Now on the App Store
Reclaim your storage
Find the photos and videos eating your iPhone (the biggest files, the duplicates, the months you never cleaned out) and clear them in one pass. Every scan runs on your device, and nothing is deleted without your confirmation.
Out Now
Thanks to everyone who joined the waitlist. The wait is over. PhotoSweep: Storage Cleaner is out now for iPhone. Free, no ads, and no in-app purchases.
Free · iOS 17.0 or later
View on the App Store (opens in a new tab)What is PhotoSweep?
PhotoSweep shows you where your storage actually went, then makes clearing it fast. It lists every photo and video by real file size, finds exact and similar duplicates by comparing metadata and image fingerprints, and turns any month (or any date range) into a deck you swipe through: left to trash, right to keep. Everything you trash is staged in the app, not deleted, until you confirm and approve iOS's own deletion dialog. All analysis happens on your iPhone; the app has no account, no servers, and nothing to upload.
Two passes, both on device. The first buckets your library by media type, exact pixel dimensions, and duration, so only items that agree on all three are ever compared. Which keeps a large library fast. The second pass confirms: videos by identical file size, photos by a perceptual fingerprint computed from a small grayscale thumbnail, so a re-saved or re-compressed copy still matches.
A group is labelled Exact only when there is hard evidence the files are the same shot: an identical fingerprint together with an identical file size, or an identical size plus a capture time matching to the second and GPS coordinates within about 30 metres. Anything else that merely looks the same is labelled Similar. Each group lists the signals that actually matched, so you can see why it was grouped, and if iOS won't report an item's size, that item is never called an exact copy.
The App Store set is one continuous picture, so keep swiping.
Swipe or scroll sideways: each panel picks up where the last one ends.
Every photo and video by its real size on disk, biggest first, with a running total in the header. Filter to Photos, Videos, or Screenshots, full-swipe a row to stage it, or hand the fifty largest straight to the swipe deck.
Left to trash, right to keep. KEEP and TRASH stamps fade in as you drag, with buttons if you'd rather tap and Undo to step back one decision at a time. An orange chip tracks how much you've staged this session.
Groups are badged Exact or Similar and list the matched signals, same dimensions, same file size, same capture time, same location, identical fingerprint. Filter to just Exact or just Similar, with live counts.
Each group nominates the largest file to keep, outlined in green, with a one-tap trash button on every extra. Tap any thumbnail for a full-screen side-by-side pager, or clear every redundant copy at once.
A month grid with covers, sizes, progress bars, and a seal when a month is done. Decisions are remembered, so a "Continue" card resumes where you stopped, or pick any From and To dates.
Cards show the whole frame aspect-fit over a blurred backdrop with date, size, and dimensions. Panoramas pan slowly at full height instead of shrinking to a sliver. Videos play inline; any photo opens to a pinch-zoom viewer.
Nothing leaves your library while you decide. Review the pile as a grid with sizes, tap to restore, or Restore All. The list survives quitting the app, and deletion only happens after you approve iOS's own dialog.
A storage bar shows how much of your device is used, how much is free, and (in mint) exactly how much of it is your photo library. Counters above track items, library size, and what's staged.
A checklist of the wins only you can do, each pointing at Apple's own tools: empty Recently Deleted, offload unused apps, clear Safari data, review Message attachments, turn on Optimize iPhone Storage.
From first launch to reclaimed space
One permission, once. Read access finds your files; write access is what lets the app move the ones you choose into Recently Deleted. Prefer to share only some photos? Limited access is fully supported.
PhotoSweep indexes your library in the background with a visible progress card, then hands you a storage bar, a library total, and a month grid.
Go for the biggest offenders in Largest Files, run a duplicate scan and clear the extras, or open a month as a swipe deck.
Swipe left to trash, right to keep. Tap to zoom if you're unsure, play the video, let the panorama pan. Undo if you were too quick.
Everything you trashed is still in your library, waiting in the Trash tab. Restore anything you've changed your mind about. Nothing has been deleted yet.
