Short answer: open Photos › Collections › Media Types › Bursts (on iOS 18, scroll down to Media Types). Open a burst, tap Select, tick the frames you want, tap Done and choose Keep Only Favorites. The other frames go to Recently Deleted. A burst shows as one photo but stores every frame, often 10 to 100 photos.
Steps
- Open Photos and go to Collections › Media Types › Bursts.
- Open a burst. The top of the screen shows how many photos it holds.
- Tap Select below the photo. Swipe through the frames; gray dots mark the ones iOS suggests.
- Tap each frame you want to keep so it gets a check mark, then tap Done.
- Choose Keep Only Favorites (iOS shows how many). The rest move to Recently Deleted.
- To delete a whole burst, select it in the grid and tap the trash icon.
- Empty Recently Deleted to free the space.
Why bursts take so much space
| Feature | Counts as | Stores |
|---|---|---|
| Normal photo | 1 | 1 photo |
| Short burst (one second) | 1 thumbnail | about 10 photos |
| Long burst (a few seconds) | 1 thumbnail | 30–100+ photos |
Each frame is a full-size photo, typically 1.5–3 MB, so one long burst can be 100–300 MB. Because a burst appears as a single photo in your library, people rarely notice how many frames are hiding inside.
How bursts get taken by accident
- Sliding the shutter button to the left in the Camera app takes a burst on iPhone XS, XR and later. It's easy to do when you meant to tap.
- Volume Up for Burst: if Settings › Camera › Use Volume Up for Burst is on, holding the volume-up button takes a burst. Turn it off if you don't use it.
- Older iPhones take a burst when you hold the shutter button. On newer models, holding it records a QuickTake video instead.
Doing it with Spaceclear
Cleaning bursts one by one is slow when you have dozens. Spaceclear finds every burst and groups the frames like a set of similar photos: the best frame is marked BEST (favorites and edits first, then the sharpest, best-composed shot) and the rest are pre-selected. Review, tap delete, and every extra frame of every burst goes in one go. Clean safely includes bursts alongside duplicates and similar shots. Nothing is deleted before you review it, and deleted frames go to Recently Deleted for 30 days.
More in the same spirit: delete duplicate photos and find the biggest videos.
FAQ
Where are burst photos on iPhone?
In Photos › Collections › Media Types › Bursts. On iOS 18, open Photos and scroll down to Media Types. If there's no Bursts album, you don't have any bursts.
Does deleting a burst delete all the photos in it?
Yes. Deleting the burst from the grid removes every frame. To keep some, open it, tap Select, choose your favorites and pick Keep Only Favorites: those become normal photos and the rest are deleted.
How do I stop my iPhone from taking burst photos?
Turn off Settings › Camera › Use Volume Up for Burst, and tap the shutter instead of sliding it to the left. There's no setting that disables bursts completely.
Updated 2026-11-13