I have deleted photos from iphone 6 but the photo library still takes up a lot of space in internal storage. How can I delete photo library from storage on the iphone?

I don't know how you figure out that solution but works like a charm!!! Thanks so much txforever

Update to my Feb. 15 Post. I tried many of the suggestions on this thread and nothing worked. After several long discussions with Apple Care I set my phone back to factory settings and restored from a back up. One of the techs called it a "memory leak" problem where you delete photos but it doesn't release the space. This took care of my problem. And I must say, I had three different techs and each was pleasant and helpful and didn't rush the call. Each tech set up the next tech call and I was always called on time.

Changing the date and delete the "Recent deleted photo" works!

I deleted about 12,000 photos and free up the memory by 22GB! Although it still takes more memory on the phone but I will leave it for now 🙂

Thanks!

Thanks for the tip. It was in the last place I looked. 🙂 I got everything else deleted, but couldn't get the memory to free up. Toggled everything. This last step freed it up.

This worked for me as well - I recommend this solution.

Thank you!!!!! I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to recover this storage.

I did your suggestion and another further down in the list about deleting the Instagram folder. 1 or both of the suggestions worked!!!

So it is true that the "Recently Deleted" photos don't get deleted after 30 days as promised. They just get hidden from you, and if you switch the device date back you will see the photos from that time in that folder unless you deleted them manually. However, it takes some time to find the right date to purge the folder. I deleted a few photos that way and then tried the first suggestion and turned the iCloud storage on and off. I didn't even have to wait for the existing photos to get uploaded. Work like a charm. Thank you!

This worked! We have finall freed up 5 GB of space by deleting instagram folder!!! Thank you.

I'm having this same issue, have tried most of the solutions in this thread and other threads, none have worked.

I have a 16GB iPhone 5s, using iOS 8.2. I have 9 photos in my photo album, zero videos. On my iPhone, In Settings>General>About, it shows I have 1,239 photos, and 31 videos! Sorry for long message below - just trying to provide all the details in case someone has some insight.

** Also, can anyone clarify what exactly is meant by changing the date suggestion mentioned by txt forever, that worked for several people? Is it referring to backups? This is the one suggestion I haven't tried yet. If it's backups, I may be out of luck. Since my iCloud is always too full and I have to backup to my mac, I only have one backup from about 3 months ago. :/

Details on what I've done so far that HAS NOT WORKED:

So, on my iPhone as mentioned above, In Settings>General>About, it shows I have 1,239 photos, and 31 videos. And in Settings>General>Usage>Storage/Manage Storage it shows Photo and Camera are currently using 2.5 GB. When I view the specifics, it shows only Photo Library which is using the full 2.5GB.

Most recently, today, I backed up my phone to my mac (since iCloud is always too full), Hard Reset my phone (Erased all Data and Content), set my phone back up carefully making sure in iTunes the "Sync Photos (to iPhone) option was off (it has been prior to today anyway). Before and after, iTunes still shows my iPhone's photo storage at 2.53 GB, 1,239 photos.

Recently Deleted was/is also empty and I have no other folders in my Photos (such as Instagram, etc). Even when viewing photos via Collections, Moments view, I still only show the 9 photos, no videos.

In Settings>iCloud>Photos - it has been/is turned off (including every individual option, i.e., iCloud Photo Library (Beta), My Photo Stream, Upload Burst Photos, iCloud Photo Sharing - they are all off). I had already tried various methods of toggling the iCloud settings on and off, meticulously deleting photos from Camera Roll for the last couple months and then immediately deleting them from Recently Deleted, etc. I also frequently delete text threads especially those that include photos.Nothing has worked.

I've been constantly running out of storage ever since I got this iPhone 5s, and that's after decreasing my apps, photos, music by about 70% from what I used to have on previous iPhones including my old iPhone 4s. I constantly and meticulously delete photos, continue to pare down my apps to bare minimum, yet every time a special pic opportunity arises and I open my camera, it says it's too full to take a pic!! Last week for my daughters orchestra concert, I deleted all of my photos, videos and about 10 apps to ensure I had plenty of space. I took 4 videos 1-2 mins each, and no pics, and ran out of space to take anything else before it was even half over. Missed the finale photo opp, etc. I'm definitely ready to make my next smartphone something other than an iPhone at this point. So frustrating!

FIXED! I found the details on how to change the date on the phone in another thread. I did that, checked Photos/Recently Deleted - there were my thousand plus phantom photos. I deleted them, changed the date/time toggle back to "Set Automatically" and my Photo Storage went from 2.53 GB to 272 MB! A solution at last! I posted the response that details how to change Date/Time below. Thanks TxtForever for mentioning the solution in this thread or I may have never figured this out!:

"Reply Helpfulby scabthepoet on Mar 15, 2015 2:15 PM

I was having the same issue on my iPhone. I have an iPad, too, that is doing the same thing (as is my wife's iPhone). Here is what works and what I posted a few minutes ago in the iPhone Apple Support Forum.

I've been searching for an answer to this very problem for a solid day. Here is what I did that worked for me. No reset. No need to upgrade to more Cloud storage or anything else. I had already deleted out every picture from my phone, including "Messages" and the "recently deleted" album, etc. There really are phantom pictures in there, but the only way to see them and delete them is to:

1. Go to Settings
2. Date & Time
3. Untoggle "Set Automatically"
4. Manually change the date back. For example, if today is March 15, 2015, choose August 1, 2014. (You can change it back once we're done)
5. Close out of that
6. Open "Photos"
7. Select "Albums"
8. If, like me, you had already cleared out everything from the Camera Roll and "Recently Deleted" folder, you'll smile to see that your "Recently Deleted" folder now has thousands of images back. Those are your phantom photos
9. Open it, "Select" and start deleting
10. Now, go back into Settings - General - Usage - Storage - Manage Storage - and you'll notice your Photo & Camera is empty if you deleted everything

I hope this works for everyone and that I saved you all the time I wasted searching for an answer myself -- only to never find one. Now you have the answer.

I went from barely having any room left on my phone to almost brand new again.

Take care."

I also deleted the albums that I had with 0 pictures and it helped!

Thanks Yoric52!

And it looks like iOS 8.3 has been released and they STILL haven't fixed this issue. This is a serious flaw that's eating up a lot of people's space without most of them realizing what's happening! I submitted this as a bug 2 months ago and nothing. Brutal...

Yeah. That's just plain crazy.

you are a genious!!! i've been searching for months on how to delete 4.5GB of photos that I couldn't even find! thank you

Thank you so much! This did it. Permanently deleted 15gb of phantom images/videos.