How to Organize All Those iPhone Photos Once and for All

Unless you're a pro at digital decluttering, you can probably agree that the only app more daunting to clean up than your email is your photo library. With the average iPhone holding over 140GB of storage, it's easy to rack that number up into the hundreds or thousands. What's not so easy is trying to find the exact photo you're looking for amidst all the random snaps of cute pets, random screenshots, and delicious brunch spreads.

If this sounds like you, you may need a major storage makeover—and we're here to walk you through it. Not only can cleaning out your photo library help you eliminate unnecessary digital clutter, but it can also make it easier for you to access the memories you don't want to forget.
Delete Duplicate Photos
The invention of digital photography was a wonderful thing. It means we don't have to rely on just one roll of film to capture our favorite moments, and we have endless chances to get the perfect shot. It also means we end up with way too many photos of pretty much the same exact thing, and they can quickly clog up the camera roll.

Luckily, there are apps to make the process of deleting duplicate photos way easier. These apps use photo-analyzing software to dig through your photo library and gather all the clusters of similar photos, making it easier to delete all the images you don't want or need and keep the ones you do.

Two of the most highly-rated duplicate photo-remover apps are CleanUp and Smart Cleaner—and while the full version of both costs money, you can utilize a free trial to clean out as much of your photo library as possible.

Delete Unnecessary Screenshots
Since most screenshots have a pretty short lifespan—we take them to send to someone right away and quickly forget about them—there's no need for them to be taking up storage on our phones. Luckily, iPhones have a designated "Screenshots" folder in the Photos app that automatically collects all screenshots you take.

So, anytime you're looking to quickly clear up a bunch of photo storage, without taking a long stroll down memory lane, you should head to the Screenshots folder. While you may find some funny memes or recipe ideas you want to keep, it's likely that many of your screenshots can go straight to the trash.

Categorize Photos Into Albums
Once you're done removing the unnecessary photos from your library, focus on organizing the important ones into designated albums. To do this, go to the "Albums" section in your camera roll, click the "+" button, and add "New Album".

From here, create albums that will help you keep your photos organized; think of people, places, months, and events. This will make it easier for future you to find your photos.

Utilize the Search Option
When creating albums, you can use the search tool in the iPhone "Photos" app to search for photos by date, place, and content. This allows you to gather categorically similar photos that you may want to organize in an album without having to manually scroll through your entire library.

For example, if you wanted to make an album of photos of your dog, you could type "dog" into the search bar, adding the name of the city or even the street where you live (to avoid getting every picture you've ever taken of a cute dog). You can also add the year or season to get more time-specific.

Use Photo Organizing Apps
Whether you want reinforcements outside of the Photos app or just want another option for backing up your photos, photo organizing apps can be a good way to go. Google Photos and Amazon Photos are two of the best options, offering AI-assisted search and cloud storage to help you store and organize all of your images.

Amazon Prime subscribers who use the Amazon Photos app will get unlimited cloud storage of their original resolution photos, as well as 5GB for video and document storage, while non-Prime members get a combined limit of 5GB for photos and videos. Google Photos is free for all users and offers 15GB for all Google Cloud services, including Gmail and Google Docs.

Create a "Print-Worthy" Album
If you're someone who's been saying you want to print out a bunch of photos for years now but has yet to actually do it, this tip is for you. While organizing your photos, be sure to "set aside" the ones you want in hard copies by adding them to an album designated for printing.

Whenever you finally decide to place a mass order of prints, you'll already have your photos selected. Then, you can put together some old-fashioned photo albums to flip through any time you're tired of scrolling on your devices and want to reminisce on your favorite memories.

Stick to a Routine
The best way to avoid an overwhelming occasional cleanup is to set a routine for yourself. Taking time regularly to organize and clean your camera roll will keep storage space freed up and photos easy to find.

Once per week, delete photos from the last week you don't want to keep. Every month, organize all photos from the last month into their respective albums. Set reminders on your calendar to help keep yourself on track—and use a timer during the task if you have to.

Another daily organizing method is to take a few minutes to search for the current date (month and day only) in the app, then sort through all those photos, tracking back several years. Next year, you'll have a fully organized photo album.