You're staring at a screen filled with thousands of backups. Maybe it’s five years of blurry receipts, accidental screenshots of your lock screen, or ten thousand pictures of your cat sleeping in slightly different positions. You want them gone. Or moved. Or put into a massive physical album. But Google doesn't exactly make it easy to google photos select all photos with a single click of a "Magic" button.
It's frustrating.
Most people expect a "Select All" checkbox at the top of the grid. It isn't there. Google’s interface is designed for scrolling and browsing, not mass migration. Whether you are hitting your 15GB storage limit or just trying to organize a digital life that has spiraled out of control, knowing the shortcuts is the difference between a five-minute task and a three-hour repetitive strain injury.
Why is there no "Select All" button anyway?
Honestly, it’s probably a safety feature. Imagine a toddler grabbing your phone and hitting "Select All" then "Delete." That’s a decade of memories gone in a heartbeat. Google forces you to be intentional. But intentional shouldn't mean "painfully slow."
If you’re on a desktop, the process is wildly different than on a phone. The web version of Google Photos relies on keyboard modifiers—the same ones you’ve used in Excel or Word for years—but most people forget they work in a browser too. On mobile, it's all about the "drag and scroll" gesture.
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Mastering the Shift-Click on Desktop
This is the gold standard. If you need to google photos select all photos on a PC or Mac, don't try to click every individual tiny circle. That’s madness.
First, go to the very first photo in your library. Click the little checkmark in the top left corner of that image. It turns blue. Now, here is where people mess up: they try to scroll while holding Shift. Don't do that. Just scroll normally. Use your mouse wheel or the scroll bar on the right to fly down to the bottom of your library.
Find the very last photo. Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard. While holding it, click the checkmark on that last photo. Boom. Everything in between is now highlighted in blue.
Sometimes the browser stutters. If you have 50,000 photos, Chrome might gasp for air. If that happens, try selecting in chunks of a few thousand at a time. It’s safer. If the page refreshes or crashes mid-selection, you lose your progress.
The "Date Checkbox" Shortcut
There’s an even faster way if you organize by timeline. Next to each date (like "Saturday, Oct 12"), there is a faint checkmark. Clicking that selects every single photo taken on that day. If you’re trying to purge a specific vacation or a weekend where you took way too many videos, this is the surgical approach.
The Mobile Gesture You Probably Didn't Know
Using the app on an iPhone or Android? You don't have a Shift key. But you do have fingers.
To google photos select all photos on mobile, tap and hold the first photo until the blue check appears. Do not lift your finger. Drag your finger across to the second photo and then straight down toward the bottom of your screen.
The app will start auto-scrolling. The further down you hold your finger, the faster it flies. It feels a bit like controlled chaos. You can select hundreds of photos in seconds this way. However, if you have a massive library, your finger might get a cramp before you hit 2015.
Dealing with the 500 Item Limit
Here is a nuance that catches everyone off guard: Google often caps certain bulk actions.
If you’re trying to add photos to an album or share them, you might run into a wall if you select more than 500 or 2,000 items at once, depending on the current app version and your device's RAM. If you are trying to google photos select all photos for a mass deletion, the trash can usually handles more, but it might take a minute to process.
Always check the "Bin" or "Trash" afterwards. They stay there for 60 days (or 30 if your storage is full) before they are permanently purged. If you realize you accidentally deleted your wedding photos along with those blurry pictures of a menu, you can still get them back.
What About Google Takeout?
If your goal is to download everything—literally everything—because you're leaving the Google ecosystem, stop clicking. Don't use the web interface.
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Go to Google Takeout.
This is the "official" way to google photos select all photos for export. You can deselect everything else (like Mail and Calendar) and just check Google Photos. Google then spends a few hours (or days) packaging your entire life into .zip files and emails you a link.
It is messy. The metadata (the GPS location and time stamps) often gets separated into tiny .json files. It’s a headache to put back together if you’re moving to a hard drive, but it’s the only way to truly "Select All" without physical clicking.
Common Pitfalls and Myths
- The Select All Button Myth: You’ll see articles claiming there’s a hidden menu for this. There isn't. Not in the standard view.
- Archive vs. Delete: If you're just trying to clean up your main grid, use "Archive." It hides them from the main view but keeps them in your library and albums. Select them using the Shift-click method, then hit Archive.
- The "Select All" in Albums: If you are inside an album, the "Select All" option actually does exist sometimes in the three-dot menu, but only for certain account types or web versions. It’s inconsistent.
Actionable Steps for a Clean Library
- Start with the Web: It is 10x faster than the mobile app for bulk management.
- Use Search Filters First: Before you try to select everything, search for "Screenshots" or "Blurry." Google’s AI is actually good at this. Select all the results of a "Screenshots" search and dump them. It thins the herd.
- The "Empty Trash" Final Step: Your storage quota won't update until the trash is actually emptied. If you’re doing this to save space, make sure you manually empty the bin.
- Identify the Big Fish: Search for "Videos." These take up 90% of your space. Selecting all videos and moving them to a physical drive is more effective than deleting 10,000 compressed JPEGs.
Managing a digital archive is a chore. But once you master the Shift-click and the drag-to-scroll, the "Select All" problem becomes a minor speed bump rather than a brick wall.