How to Select All Photos on iPhone (iOS 18)

Tired of endless scrolling? Need a quick way to select all photos on your iPhone for file management, to free space, or to move them to an album? Whatever the reason, I’ll show you a couple of super easy ways to do it. Let’s go!

Complications Associated with Selecting All Photos on Your iPhone

First things first, let’s address the elephant in the room: while iOS 18 hasn’t revolutionized the way we select all photos or introduced a magic ‘Select All’ button, Apple has certainly refined the Photos app with small yet important improvements. The app now includes more precise search algorithms, faster methods to locate images by date or location, and a smoother path through your photo library.

  • 🔎 Improved Search functionality. Users find specific photos more quickly with upgraded search tools. You can enter a location, date, or keyword, and iOS 18 surfaces relevant results without the need to scroll through an entire album.
  • 🖼️ More intuitive album organization. iOS 18 automatically sorts images by categories like Recent Days, Trips, and People & Pets. On-device machine learning suggests new albums based on how you shoot photos. Plus, you can pin important collections to get to them fast.
  • ✔️ Quicker methods for multiple selections. The selection process remains similar to previous versions, but Apple enhanced gesture recognition and responsiveness. You select multiple photos in a more natural way—without major delays or input errors.
✍️ Note. While we said there’s no magic “Select All” button, that’s not entirely true. There is a Select All option, but only within individual albums. When you open an album and tap Select, you’ll see a Select All button appear in the top left corner. However, this only applies to photos within that specific album—it won’t work across your entire library at once.

How to Select All Photos on iPhone with iOS 18

Okay, improvements in iOS 18 are great, but Apple still hasn’t figured out that plenty of people would appreciate a simple way to select all photos on their iPhone. A single “Select All” button in the Photos app would solve the problem, but for now, we must rely on a combination of gestures and external tools. I will demonstrate two options here—how to do it directly on your iPhone and how to do it on your Mac with a connected iPhone.

📌 Note. If you found this article because you want to select all photos to delete them and clean your photo library, I recommend checking this section first. There are far easier (and definitely less drastic) ways to manage your photos.

Select All Pictures Directly From Your iPhone

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how I usually select all photos on my iPhone (it runs iOS 18 with the latest update). This method is also relevant for the latest iPhone models, like the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. You will need at least two fingers at the same time for this:

  1. First off, I open up the Photos app.
  2. Next, I tap Select in the top-right corner.Tap Select
  3. Here’s where the magic happens. I tap the first photo, then smoothly drag my finger across others I want in on the action. As I move across rows, I keep my finger glued to the screen, watching the checkmarks multiply. It’s important not to lift my finger at any point—otherwise, I must start over.
  4. Then, with my other finger, I tap near the top of the screen—somewhere close to the battery icon. That makes Photos jump back up to the top while keeping everything selected. If done right, every single photo gets highlighted in one move.Tap near the top of the screen
  5. Once I’ve got them all selected, I can delete, move, or organize them in any way I want.

This approach is my go-to for quick fixes when I’m out and about. It’s perfect for when I’m not looking to go deep. But for those times when I’ve got a mountain of photos to sort through or I’m in the mood for some serious organizing, plugging into my computer is the next-level strategy. Stay tuned, that’s what we’re breaking down next.

Select All Pictures Using Your Computer

After we tackled the direct approach on the iPhone, I want to show you how selecting all photos works when using a computer. I used my Mac, and the process felt much smoother. Instead of dragging my fingers across the screen, I could select every photo in just a few clicks. Here’s how I did it:

  1. First, I connected my iPhone to my MacBook Air with the standard USB-C to Lightning cable.
  2. Next, my Mac asked for permission to connect the USB device.Connect the phone
  3. I opened Finder on my Mac and clicked my iPhone under Locations in the sidebar.iPhone in Finder
  4. In the Finder window, I selected Photos from the available options. However, since my iPhone uses iCloud Photos, Finder did not display my photo library. If you have iCloud Photos turned off, your library should appear here, allowing you to select all your iPhone photos using the usual Command + A shortcut.Photo library
  5. If, like me, you use iCloud Photos, Finder will not show your images. In that case, you must use the Photos app. Since iCloud syncs your photos across devices, you don’t even need to connect your iPhone to your Mac.
  6. I opened the Photos app on my Mac, and there they were—my entire iPhone photo library, synced through iCloud.Photos app
  7. At the bottom of the Photos app, a Sync Now button appeared. I clicked it to make sure my Mac had the latest photos from iCloud.
  8. Here, I could press Command + A to highlight all photos at once and decide what to do with them—whether to export, delete, or move.

Using a computer to manage my iPhone’s photo library not only gave me a better overview but also offered a level of control and efficiency that the iPhone’s screen couldn’t match. For anyone looking to handle large volumes of photos, or simply prefers the tactile feel of a mouse and keyboard, this method is a real go-to. Plus, seeing my photos on a bigger screen? That’s always a plus in my book.

