How to free up the space your screenshots take
Once a screenshot is confirmed in iCloud, CloudShots can remove the original — from Photos on iPhone and iPad, or from the folder it imported on your Mac. It goes to Recently Deleted or the Trash, so it stays recoverable, and your CloudShots history keeps the screenshot either way. Clearing originals is a Pro feature.
Clear the originals
- Import your existing screenshots first, and let them sync — how that works.
- Open Settings in CloudShots and wait for the upload counter to confirm everything is in iCloud.
- Tap Free Up Your Photos on iPhone or iPad, or Free Up Your Mac in the Mac settings.
- Read the green checkmark, which states how many screenshots are confirmed synced, then confirm the dialog.
- The originals move to Recently Deleted in Photos, where they sit for 30 days, or to the Trash on your Mac. The space comes back once you empty it.
What CloudShots will not remove
- Anything not yet confirmed in iCloud. A screenshot still uploading is never offered.
- A Mac capture that only synced down to your phone. It is never offered for deletion from your Photos library.
- Anything on your Mac outside the folder you granted, including CloudShots’ own captures, which it keeps for you.
- Your history. The screenshot stays in CloudShots and stays openable, searchable, editable, and shareable.
The limits
- Pro opens both cleanups. Capture, import, sync, and search are free — a purchase changes what you can clear and how much of your history you can open.
- On iPhone and iPad it needs full access to Photos, since CloudShots cannot act on what it cannot see.
- Cleanup lives on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple Watch is read-only.
- The history size setting is a different thing, on both plans. Lowering it permanently deletes CloudShots’ own oldest screenshots on every device, and it never touches your Photos library.
Space back, nothing lost.
CloudShots offers a screenshot for removal only after it is confirmed in iCloud, and removal goes to Recently Deleted in Photos or the Trash on your Mac, so you can still get the file back.
No. The cleanup removes the original in Photos or in your Mac folder. The screenshot stays in your CloudShots history, and you can open, search, edit, and export it as before.
Yes. Free Up Your Photos and Free Up Your Mac are Pro features. Importing, syncing, and search are free.
As much as the originals took. Photos still holds them in Recently Deleted for 30 days, and your Mac still holds them in the Trash, so the space comes back once that is emptied.
No, and the difference matters. History size decides how many screenshots CloudShots keeps for itself, and lowering it permanently deletes its own oldest screenshots on every device. It never touches your Photos library.
More guides
- How to Automatically Sync Screenshots Between iPhone and MacSet up one private screenshot history that syncs through iCloud.
- How to find a screenshot by the text inside itSearch by the words you remember seeing, on any of your devices.
- How to sync iPhone screenshots to your Mac — and Mac screenshots to your iPhoneBoth directions, automatic, through your own iCloud — no AirDrop, no export.
- A screenshot manager for Mac, iPhone and iPadOne searchable, synced history instead of a pile in Photos and on the Desktop.
- The iCloud screenshot manager for Mac, iPhone and iPadWhat lives in your own iCloud, how the library limit works, and what stays private.
- All guides
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