With high-resolution photos and console-quality games, your iPhone storage fills up in no time. Even with a 128 GB model things can become out of hands fast. And if y'all're using a 32 or 64 GB iPhone, chances are you'll come across that pesky "Storage Most Full" alarm much sooner.

Luckily, there are lots of things yous can do to articulate storage on iPhone, both manual and app-powered, and then allow'south accept a look.

What you'll demand:

  • Your iPhone
  • A photograph cleaner app Gemini Photos
  • Your Mac
  • A macOS cleaner app CleanMyMac X
  • Internet connection

Why is my iPhone storage full?

Your iPhone may be full of things you don't actually need. Since they take up a lot of valuable infinite, it's important to detect out what they actually are. Here'south how to check and manage storage on your iPhone:

  1. Get to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
  2. At the acme, you'll come across a colour-coded bar showing how much space you have left, how much is taken up, and what's taking information technology upwards. The biggest categories are ordinarily Photos and Apps, but that depends on your usage.
  3. Beneath there is a list of your apps sorted past how much space they have. You lot can tap on each app to run into how much of that infinite is the app itself, and how much of information technology is the app's Documents and Data.

Depending on how you use your iPhone, you might have a huge and bloated Photos app, bursting with photos and videos. Or information technology might be games and social media apps that are hoarding the most storage. Beneath are five easy steps you tin follow to free upwards storage on iPhone regardless of your iPhone utilize.

How to clear storage on iPhone

Chances are, at that place's a lot of unneeded clutter on your iPhone. And that'due south actually good news. It ways you can free up a pregnant chunk of infinite without deleting the things you want to go on. Here's how to clear storage on iPhone, step past step:

  1. Make clean upwards your photo library
  2. Clear browser cache
  3. Clear app cache and other app data
  4. Delete attachments in Messages
  5. Delete offline content

Footstep i. Clean up your photograph library

If y'all've checked iPhone storage similar we suggested above, yous already know who the main space hogger is (looking at you, Photos). Of grade, wiping your whole photo library clean is not an option, only there's probably stuff you can get rid of:

  • duplicate photos, like those y'all downloaded twice
  • similar shots (like the five selfies you took then you can choice a skillful ane)
  • photos of whiteboards, notes, checks, and things like that
  • screenshots you don't need anymore
  • large videos yous don't similar

Yous tin go through your library and weed out these photos and videos manually, but a quicker and more convenient alternative is an iPhone app like Gemini Photos. Hither'southward how to free upwardly storage on iPhone with information technology:

  1. Download Gemini Photos and launch it. Information technology will automatically kickoff scanning your library.
  2. Get to Notes, Blurred, and Screenshots. This is where yous'll meet screenshots, photos of text, and other useless stuff. All photos volition be pre-selected, but yous can deselect the ones you still need.
  3. Tap Delete All.
  4. Go to Similar. Sets of similar photos volition exist grouped and pre-selected, with the best photo in each set remaining.
  5. Review a set, select other photos if yous want to, and tap Move to Trash to trash selected photos.
  6. When you're done reviewing sets of similar photos, tap Empty Trash.
  7. Go through Duplicates, Videos, and Other to sort out the remainder of your photo library.
  8. Finally, become to the Photos app, and roll down to Recently Deleted.
  9. Tap Select, and then Delete All.

Later a cleanup like this your library volition shrink past a few gigabytes and become fashion easier to navigate.

Step two. Clear browser cache

If yous often utilise your iPhone to browse the web in Safari or Chrome, keep in mind that your telephone may be storing caches and other data that you don't need. And you'd exist surprised how much space y'all can free up just by immigration your browser cache.

Here's how to clear Safari cache:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Observe Safari.
  3. Choose Articulate History and Website Data.

If you utilise Chrome, follow these steps to clear its enshroud:

  1. Open Google Chrome on your iPhone.
  2. Tap Options > Settings.
  3. Scroll down and tap Privacy.
  4. Tap Clear Browsing Data.
  5. Choose which browsing data you want to articulate (browsing history, cookies, cached images and files) and tap Clear Browsing Information.

Step 3. Articulate app cache and other app data

Unlike browsers, most apps don't give you access to their cache and other information they store, such equally login data. And if you tap on each app at the tiptop of that list in iPhone Storage, you lot'll notice information technology has several gigabytes of and so-chosen Documents and Data. Here'southward how you clear that app data to become more iPhone storage:

  1. Before you start, brand sure you lot remember your logins to various apps or have them saved somewhere.
  2. In Settings > General > iPhone Storage, tap on an app at the pinnacle of the list. This will often be a social media app like Facebook or Snapchat, a messenger, or a content app similar YouTube or Spotify.
  3. Tap Delete App.
  4. Get to the App Store and reinstall the app.

Yup, unfortunately, this is the only manner to articulate enshroud and other app information for the bulk of apps.

Pace 4. Delete attachments in Messages

Texting isn't just about text, right? You're sending and receiving memes, GIFs, selfies, little videos of your cat falling off the couch in her slumber. All that content is stored on your iPhone even if you don't save information technology to Photos, and if you text a lot it apace adds up.