Planning to Select All Pictures to Free Up Space? Consider Deleting Unnecessary Ones Instead

In case you need to select all your photos to free up space on your iPhone for other things, I would suggest not rushing into it. After all, wiping out everything might not be necessary, and there are better ways to reclaim storage without losing important photos with third-party cleaning tools.

For example, I recently tested the new and free Clever Cleaner iPhone cleanup app, and it left me satisfied. The app makes cleaning up your photos so much easier with four simple tabs at the bottom:
Clever Cleaner

  • Similars – Identifies and removes similar photos, not just exact duplicates.
  • Screenshots – Detects all screenshots and lets you clear them in one tap.
  • Lives – Optimizes Live Photos by converting them into stills to save space.
  • Heavies – Finds the largest files (photos & videos) taking up the most storage.
Note. I liked that I was able to do all of that for free—no paywalls, no locked features, just a simple cleanup. While doing some research, I checked the Clever Cleaner app’s official website and saw that its developer, CleverFiles, promises to keep it free for all early users who download it now and keep it on their phones. So I guess I’m keeping it.

With one tap on Smart Cleanup in Similars, I was able to remove dozens of similar photos, not just duplicates. It flagged images that the Photos app would never catch—like those near-identical shots I took while trying to get the perfect angle or lighting. Its AI algorithms were spot on, and I could review each group manually or trust its recommendations.

Similars in Clever Cleaner

I didn’t realize how many old screenshots were cluttering my storage until Clever Cleaner pointed them out. As someone who constantly takes screenshots for articles, I’ve accumulated hundreds of images over time—most of which I no longer need. It showed me exactly how much space they were taking up—both in MB and as a percentage of my total storage. With one tap, I cleared tons of useless screenshots, and it felt great.

Screenshots in Clever Cleaner

Live Photos take up a ridiculous amount of storage compared to regular images. Clever Cleaner let me convert them into standard stills without losing quality. The best part? It showed me in real time how much space I was about to free up.

Live Photos in Clever Cleaner

Heavies feature sorted my photos and videos from largest to smallest, so I could instantly see what was taking up the most space. Turns out, a few forgotten 4K videos were eating up way more storage than I thought.

Heavies in Clever Cleaner

Need details on Clever Cleaner? Visit our review here.

Final Tips

By the way, if you consistently have problems with storage and keep filling up, maybe you should investigate the root causes. Plenty of things can eat up space on your iPhone—not just your photo library. Take a look at our guide on what to do if iPhone storage keeps running out. It covers unexpected storage hogs and practical ways to free up space without deleting important files.

Note. Also, consider joining online communities dedicated to iPhones for more tricks and free advice. Check out our iPhone forum or Reddit’s r/iPhone (with over 4 million readers). There are often lively discussions where users share solutions, hidden iOS features, and troubleshooting tips you won’t find in official guides.

FAQ

The quickest method to select numerous photos on an iPhone involves using the bulk selection feature in the Photos app. First, open the Photos app and navigate to the album or the “Recents” tab. Tap “Select” in the top-right corner, then drag your finger across the photos you wish to select, starting with the first photo. For a faster selection, start dragging your finger across the photos, then without lifting your finger, slide it across multiple rows or columns. This method allows you to select dozens of photos in seconds.
To select a row of photos on your iPhone, open the Photos app and navigate to your desired album or the “Recents” tab. Tap “Select” at the top right, then tap on the first photo in the row you want to select. Without lifting your finger, drag across the row to the last photo in that row. The app will select all photos your finger passes over. This drag-to-select method is efficient for quickly selecting a row of photos.
Selecting all photos in the “Recents” album on an iPhone doesn’t have a direct “Select All” button. However, you can quickly select all photos by opening the “Recents” album, tapping “Select” in the top right corner, then starting with the first photo, drag your finger across the screen to include as many photos as possible in your selection. You may need to continue dragging your finger down the screen to keep selecting photos as you scroll. This method can be time-consuming for a large library, but it’s the most direct way to select all photos within the “Recents” tab without using third-party tools.
If you want to transfer or back up all your photos from your iPhone, here are the best method:

  1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac with a USB cable.
  2. Open the Photos app and click on your iPhone under “Devices.”
  3. Select Import All New Photos to transfer them to your Mac.
  4. Alternatively, use Finder (macOS Catalina or later) to back up your entire device, including photos.
Yes, you can quickly select all photos on your iPhone without manually scrolling through your library. Here’s how:

  1. Open the Photos app.
  2. Tap Select in the top-right corner.
  3. Tap and hold on the last photo, then drag your finger down without lifting to highlight multiple photos at once.
  4. Without lifting your finger, use another finger to tap the top of the screen near the battery icon. This will instantly scroll to the top while keeping all photos selected.
Alexander Medvediev
Alexander Medvediev knows Apple products inside and out. He uses this knowledge to write helpful articles for InsanelyMac, where he's been working as a part-time content strategist for over a year. Alexander is great at finding what people need help with and writing clear guides to solve those problems. He loves learning about Apple products and wants to share his knowledge to make things easier for others. His main area of expertise is helping people store data on their Apple devices.
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