How to delete iPhone photos except for favorites (or selected albums)

Unfortunately, as of 2022, Apple still does not give us a nice way to delete "everything but" specific albums, including favorites. Even the "Free up space" option in Google photos is all-or-nothing. So in this video, I show you a few different ways to preserve the photos you want when you need to clear out space without having to go one by one to do so.
I personally use Google Photos as my backup storage, so make sure you sync or download your photos somewhere before deleting them, or they may be lost.

[@MichaelToub]

Thanks so much! It took an hour to scroll through and delete 19,000 photos but I was able to hide my 1000 favorites beforehand so it all worked out in the end. Great video!

[@justmommyandbabygirl]

Did you just mass selected your keeps then made a new favorite album to send them to for hiding? Or did you do a one by one with the favorite ❤️ mark then hide the build in favorite album?

[@sodrad]

to 'select all' photos faster select a few photos and hold, then scroll up with the other hand simultaneously. It selected my 1400 pictures in seconds.

[@codysmith8639]

I have 314,153 💀💀💀

[@jdp22960]

This is the solution I have been looking for for years. Thank you!

[@armstronglance]

***Thanks for the super tip!
->I can’t believe Apple doesn’t provide an easier more intuitive option to delete everything but your favorites folder.

[@xXStickyGreenZXx]

The "Everything but" albums, such as favorites still works. You have to make sure you go to "settings" then "Photos" then turn on the "Show Hidden Album" option. If you don't do this, you will not be able to unhide the hidden favorites, etc. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@4everfreethinker]

Thank you sooo very much for this video. I wasted so many hours today hitting roadblocks with trying to delete most photos off my phone and keeping a small portion of them. I must admit, that I thought my almost 5,000 photos was a lot, then I saw your numbers. Lol. WOW! I'm sure if my phone would have held that much, I would have been there eventually.

[@diegomcolucci]

Best way even seen of deleting photos from Iphone!

[@sodrad]

Thanks for this, made my life easier. Hope this makes yours easier: to 'select all' photos faster select a few photos and hold, then scroll up with the other hand simultaneously. It selected my 1400 pictures in seconds.

[@mitzoss]

Thank you for the hide-unhide tip! Very useful!

[@codysmith8639]

Thanks so much!!!! I have 314,000 photos, and I needed this badly!!!

[@ninjette11231]

Super helpful tip for protecting high res originals, thank you!
QUESTION: how can I protect ORIGINAL photos related to medium-res versions that live in SHARED ALBUMS? Most of my albums are shared, so those pictures are duplicate files at a lower resolution. If I only protect those albums and throw out the rest, I am throwing out the high res originals of all photos that matter to me.

[@darleneavilesperez3993]

This worked so well for me in little time! Thank you so much for sharing!

[@chrisperryman9725]

This is some genius level intellect right here! 😱 thank you!

[@aleishacollins6759]

Excellent video. Thanks!

[@liumanseit-mametov5662]

Thank you! Helped a lot!

[@7midya7]

Extremely useful 👏🏻👏🏻 thank you ❤️🙏🏻

[@LarimaBeyondBorders]

Thank you for mentioning the test delete!!🙏🏾

[@danneh8777]

Thank you very helpful!

[@jaydennyamiaka3763]

Amazing!! Thanks so much for

[@birgitpestalozzi2722]

Wow, finally the solution. Thank youuu!

[@smitalshinde2885]

Thank You.! Your video was very helpful.

[@galacticcat8464]

I really appreciate this tip. Thank you!

[@juliahauck2937]

Omg so helpful!!!

[@arturversiani]

Great idea, thanks!!!

[@justmommyandbabygirl]

Is it a way to mass select phots or video to make as a “favorite “?

[@tarunak613]

Very helpful! Thank you

[@christoferdrewrocks1]

I’m at 700 mb of storage. Every time I delete thousands of pics I refill it with thousands. I wish phones came with more storage but the only way to get a TB of storage is by ordering it off of the companies website.

[@guille3435]

Thank you!

[@DasShadePlays]

But how do I keep them in google photos once I’ve deleted them in IOS photos??

[@lolabunny13]

They stay on Google photos. Only iCloud deletes them when you delete on your phone

[@lolabunny13]

Genius!!!

[@OislamforallO1]

Thanks

[@lydialee4362]

Thank you!!!!

[@somebodyandthem]

The hide button you have to click the … button first not export

[@boyzrulethawld1]

THANK YOU

[@sambow87]

How could you ever delete a photo of MARK??

[@GameCrafts]

Don't judge my camera roll 😂

[@momchilmm]

With not being able to hide Recents and delete Favourites albums, I really find hide-option completely useless. That includes Samsung Android too, which is practically the same shit. I really don’t understand insisting on these fixed things, which have to be user-chooseble options. I have the right to define what to have in my albums!!

[@andor.7545]

me with 106k in my recents 🥲

[@hyh1411]

Very useful. Thanks!

[@CyberCrash]

Very helpful. Thank you