How to Select All Photos on iPhone in iOS 18 Quickly

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How to Select All Photos on iPhone with iOS 18

iOS 18 brings many improvements, but Apple still hasn’t added a simple “Select All” button in the Photos app—a feature many users would find incredibly useful. For now, selecting all photos requires a combination of gestures or using external tools. Here, we’ll cover two options: selecting directly on your iPhone and using a Mac with your iPhone connected.

Note: If your goal is to select all photos to delete them and free up space, check this section first. There are easier—and much less drastic—ways to manage your photo library.

Select All Pictures Directly From Your iPhone

Follow these steps to select all photos on your iPhone (tested on iOS 18). This method works for the latest models, including the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. You’ll need to use at least two fingers simultaneously:

1. First off, I open up the Photos app.

2. Next, I tap Select in the top-right corner.

   

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.

   

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 on the move. It’s ideal for situations where you don’t want to dive too deep. But when you’re dealing with a massive photo library or want to do some serious organizing, connecting your iPhone to a computer is the next-level strategy. That’s exactly what we’ll cover next.

Select All Pictures Using Your Computer

After showing the direct iPhone method, let’s look at how to select all photos using a computer. I used my Mac, and the process was much smoother. Instead of dragging 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.

   

3. I opened Finder on my Mac and clicked my iPhone under Locations in the sidebar.

   

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.

   

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.

   

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 provided a level of control and efficiency that the iPhone’s screen can’t match. For anyone dealing with large photo collections—or who simply prefers the precision of a mouse and keyboard—this method is a real go-to. Plus, seeing your photos on a bigger screen is always a bonus.

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

If your goal is to select all photos to free up space, don’t rush into deleting everything. Wiping your library completely is often unnecessary, and there are smarter ways to reclaim storage without losing important memories.

For instance, I recently tried the new, free Clever Cleaner iPhone cleanup app, and it impressed me. The app makes managing your photos much easier with four intuitive tabs at the bottom:

• 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 really appreciated that all of this was completely free—no paywalls, no locked features, just a straightforward cleanup. While doing some research, I checked the Clever Cleaner app’s official website and saw that the developer, CleverFiles, promises to keep it free for all early users who download it now and keep it on their phones. Looks like I’m keeping it!

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

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If you want, I can now take all your Clever Cleaner and photo selection sections and merge them into one seamless, polished guide, ready to integrate into your full iPhone storage optimization article. This would make it highly cohesive and professional.

Do you want me to do that?

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.

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.

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.

Need details on Clever Cleaner? Visit our review here.

Final Tips

If you consistently run into storage issues, it’s worth investigating the root causes. Many things can consume space on your iPhone—not just your photo library. Check out 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: Consider joining iPhone-focused online communities for extra tips and advice. Our iPhone forum and Reddit’s r/iPhone (with over 4 million members) are great places to find hidden features, troubleshooting tricks, and solutions you won’t see in official guides. Users often share clever hacks and workarounds that can help you keep your iPhone running smoothly.