Recently, I decided to clean up my iPhone’s storage. I had somewhere around 4500+ photos and videos on it, that had all been uploaded to my Dropbox account, and I really didn’t need them on my phone anymore. The issue is that Apple’s iOS has no built in mechanism to delete all photos and videos on a device at once (with a “delete all” or “select all” button), so the end user is left with one of two options. Manually select each photo and delete it, or factory reset their device. Now the funny thing is Apple provides a way to mass delete all the music on the device, but not all the photos, which is a pretty major blunder / oversight in my opinion.
I really didn’t want to reset to my device to defaults, so like you who are reading this post right now, I hit Google in search of a solution, but I never found a good one (until now if I may say so myself!!!). I started to lean towards the factory reset to defaults, and as such, I began to document the apps I had on my phone so I could put back what I really needed afterwards.
One of the apps I have on my phone and utilize from time to time is FTPManager Pro (the free version is pictured below in my screen shots from both my iPad and iPhone) which is developed by Skyjos Co. Ltd.
When I opened up FTPManager on my phone, I noticed that Photo Library was an option (which I hadn’t really paid attention to previously).
Jumping into Photo Library allowed me to access my Camera Roll where I noticed an Edit button at the top of the screen.
Well guess what that Edit button does… It gives you a “Select All” button at the bottom of the screen and a Delete button.
Sure enough – hitting Select All then Delete immediately deleted all my photos and videos (well, maybe not immediately since there were 4500+ items), freeing up several GB of space on my iPhone.
So the next time you run into a jam on your iOS device because you are low on space and need to mass delete your photos and videos without resetting your device to defaults, install FTPManager from Skyjos Co. Ltd. and use it’s mass delete feature.
Or better yet, just spend the $3 and purchase FTPManager Pro and support the developer who just saved you a whole bunch of time and trouble!
As always – Use any tips, tricks, or scripts I post at your own risk.
***Disclaimer – I have no affiliation with and have never had previous contact with Skyjos Co. Ltd other than I purchased their FTPManager Pro app some time ago and regularly use it because it’s a damn good app***
Bits & Other Bytes 