple's page for your version is the one to follow.

iPhone & iPad · coming to the App Store

Oxid Photos

A careful photo cleaner and photo tools in one app: nothing is deleted until you review it and confirm, and photos are compressed, resized or converted on your iPhone. Not released yet. Free to use; Pro is $2.99 once.

About Oxid Photos → · More how-to guides