Auto-delete original photos after sticker import

Last updated 2026-05-20 · iOS 16+

Heavy meme users hit the same wall: after a few months of saving funny screenshots to Photos so a sticker app can find them, the camera roll is a junk drawer. Family photos sit between cropped Twitter reactions and out-of-context screenshots of reaction GIFs. MemePouch's optional Auto-delete originals after importsetting fixes this by deleting each meme from Photos the moment it's safely a sticker.

Why it exists

Stickers are the destination, not the source. Once a meme is a sticker in MemePouch's library, the original photo has served its purpose — keeping it in Photos is pure clutter unless you have a separate reason to. The setting is off by default (we don't want to surprise anyone), but for users who've already invested in a 50–200 sticker library, it's usually the first thing they enable.

How to enable it

Open MemePouch → tap the gear icon → flip Auto-delete originals after import on. The next time you import via the PhotosPicker, iOS shows a confirmation sheet asking permission to delete the source photo(s). Tap Delete and the originals move to Recently Deleted.

It's a soft delete — Recently Deleted holds 30 days

MemePouch uses the standard PHAssetChangeRequest.deleteAssets API. Photos are nothard-deleted — they go to Photos → Albums → Recently Deleted and stay there 30 days. Changed your mind? Open Recently Deleted, tap Recover, the photo's back in your library. This is the same behavior as deleting a photo from Photos manually. It is impossible for MemePouch (or any third-party app) to bypass that grace period.

What it deletes, what it doesn't

Only photos that came through the PhotosPicker(the "Import from Photos" / "Turn a Live Photo into a GIF" / "Turn a video into a GIF" flows) are eligible. The reason: MemePouch only has a delete handle for assets it pulled from Photos. Images you brought in via clipboard paste, the Share Sheet, drag-and-drop from another app, or drag-import from iMessage were never in Photos to begin with— there's nothing to delete.

Assets you don't own — typically iCloud Shared Library items added by someone else — are correctly skipped by iOS's permission layer; you'll see a "no permission" toast and the original is untouched.

The toast feedback after every import

After each import you get a toast saying what happened to the source: deleted (you confirmed), cancelled (you tapped Don't Allow on the iOS prompt), no permission (the asset wasn't deletable), or off(the setting isn't enabled). No silent behavior — you always know exactly what state your Photos library is in.

iCloud Photos

If iCloud Photos is on, the delete propagates to all your Apple devices and to iCloud itself. Apple's own 30-day grace period covers the iCloud copy too — the photo stays in Recently Deleted on every device until that window closes.