Learn how to keep your pictures and videos organized in the iPhone and iPad Photos app by sorting them into photo albums.
Your iPhone is a phone, first and foremost, but there’s no denying the capabilities of the iPhone camera. So if you use your new iPhone to snap amazing pictures, you’re going to want to see them all in the Photos app. But over time, that Photos app becomes quite full, making it a little harder to find the shots you want.
While the Photos app provides some help by organizing photos into albums for you, you can do this yourself, too. And if you’re new to iPhone, then this is definitely something you’ll want to know how to do.
To help you out, this tutorial shows you how to create and manage albums in Photos on your iPhone running iOS 26
Note: If you use iCloud Photos, the albums you create will also appear on your other Apple devices.
Create an album
- Open the iOS 26 Photos app on your iPhone, go to the Collections tab, and tap “Albums.”
- Tap the plus sign at the top, and select New Album.
- Give your album a name, then add photos (or do this later), and hit Create.
Note: Several iOS apps automatically create albums in the Photos app to better manage the images related to them.
Add photos to an album
- Go inside the Photos app and select the pictures and videos you want to add.
- Tap the share button at the bottom and pick Add to Album.
- Choose the album and the selected photo(s) and video(s) will pop right into it.
Keep in mind that adding photos to albums does not remove them from the Photos tab. It merely assembles them in another location (your album) for easy viewing.
And you can add photos to more than one album. For instance, you can have a photo of your child in both your Vacation and Kids albums.
Remove photos from an album
Maybe you added a photo to an album by mistake and want to remove it.
- Open the album containing the photo.
- Tap Select, pick the photo(s), and tap the trash can icon.
- Choose Remove from Album. If you select Delete, this will remove the photo from all devices and locations once you confirm. So be careful not to select this option if you only want to remove the photo from the album. If you delete a photo by mistake, check out our article on recovering deleted iPhone photos.
Tip: To remove a photo from the Favorites album, open that photo and tap the heart icon to un-favorite it.
Rename your album
- Open the Photos app and go inside the album you want to rename.
- Tap the three-dots menu icon at the top, followed by the edit icon.
- Enter the new name and tap the checkmark to save the changes.
Rearrange the albums
If you have a lot of albums, you can rearrange them manually and decide which one appears at the top, bottom, or anywhere else on the list.
- Open the iOS 26 Photos app and tap Collections.
- Tap “Albums” to see all your albums in list view or grid view.
- Tap the three dots menu icon at the top and select “Sort by Custom Order.”
- Now, touch and hold an album and drag & drop it where you want it.
Delete an album
You can remove the album, but the photos will still exist in other albums and the Photos app.
- Go inside an album and tap the three dots icon at the top.
- Select Delete Album and confirm.
Note: You cannot delete the Recents, Favorites, and other albums created by the Photos app.
About the pre-made albums in iOS Photos
The Photos app collects and organizes many of your pictures into pre-made albums/sections for you, such as Selfies, Live Photos, Favorites, Bursts, People & Pets, etc. So, make sure to take advantage of these albums assembled for you!
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