# How to delete burst photos on iPhone

**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
1. Open **Photos** and go to **Collections › Media Types › Bursts**.
2. Open a burst. The top of the screen shows how many photos it holds.
3. Tap **Select** below the photo. Swipe through the frames; gray dots mark the ones iOS suggests.
4. Tap each frame you want to keep so it gets a check mark, then tap **Done**.
5. Choose **Keep Only Favorites** (iOS shows how many). The rest move to Recently Deleted.
6. To delete a whole burst, select it in the grid and tap the trash icon.
7. Empty **Recently Deleted** to free the space.

## Why bursts take so much space
| | 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](/guides/delete-duplicate-photos-iphone) and [find the biggest videos](/guides/sort-videos-by-size-iphone).

## 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.