How to Delete Photos From Your iPad

by Daniel Nations
Updated December 18, 2017

Now that it is so easy to carry a camera around with you in the form of a smartphone or tablet, it is easy to take a lot of photos. In fact, I've grown accustomed to taking about six to ten shots every time I want to snap a photograph just to make sure I get the perfect shot. Which is great, but it also means I need to purge my iPad's Photos app of all those extra shots. It's quite easy to delete a photo, and luckily for people like me, it's just as easy to delete a whole slew of pictures as it is to delete a single image.   

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How to Delete a Single Photo From Your iPad

If you are not quite ready to do a full purge on your photos, it is easy to delete them one at a time.

  • First, go into your Photos app. If you don't know where your Photos app is located, you can launch it quickly by using Spotlight Search or you can use Siri by saying "Launch Photos".
  • Next, choose the Albums tag. The Camera Roll album contains all of your photos, but if you've moved the photo into a custom album, it will be easier to find through that album.  
  • Tap the photo you want to delete. This will bring the photo up in full-screen mode. From here, you simply tap the trashcan in the upper right corner of the screen. If you don't see a trashcan button, tap the middle of the screen to bring up the title bar.
  • When you tap the trash can, a window will come up with a Delete Photo option. After you tap the link, the photo will be moved to the Recently Deleted album.

Where do deleted photos go? The Recently Deleted album allows you to restore a photo if you made a mistake. Photos in the recently deleted album will be purged from the iPad 30 days after they were deleted. You can undelete photos from this album or use the same steps above to delete a photo immediately.

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How to Delete Multiple Photos From Your iPad

Did you know you can delete multiple photos from your iPad at the same time? This can be a great tool if you are like me and take dozens of photos trying to get that one great shot. It's also a great time-saving technique if you need to clear out a lot of space on your iPad and have hundreds of photos loaded on it.

  • Once you launch the Photos app, choose the Albums tab. If you are not sure of the album, the Camera Roll album contains all of your photos.  
  • Next, tap the Select button at the top right corner of the screen. 
  • After you tap the Select button, you are in multiple select. Simply tapping on a photo will put a blue circle with a check mark on the photo.
  • Continue tapping until you have all the photos selected ​that you want to delete, and when you are ready, touch the trashcan at the top of the screen. You will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the selected items, and after confirming, the photos will be deleted from the iPad.

That's it. It's a lot simpler deleting the photos all at once rather than going to each individual photo to delete it.

Remember: The photos are actually moved to the Recently Deleted album.  If you need to purge them immediately, you will need to delete them from the Recently Deleted album.