A sheet names the count and the size, then iOS shows its own deletion dialog. Only after you approve that do items move to Recently Deleted, recoverable for about 30 days.
Storage isn't reclaimed until that album is emptied. The Free Up More Space guide has a button that takes you straight there.
Quick facts about PhotoSweep for iOS
Effective date: July 25, 2026Last updated: October 8, 2026
PhotoSweep collects nothing. There is no account, no sign-in, and no server to talk to. Every scan, fingerprint, size calculation, and duplicate comparison happens on your iPhone, and your photos are never uploaded, copied, or exported. The only permission the app ever requests is photo library access, read-write, because moving a photo into Recently Deleted requires write access.
Effective date: July 25, 2026Last updated: July 26, 2026
By using PhotoSweep you agree to use it for personal, non-commercial purposes, and you accept that you are responsible for the deletions you confirm. The app is provided as-is, with no warranty. It is a utility that helps you find and stage photos for deletion. It is not a backup service, and it cannot recover photos once you have emptied Photos' Recently Deleted album.
Need help with PhotoSweep?
If you encounter any issues, have suggestions for new features, or need help with a cleanup, reach out to us. If you're reporting a bug, the three things that help most are: your iPhone model and iOS version, roughly how many items are in your photo library, and what you were doing when it went wrong. Screenshots are welcome.
No. "Trash" inside PhotoSweep is a staging list. Your photos stay in your library, exactly where they were, and the tab badge just counts what's waiting. Deleting takes three deliberate acts: you tap the delete button, you confirm in a sheet that names the count and the size, and then iOS shows its own system deletion dialog. The app cannot delete a single item without you approving that last dialog, and if you cancel it, everything stays staged.
No, and neither can any other app on your iPhone, whatever the App Store screenshots imply. iOS sandboxes every app: PhotoSweep can only see what you grant it access to, which is your photo library. It cannot touch another app's storage, the system cache, or temporary files. That's why the built-in Free Up More Space guide is a checklist that walks you into Apple's own tools instead of pretending to do it for you. Photos and videos are usually the biggest thing on the phone anyway, and those PhotoSweep can genuinely help with.
They go to Photos' Recently Deleted album, where they're recoverable for about 30 days. That's also the answer to the free-space question: iOS doesn't release the storage until Recently Deleted is emptied. Open Photos → Albums → Recently Deleted → Select → Delete All, and the space appears. PhotoSweep's guide has an Open Photos button for exactly this.
No account, no sign-in, no email address. And it works offline, with one honest exception: if a photo lives only in iCloud because you use Optimize iPhone Storage, iOS needs a connection to fetch that original when it's displayed at full resolution or fingerprinted. That's Apple's system service pulling your own file from your own iCloud account. PhotoSweep has no servers to talk to.
Exact means PhotoSweep has hard evidence the two files are the same shot: identical fingerprint and identical file size, or identical size plus a capture time matching to the second and GPS coordinates within about 30 metres. Similar means they look the same but aren't byte-identical, a re-save, an edit, a messaging-app copy, or one frame out of a burst. Both are shown with the signals that matched, so you can see why they were grouped. If iOS won't report an item's size, that item is never labelled an exact copy.
The largest file wins, oldest on ties, because the biggest version is normally the least compressed one. It's a suggestion, not a rule. The keeper is just outlined in green and labelled "Keep". Tap through to the side-by-side comparison, and if you disagree, trash the keeper and keep an extra instead.
Undo steps back through the deck one decision at a time. Beyond that, anything you trashed is still staged in the Trash tab: tap a thumbnail to restore it, or Restore All. Nothing is irreversible until you approve the system deletion dialog, and even then, Recently Deleted holds it for about 30 days.
Both. Sizes and duplicate groups are worked out from library metadata, so the lists fill in whether or not the originals are on the device; iOS fetches an original from your iCloud when a full-resolution view or a fingerprint needs it. With limited access, PhotoSweep works on just the photos you selected, shows a banner saying so, and gives you a Manage button to change the selection at any time.
We typically respond within 48 hours.
