Dealing with screenshots – how to clear the clutter

Now I wouldn’t be a psychic to predict that your phone’s photo collection is riddled with heaps of screenshots – receipts, text correspondence, useful information, recipes, Facebook recommendations etc. The issue is dealing with screenshots so you can minimise the clutter PLUS make them easier to refer back to when needed. Here are our top tips on how to manage your screenshots effectively.

1. Clear the clutter – Delete / Hide / Archive them

To really clear out your library, you may decide to take the plunge and delete all historical screenshots with a few taps.

On an iPhone, all you do is navigate to the Screenshot folder, “Select all” and delete them all. If that sounds too scary and drastic, another option is to instead “Hide” them. This way they are accessible in the screenshot folder but out of sight when you are scrolling through your photos – this makes a much cleaner viewing experience.

For Android/ Windows users, on Google Photos, then you can opt to “archive” all screenshots for similar results.

2. Clear the clutter AND create a reference library – Export them to Notes

Now a really cool way of dealing with screenshots is to export them to the Notes app on both iPhones and Android phones. Within the Notes, you have the option to file photos under different categories e.g. recipes, kids activities, receipts etc. This is such a cool way of managing screenshots to make them easy to reference back to.

What is especially cool is that the Notes app has the ability to scan and detect words in the photos so you can search for screenshots with certain content.

Check out a lesson from the Sort Your Photos Mac Masterplan (our flagship online training program which takes you step by step from chaos to organised) which shows you how to export photos to the Notes app. If you like what you see then consider signing up for the full program (there is a 14 day happiness guarantee so well worth checking it out).

3. Making screenshots (and other photos) easy to find

Now if you are taking a screenshot (or any other photo) and know you will want to refer back to it easily at some point, make a habit of taking the photo and immediately adding a label/ tag to the photo. On an iPhone, simply swipe up on the photo to add a caption and in Google photos, click on the 3 dots and add a description. In the future, you can simply search for your tag and the photo will be found in an instant.

4. Create good habits

Being organised is not easy and requires some good habits and routines to be established. We always recommend creating an ongoing maintenance plan for photo management. One tips for dealing with screenshots is to deal with them immediately to prevent them building up in your library. So make a habit of deleting after use, labelling if it’s important and exporting to Notes if you opt for that method.

Check out a sample lesson from our Sort Your Photos Master Your Mac online training program. If you need help managing, organising and protecting your photos, do get in touch.