# How to delete old calendar events on iPhone

**Short answer:** the Calendar app has no "delete all past events" button. To simply hide them on the iPhone, set **Settings › Apps › Calendar › Sync** to **Events 1 Month Back**. To delete a repeating event, open its first occurrence and choose **Delete All Future Events**. For years of old events, delete in bulk on a Mac or use an app that can, such as Spaceclear's **Calendar & Reminders** cleanup.

## Steps
1. **Hide old events (nothing deleted):** **Settings › Apps › Calendar › Sync** (on iOS 17 and earlier, **Settings › Calendar › Sync**) and choose **Events 1 Month Back**, 3 or 6 months. The iPhone stops showing older events; they stay in your account.
2. **Delete one event:** open it in Calendar and tap **Delete Event**, then confirm.
3. **Delete a repeating event:** open the first occurrence you want gone, tap **Delete Event** and choose **Delete All Future Events**.
4. **Delete a whole calendar of old events:** in Calendar, tap **Calendars**, tap **ⓘ** next to a calendar you no longer need and tap **Delete Calendar**. This removes every event in it, past and future.
5. **Mass delete on a Mac:** in the Calendar app on a Mac signed into the same account, search for a word the events share, select the results in the list (Command-A selects all) and press Delete. Deletions sync to the iPhone.
6. **Clean completed reminders:** in Reminders, open a list, tap **•••** › **Show Completed**, then tap **Clear** next to the completed count and choose how old.

## Which method fits
| You want to... | Use | Deletes data? |
|---|---|---|
| Stop seeing years of history | Sync › Events 1 Month Back | No, only hides on the iPhone |
| Remove an old weekly meeting | Delete All Future Events from its start | Yes |
| Remove a calendar you no longer use | Delete Calendar | Yes, every event in it |
| Remove hundreds of old events | Mac Calendar search, or Spaceclear | Yes |
| Remove duplicate events | Spaceclear, or delete by hand | Yes |

## Do old events take up storage?
Barely. Thousands of events are only a few megabytes. Cleaning the calendar is about clutter: faster searches, a clean list view, fewer duplicate alerts and fewer old invitations syncing to every device. If you're cleaning to free space, start with photos and videos instead ([free up storage](/guides/free-up-iphone-storage)).

## Recovering deleted events
If you delete too much from an iCloud calendar, go to iCloud.com on a computer, open **Data Recovery** in your account settings and choose **Restore Calendars**. iCloud keeps archived copies for a limited time, and restoring replaces your current calendars with the archive.

## Doing it with Spaceclear
[Spaceclear's](/) **Calendar & Reminders** cleanup reads your calendars on the iPhone and finds:
- **Old events** that ended more than 6, 12 or 24 months ago (12 by default).
- **Duplicate events**: the same title at the same time, the kind sync glitches create.
- **Completed reminders** finished more than 30 days ago.

You review the list and delete in one batch. Subscribed and read-only calendars, like holidays or sports schedules, are left alone, which also means Spaceclear can't remove spam calendar subscriptions ([how to do that](/guides/delete-spam-calendar-events-iphone)). Nothing leaves your iPhone.

## FAQ
### Does iPhone delete old calendar events automatically?
No. iCloud keeps past events indefinitely. The **Sync** setting only limits how far back the iPhone shows events; the events stay in your account and on your other devices.

### How do I mass delete old calendar events on my iPhone?
The Calendar app can't select multiple events. Delete a whole calendar if it's all old, use the Calendar app on a Mac to select many events at once, or use a cleanup app such as Spaceclear that deletes old events in one batch after you review them.

### Can I delete all events from one calendar without deleting the calendar?
Not in the iPhone Calendar app. Either delete the calendar and create a new empty one with the same name, or remove the events in bulk on a Mac or with Spaceclear.