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How to Auto Delete Screenshots on iPhone and Mac

No iPhone or Mac setting deletes old screenshots. Set up a Shortcuts automation on iOS 27 or macOS 27, a Smart Folder, or a Trash-safe Terminal command.

8 min read
Muhammed BasilFounder & maker of Pizazoo

To auto delete screenshots on iPhone, build a shortcut that finds screenshots older than a set number of days and deletes them, then give it a weekly Time of Day automation. Neither iOS nor macOS has a built-in setting for this. On a Mac, a scheduled shortcut can move old screenshots to the Trash, and Finder can empty the Trash after 30 days.

Steps are for iOS 27 and macOS 27, with iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26 differences noted. For a one-off clear-out by hand, see how to delete all screenshots on iPhone or how to delete screenshots on Mac.

Can an iPhone automatically delete screenshots?

Not on its own. Photos keeps every screenshot under Collections > Media Types > Screenshots until you delete it (Apple), with no expiry setting. Shortcuts can do most of the job, but not all of it:

Part of the job Can it be automated?
Find screenshots older than N days Yes, with Find Photos
Run on a schedule Yes, with a Time of Day automation
Delete without a tap from you Only if your iPhone offers Delete Always (see below)
Free up storage right away No, deleted screenshots wait 30 days in Recently Deleted
Spare the screenshots you need Only ones you favorite or put in a "keep" album

How do I auto delete screenshots on iPhone with Shortcuts?

These steps work in iOS 26 and iOS 27. Apple documents Find filters only in general (Apple); the photo filter names come from Matthew Cassinelli's Find Photos reference.

  • Open Shortcuts, tap the Add button (+) to start a new shortcut (Apple), and name it "Delete old screenshots."
  • Add Adjust Date, set it to Subtract 30 days, and set its date to Current Date, a variable that inserts today's date when the shortcut runs (Apple, Cassinelli). Pick any number of days.
  • Add Find Photos. If it shows a variable where it should say All Photos, tap it and choose Clear Variable so it searches your whole library (Gadget Hacks).
  • Tap Add Filter, tap Album and change it to Is a Screenshot.
  • Tap Add Filter again, change it to Date Taken, set it to is before, and pick Adjusted Date.
  • Protect keepers with Is Not Favorite and Album is not your "keep" album, and make sure the action matches All filters, not Any.
  • Optionally turn on Limit to cap each run.
  • Add Delete Photos at the end, then tap the Play button to test it.

If a big first run fails, turn on Allow Deleting Large Amounts of Data in Settings > Apps > Shortcuts > Advanced (MakeUseOf), or keep Limit on and let weekly runs catch up.

Will Delete Photos ask before deleting?

By default, yes. The action's description says it "asks for confirmation before performing the deletion" (Cassinelli), and this is the step you may not be able to automate.

Third parties, not Apple, document a way around it. MakeUseOf's iOS 18 walkthrough shows a switch called Allow Deleting Without Confirmation in the same Advanced settings. With it on, Gadget Hacks reports that the prompt gains a Delete Always button, which stops the prompt for that shortcut from then on.

  • Apple's iOS 27 Shortcuts guide doesn't mention either deleting switch: its Advanced page covers only Allow Running Scripts (Apple). Check what your iPhone shows on iOS 26 or iOS 27.
  • Without Delete Always, the automation only gets you to the prompt: it finds the screenshots, and you tap Delete.
  • Gadget Hacks found that tapping Don't Delete blocks deleting in later runs. To undo it, open the shortcut's Details, tap Privacy, then Reset Privacy (Apple).

How do I make the shortcut run every week?

iOS 27

  • Open the shortcut, tap Edit, then Automation, and choose Time of Day (Apple). Set the time, then under Repeat choose Daily, Weekly or Monthly (Apple).
  • To run it without asking, tap Edit, then the Info button, tap Privacy, and turn on Allow Running When Locked. That is Apple's wording; the automation then runs without notifying you.

Time of Day is on Apple's list of triggers that can run without asking, though you "may need to set individual actions to run automatically" (for Delete Photos, the Delete Always choice above). Automations sync to your other devices turned off (Apple).

iOS 26

Tap the Automation tab, tap the Add button (+), choose Time of Day, set the time and repeat, choose Run Immediately, tap Next, then pick your shortcut (Apple, iOS 26). In iOS 17 the old Ask Before Running switch became a choice between Run Immediately and Run After Confirmation (Cassinelli), though Apple's iOS 26 guide still describes the switch (Apple, iOS 26).

Should I use the new Screenshot trigger?

iOS 27 adds a Screenshot trigger ("When a screenshot is saved") (Apple), but it isn't on Apple's list of triggers that can run without asking, so a cleanup tied to it would ask every time. Stick with Time of Day.

iOS 27 also adds a Hide Photos action (Apple). Use it instead of Delete Photos to move old screenshots out of view; Apple doesn't say whether it asks first. See removing screenshots from iPhone Photos without deleting them.

What happens to screenshots the automation deletes?

They move to Recently Deleted for 30 days, then are permanently removed from your iPhone, iCloud and your other devices (Apple). With iCloud Photos on, deleting on one device deletes everywhere.

Can a Mac automatically delete screenshots?