Here's how to delete all your attachments in Messages to clear some iPhone memory:

  1. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
  2. Scroll down and tap on Messages.
  3. You'll see a listing: Meridian Conversations, Photos, GIFs and Stickers, and Other. Tap on the category that occupies the most space. Proceed in mind that in Top Conversations, you'll be deleting entire threads, not just the attachments. If you don't want to do that, stick to Photos and other content.
  4. Tap Edit in the upper-right corner.
  5. Marking all attachments you lot desire to delete.
  6. Tap the Trash icon.

That's it! Infinite-hogging attachments are gone.

Step 5. Delete offline content

You probably consume a lot of content every day — music, videos, podcasts and what non. And if you salve that content offline to exist able to play information technology on the subway or during a long flight, y'all have quite a lot of leftovers piled up.

As a issue, apps like YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify tin take up several gigabytes of iPhone storage each. And so why waste matter space on those Stranger Things episodes you downloaded back in 2022 and a long-forgotten playlist you never listen to anymore?

Let's start with Netflix. Here's how to delete Netflix movies and serial you lot saved onto your iPhone:

  1. Open the Netflix app.
  2. Get to Downloads.
  3. Tap on the pencil icon in the meridian right corner.
  4. Tap on the crimson X to delete the video.

Next upwards, YouTube. To delete offline YouTube videos, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the YouTube app.
  2. Become to Library > Downloads.
  3. Tap on the iii dots next to a downloaded video.
  4. Tap "Delete from downloads."
  5. Echo for each video.

Finally, to delete offline playlists or podcasts in Spotify, do the post-obit:

  1. Open Spotify.
  2. Go to Your Library > Music > Playlists.
  3. The playlists yous downloaded will be marked with a greenish arrow. Tap on a playlist similar that.
  4. Tap on the dark-green arrow icon below the proper noun of the playlist.
  5. When a confirmation popup appears, tap Remove.
  6. Echo for podcasts, if you have any saved offline.

You should too rummage around in Podcasts, Apple tree Music, and other entertainment apps you're using. One time you've cleaned up all the offline content y'all don't demand anymore, y'all'll see how much iPhone retention yous've managed to recover.

How to prevent iPhone storage from getting full again

Just similar your cupboard, iPhone storage will get full again, and you will have to go through the steps above every once in a while. Just there are things you can practise to manage your oh-so-express storage more wisely and not have to do that major cleanup quite equally often.

Store photos and videos elsewhere

Even later on you lot've trimmed some fat off your library, chances are Photos still hogs a lot of iPhone space. What to do? Transfer your photos and videos to your computer or to the cloud

If you have a Mac, the easiest way is to connect your iPhone and sync all media files to the Mac. Then you can delete the originals from your phone.

Note that when yous sync photos with your Phone, some of them stay cached on your Mac. This cache occupies space on your disk after the sync is done, so it's better to clean it up. A utility like CleanMyMac X is an like shooting fish in a barrel way to clear iOS photo cache (and information technology'southward free to download). In just two clicks yous'll remove all the junk files from your Mac.

Alternatively, yous tin can upload your iPhone photos to an online storage like iCloud. Information technology's pretty convenient, because iCloud Photos automatically syncs every photo and video you have to the deject, and so you tin admission your library from whatsoever device, as long every bit it has internet connection. You do have to pay for iCloud storage, though, because the complimentary 5 GB won't be enough for your whole photo library.

Hither's how to upload photos to iCloud:

  1. Sign in to your iCloud.com account. It'south the same every bit your Apple ID.
  2. Become to Settings on your device and select Photos.
  3. Turn on iCloud Photos.

Now your photos are automatically synced to iCloud, which means they'll be taking up space in iCloud, not on your iPhone.

Disable saving duplicate photos when shooting in HDR

On iPhones that don't have Smart HDR, when y'all have photos in HDR, your iPhone saves two shots: the original picture and the processed i. You volition save a lot of iPhone storage if yous disable saving these duplicates. Just do the following:

  1. Go to Settings and select Camera.
  2. Disable Go along Normal Photo.

From at present, just the HDR versions of your photos will exist saved. That said, the previous HDR and not-HDR copies of your photos will remain, and so do run your photo library through Gemini Photos to observe those similar shots.

Stop storing messages forever

By default, your iPhone stores all the messages you send and receive … forever. This is user-friendly if you want to read your 2-years-erstwhile conversations, only not so convenient when you run out of storage considering your blood brother sends you fifteen memes every unmarried solar day.

To end your phone from saving letters forever, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings and tap Messages.
  2. Curlicue down to Message History and tap Keep Messages.
  3. Change Forever to 30 days or i twelvemonth.
  4. Y'all'll run across a pop-upwardly bulletin asking if you want to delete older messages, tap Delete to proceed.

Bonus tip to assistance you make clean iPhone storage

In iOS 11 and subsequently, Apple brings storage management tools to your device. This means that you lot get unique storage saving suggestions based on your iPhone. They include things like Reviewing Big Attachments and Conversations, Offloading Unused Apps, Saving Letters to iCloud, and others. Therefore, if y'all're running iOS 11 or later, become to iPhone Storage and check out the recommendations.

We hope you found our troubleshooting guide helpful in tackling that abrasive "Storage Most Total" bulletin. Enjoy taking new photos and never have to worry about lack of iPhone storage again.