How to Delete Photos, Messages, and Songs on iPhone

If you have an 8GB or 16GB iPhone, then you probably think about having enough space on your device more than you'd like. Fortunately, iOS 8 is really great about helping you keep your device clean and free from unwanted data. Instead of packing your device to the brim, use these tips on how to clean up your photos, messages, and songs in iOS.

Clean Up Photos

We take lots of photos on our devices. The iPhone isn't the most popular camera on Flickr for just any old reason: It takes great photos, and the software to manage the photos is great as well. However, do you really need to have every photo of your cat? Probably not.



Once a week while you're sitting on a break, take the time to keep your photos clean and your device running snappy by doing the following to remove old or unwanted photos from the Photos app:

1. Open the Photos app.


2. Select the Photos tab at the bottom, then zoom all the way into the collections so that you can see your most recent photos. Alternatively, select Albums > Camera Roll.


3. Tap the "Select" button in the top, right-hand corner of the screen.


4. Select all of the photos you no longer want, then tap the Trash icon.

It's that easy, and you can keep your device free of old photos.

If you want to go nuclear and erase all the photos on your iPhone, you can do that, too, but unfortunately there's no convenient way to do so using only your iPhone. However, it can be done if you connect your phone to a Mac. Once it's plugged in, open the Image Capture application, click on a photo, choose Select All from the Edit menu (or press Command + A) to highlight all your photos, and press the button at the bottom of the window featuring the red circle with a line through it. If you choose Delete when the dialogue pops up, you'll permanently erase all your photos.

Clean Up Messages

iOS 8 includes a super-easy way to ensure that old messages don't clog your device's storage. Perform the following steps to have iOS automatically delete old messages after they're no longer needed:

1. Open Settings.


2. Go to Messages.


3. Scroll down to the "Message History" section.


4. Select how long you want to keep your messages: 30 days, 1 year, or Forever

By default, Forever is selected, and this means that your SMS and iMessages are never deleted. If you select 30 days or 1 year, messages will be removed after that period of time from your device, keeping the message history sparkling clean for your enjoyment.

But what if you want to get rid of extraneous messages right now? You can do that, too. Go to your messages, then tap on whatever conversation you want to delete mesages from. Now, tap and hold on any message for a second, and a bubble will pop up with the words "Copy" and "More." Select "More," then check any messages you want to be rid of and tap the trashcan to delete them, or tap the Delete All button in the upper-left corner to erase the entire conversation.

Clean Up Your Music

We've all been there: You want to install the latest iOS update, but you don't have quite enough space. A simple solution could be to delete your old songs. You don't need that copy of "Ice Ice Baby" any more, anyway. It's not the 1990s, and it was never that great of a song to begin with.



When you're tired of your tunes, or are looking to clear up some storage, you can use these steps to clean up your songs:

1. Navigate to Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage (under the Storage section, not under the iCloud section).


2. After the storage list has populated, select the Music app from the list.


3. A list of all your songs will be presented. Select the "Edit" button to easily select multiple tunes and remove them from the device.

Note: Songs originally purchased through iTunes or synched via iTunes Match can be redownloaded at any time. Also, this will not remove songs from your iTunes in the Cloud library — only songs that are stored locally.

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