With over a billion users, Facebook hosts an enormous number of photos. The average user has hundreds if not thousands of photos accumulated over many years. While these memories are fun to look back on, you may reach a point where you want to delete old or embarrassing photos and start fresh.
Unfortunately, Facebook doesn’t have a built-in tool to delete all your photos at once. You’ll need to delete them manually or use a third-party app. Here’s what you need to know about deleting Facebook photos in bulk.
Can I delete all my Facebook photos at once?
No, there is no native Facebook tool that lets you mass delete or bulk delete all your Facebook photos at one time. Facebook only allows users to delete photos one at a time or by album. This can be incredibly tedious if you have years of photos built up that you want to remove.
Some reasons you may want to delete your Facebook photos include:
- Remove embarrassing or unflattering photos
- Delete old photos you no longer want public
- Free up storage space
- Take a break from social media
- Protect your privacy and security
While Facebook doesn’t have a bulk delete tool, there are some shortcuts and third-party apps that make deleting lots of Facebook photos much easier.
How to delete all Facebook photos
Here are some methods to delete your Facebook photos in bulk:
Delete by album
The fastest way to delete multiple Facebook photos is to delete full albums. To delete an album:
- Go to your Facebook profile and click Photos
- Click Albums and select the album you want to delete
- Click the three dots in the upper right corner and choose Delete Album
- Click Confirm to delete the full album
This will delete every photo in the album. Go through and delete any albums you want to remove.
Use the Facebook photo cleaner
Facebook’s Photo Cleaner tool will analyze your photos and let you delete them in bulk based on date ranges or people tagged. To use it:
- Go to your Facebook profile and click Photos
- In the left menu click Photo Cleaner
- Choose to delete based on date range or people
- Select the criteria you want to delete photos by
- Preview and delete selected photos
This makes it easy to delete photos from a specific time period or of certain people all at once.
Try a third-party app
For maximum efficiency, use a third-party app designed to mass delete Facebook photos:
- Social Book Post Manager – Chrome extension that lets you mass delete photos by criteria like album, date, and more.
- Facebook Photo Cleaner – Free software that deletes Facebook photos based on filters like timeframe and face detection.
- Faceplex – App that uses facial recognition to find and delete photos by person.
These apps make it easy to purge hundreds or thousands of photos in a few clicks. Just make sure to carefully review which photos will be deleted first.
Tips for deleting Facebook photos
Here are some tips to make deleting Facebook photos easy and safe:
- Back up first – Save photos you want to keep before deleting. Facebook provides tools for downloading your data.
- Album by album – Sort photos into albums before deleting batches to stay organized.
- Double check – Preview which photos will be deleted before confirming. Recovering deleted Facebook photos is difficult.
- Clear storage – Deleting photos frees up storage space on your Facebook account.
- Schedule time – Set aside ample time to go through and delete photos rather than rushing.
What happens when you delete Facebook photos?
Here’s what to expect when you delete photos on Facebook:
- Deleted photos are moved to the trash for 30 days, after which they are permanently deleted.
- Photos will disappear from your profile, feed and albums immediately.
- Tags and comments on deleted photos will also be removed.
- Deleted photos remain on Facebook’s servers but are disassociated from your account.
- Friends who were tagged in your deleted photos will no longer be associated with them.
- You can still search for and view deleted photos if you have a direct link to the file.
In summary, deleted Facebook photos are made private from your profile and disconnected from you, but may still exist on Facebook’s servers. The only way to fully remove them is to delete within the 30-day trash window.
How to recover deleted Facebook photos
If you accidentally deleted photos you wanted to keep, act fast to recover them:
- Go to your photo trash bin – click Photos > Trash in the left menu
- Click Recover to restore deleted photos
- Click Recover All to restore your full trash bin of deleted photos
- Click Empty Trash to permanently delete photos
You have 30 days after deletion to restore photos from the trash bin. After that they are gone forever. So recover them as soon as you notice they are deleted.
If 30 days have passed, you unfortunately can’t retrieve the deleted files. Your only option is to see if someone who was tagged in or has copies of the photos can share them with you again.
Does deleting Facebook photos increase security?
Deleting old Facebook photos can increase your privacy and security in certain ways:
- Removes potentially embarrassing photos others could see
- Deletes photos that reveal private details about your life
- Gets rid of photos that could be used for facial recognition
- Deletes metadata that provides information about where and when photos were taken
- Eliminates photos that could enable someone to gain access to your account
That said, any photos already seen by others can’t be erased from their memories or their own photos. So deleting older Facebook photos only goes so far in improving security.
Should I be concerned about deleted Facebook photos?
In most cases, there is little need to worry about deleted Facebook photos:
- The 30-day trash window gives you time to recover deletions.
- Deleted photos are only accessible if someone has the direct URL link.
- Facebook has sophisticated security measures to prevent breaches.
- Photos are disassociated from your account once deleted.
- Only you can see and recover photos from your trash bin.
That said, a few concerns to note:
- Recovering photos gets harder over time as other data overwrites them.
- Malicious actors within Facebook could theoretically access deleted photos.
- Photos of you can still exist if other people don’t delete them too.
- Government agencies may be able to access deleted photos in criminal cases.
For most people though, deleted Facebook photos are generally secure and low risk.
Can you permanently and completely delete Facebook photos?
There is no way to instantly and irreversibly delete Facebook photos forever. Here are the limitations:
- It takes up to 90 days for deleted photos to be fully purged from Facebook’s servers.
- Backups of Facebook’s systems still retain copies of deleted photos.
- Deleted photos could potentially be restored using forensic data recovery techniques.
- Other Facebook users may still have copies of photos you appeared in.
That said, here are some best practices to maximize Facebook photo deletion:
- Delete photos as soon as possible – don’t let them linger.
- Remove photos from your account’s trash bin after 30 days.
- Avoid posting photos you think you may want to delete later.
- Ask others to remove photos of you from their Facebook accounts.
While not foolproof, these steps help minimize the availability of deleted photos over time.
Conclusion
Deleting Facebook photos in bulk takes some work but can be accomplished using built-in tools, third-party apps and manual deletion. Be thoughtful about which photos you want to remove versus keep. Back up important photos before deleting. And if you change your mind, recover photos quickly before the 30-day window closes.
With billions of shared photos, Facebook has fundamentally changed how we capture and store memories. But just as photos once stuffed in shoeboxes can be discarded, your Facebook photos can be deleted once their purpose has passed. By periodically pruning your Facebook photos, you can present your life the way you want, save storage and increase privacy.