Not by itself either. macOS saves screenshots to the Desktop as files whose names begin with "Screenshot" plus the date and time (Apple), and they stay there. If you moved them, see where do screenshots go on Mac. You can clear old ones with a Smart Folder, a Shortcuts automation (macOS 26 Tahoe and later) or a Terminal command.

How do I see screenshots older than 30 days in Finder?

A Smart Folder keeps a live list you can clear in one go. Apple documents the rules, including holding Option for Any, All or None (Apple, Apple); the "within last" date option is shown by iDownloadBlog.

  • Open your screenshots folder (the Desktop by default) in Finder, press Command-F, and choose that folder as the search location.
  • Click the Add button (+) and set Kind is Image, then add Name contains "Screenshot".
  • Hold Option, click the More button (...) that replaces Add, choose None, then set Created date is within last 30 days.
  • Click Save, name it "Screenshots older than 30 days," and keep Add To Sidebar selected.

Once a week, open it, press Command-A, then Command-Delete. To catch renamed screenshots too, how to delete screenshots on Mac shows a metadata-based search.

How do I auto delete screenshots on Mac with Shortcuts?

Shortcuts on Mac gained automations in macOS 26 Tahoe, including Time of Day (Apple). Build the shortcut first:

  • Add Adjust Date: Subtract 30 days from Current Date.
  • Add Get Contents of Folder, choose your screenshots folder, and leave Recursive off (Cassinelli).
  • Add Filter Files matching All of: Name begins with "Screenshot" and Creation Date is before Adjusted Date (Cassinelli).
  • Add Delete Files, with Confirm Before Deleting on while you test (Cassinelli). Leave Delete Immediately off: Apple's guide doesn't document it, but its description in Shortcuts says it deletes files immediately instead of moving them to the Trash.

Then schedule it:

  • macOS 27: click Edit, then Automation, and choose Time of Day. To skip the prompt, click Edit, then the Info button, click Privacy, and turn on Allow Running When Locked (Apple). Otherwise, Apple says, a notification asks you to run it (Apple).
  • macOS 26 Tahoe: click Automation in the sidebar, click the Add button (+), choose Time of Day and Run Immediately (turn off Notify When Run for silence), then build the same actions in the automation (Six Colors, MacMost).

Finally, choose Finder > Settings, click Advanced, and select Remove items from the Trash after 30 days (Apple). Old screenshots now leave the Desktop weekly and are permanently deleted 30 days later, the same grace period iPhone gives you. The setting covers everything in the Trash, and items trashed from iCloud Drive empty after 30 days regardless.

Never point the shortcut at your home folder, and test it on a folder of copies first. For more on the macOS 27 Screenshot trigger, see what's new for screenshots in macOS 27.

What about Automator on older Macs?

Before Tahoe, Shortcuts on Mac had no automations. Automator, still in macOS 27 (Apple), can do the cleanup on demand: Get Specified Finder Items (your screenshots folder), Get Folder Contents, Filter Finder Items (date created is not in the last 30 days), then Move Finder Items to Trash (AddictiveTips). Save it as an application.

Is there a Terminal command to delete old screenshots?

Yes, but skip rm: it bypasses the Trash, so one typo deletes files for good. macOS 15 Sequoia and later include a trash command that moves files to the Trash instead (Michael Tsai).

  • Preview what would go: find ~/Desktop -maxdepth 1 -name 'Screenshot*' -Btime +30 -print
  • Move those files to the Trash: find ~/Desktop -maxdepth 1 -name 'Screenshot*' -Btime +30 -exec trash {} +

-Btime +30 matches files created more than 30 days ago, and -maxdepth 1 stays out of subfolders. Swap ~/Desktop for your screenshots folder. Terminal may need access, which you grant in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Files & Folders (Apple). Michael Tsai notes Finder windows can display oddly after trash runs until you reopen them.

How do I stop throwaway screenshots from being saved at all?

  • iPhone: when a screenshot opens full screen, share it from there, then tap the Close button to cancel or delete it. Screenshots shown as thumbnails save automatically, so tap the thumbnail first (Apple).
  • Mac: add Control to the shortcut, for example Control-Shift-Command-4, to copy the screenshot to the clipboard instead of saving a file (Apple).

If the pile keeps growing anyway, why do I take so many screenshots looks at the habit behind it.

How do I clear screenshots without losing the ones I need?

Disclosure: we make Pizazoo. A date rule can't tell a boarding pass from a meme. Pizazoo keeps a searchable copy, so the camera roll or Desktop stays clear without losing anything.

  • iPhone and iPad: the free Pizazoo app (iOS and iPadOS 17 or later) has a Remove from Photos after import setting. It scans your photo library for screenshots when you open the app and asks first ("Remove N from Photos"). Originals go to Recently Deleted for 30 days; Pizazoo keeps its copy, sorted into categories and searchable by its text.
  • Mac: Pizazoo for Mac (macOS 14 or later) imports new screenshots from the folders it watches, and Delete originals after import in Settings > Capture clears them from the Desktop. Its warning: "Original screenshot files will be permanently deleted from the source folder after they are imported into the library. This cannot be undone."
  • A safety net: screenshots you delete inside Pizazoo go to its own Trash, restorable for 30 days.

With iCloud Photos on, removing from Photos removes on every device, while Pizazoo's copy reaches them only with iCloud Sync, which is part of the one-time Pro upgrade and off by default. The copy stays on your device, so this clears clutter rather than freeing every megabyte.

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