How to clean up your camera roll in 10 minutes a day

Nobody cleans 20,000 photos in an afternoon. People who try give up around the second year of holiday pictures. What works is a small session every day: ten minutes, one clear target, then stop. This guide gives you a plan for the first week and a routine for afterwards.

Before you start

Make sure you have a backup. iCloud Photos, Google Photos or a copy on a computer all count. Remember that a synced library deletes on every device, so a separate copy is the safest.
Write down your starting point. On iPhone, look at Settings > General > iPhone Storage. On Android, look at Settings > Storage. Seeing the number go down is what keeps you going.
Pick a fixed time. The commute, the kettle, the last ten minutes before bed. The time matters less than doing it at the same point each day.

The first week

Start with the things that free the most space for the fewest decisions.

Day 1: screenshots and screen recordings

On iPhone, open Photos, scroll to Media Types and tap Screenshots. On Android, look for the Screenshots folder in Google Photos or your gallery app. Almost none of these are worth keeping. Tap Select, drag across them and delete. This is the easiest win of the week.

Day 2: the largest videos

Open the Videos view under Media Types on iPhone, or the large files suggestion in Files by Google on Android. Delete the ones you do not need and make a note of the ones worth keeping at a smaller size. See how to compress large videos.

Day 3: duplicates

On iPhone, open the Duplicates album under Utilities and merge. On Android, check the duplicate files suggestion in Files by Google. It takes a few minutes and you lose nothing. More detail is in how to delete duplicate photos on iPhone.

Day 4: bursts and similar shots

Keep the best one or two of each set. Our guide to similar photos and burst shots has the quick method.

Days 5 to 7: one month a day

Now the camera roll itself. Take one month per session. Starting with last month is easiest, because you still remember what matters. If a month is huge, give it two days.

How to decide quickly

Ten minutes only works if each decision takes a second or two.

Go with your first reaction. If you feel nothing when you see it, it can go.
Keep the best of a set, not the whole set.
Delete photos that were only information: parking spots, receipts you no longer need, the whiteboard from a meeting two years ago.
If you are unsure, keep it and move on. The point is momentum. You can come back to the hard ones another day.
Mark favourites as you go. Tapping the heart on the best photos builds an album of the ones you would actually show someone.

Built-in tools that help

iPhone: the Media Types list sorts your library into videos, selfies, screenshots, bursts and more, so you can clear one type at a time. Search also works well. Typing a word such as "receipt", or the name of a place, pulls up matching photos you can select together.

Android: Google Photos has the same kind of search, and its library view separates screenshots and other folders. Files by Google suggests large files, duplicates and old downloads on its Clean tab.

Using a swipe cleaner

Selecting photos in a grid is slow because the thumbnails are small and every choice takes two taps. A swipe photo cleaner shows one photo at a time and turns each decision into one gesture.

In Cleanup: Swipe Photo Cleaner you choose a month and see how many files it holds and how much space could be released. Then you swipe right to keep and left to delete. An undo button takes you back a step, a progress ring shows how far through the month you are, and you review what you marked before anything is removed. It suits a 10-minute session well, because a month is a natural stopping point.

End every session the same way

Stop when the ten minutes are up, even in the middle of a month. Finishing while it still feels easy is what brings you back tomorrow.
Once or twice a week, empty Recently Deleted on iPhone or the trash on Android. Deleted photos stay there for up to 30 days on iPhone, and usually 30 to 60 days on Android, and they use space until they are gone. This cannot be undone, so do it only when you are happy with that week's choices.
Check your storage number again and see how far it has moved.

Keeping it clean afterwards

Once a week, spend ten minutes on the photos from the last seven days.
Turn off automatic saving in chat apps, so that other people's photos do not land in your library.
Delete the misses straight after you shoot, while you still know which one you liked.

A clean camera roll is mostly a matter of routine. At ten minutes a day, a library that took years to fill is in good shape within a few weeks, and it then takes one short session a week to keep it that way.