How to Free Up Storage Space on Your iPhone

When your iPhone runs low on storage space, you may see a pop-up that says "iPhone Storage Full" or notice that your camera stops letting you take new photos. Apps may also start running slowly, and iOS updates may fail to install because there is not enough room.

Storage space is measured in gigabytes (GB). Photos and videos are the biggest storage users on most people's phones, followed by apps. A single minute of 4K video can take up 400 MB — nearly half a gigabyte. If you have years of photos stored directly on your phone, you can run out of space.

The good news: you can reclaim storage without deleting anything you care about, and without spending money on a new phone.

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Step 1: Check how much storage you are using — and where it is going

Before deleting anything, take a look at what is actually filling up your phone.

1. 1Open the **Settings** app (the gray icon with gears).
2. 2Tap **General**.
3. 3Tap **iPhone Storage**.

You will see a colorful horizontal bar at the top of the screen. Each color represents a category of storage:

• **Yellow/orange bar:** Photos
• **Blue bar:** Apps
• **Green bar:** System data and iOS
• **Gray bar:** "Other" (cached data, downloads, etc.)

Below the bar, you will see a list of your apps sorted by how much space they use — the biggest space users at the top. This tells you exactly where to focus your cleanup.

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Method 1: Delete apps you never use

Apps take up storage even when you never open them. If you see apps on your phone that you have not used in months, remove them.

1. 1**On your Home Screen:** Press and hold the app icon until a small menu appears. Tap **Remove App**, then tap **Delete App**. Confirm by tapping **Delete App** again.
2. 2**From the Storage list:** In Settings → General → iPhone Storage, tap any app in the list, then tap **Delete App**. This screen also shows when you last used the app — helpful for identifying apps worth removing.

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Method 2: Offload unused apps (removes the app but keeps your data)

"Offloading" an app deletes the app itself but keeps the documents and data associated with it on your phone. If you reinstall the app later, your data is still there.

1. 1Go to **Settings → General → iPhone Storage**.
2. 2Scroll down until you find the option **Enable** next to "Offload Unused Apps." Tap it to turn it on.

When this setting is on, iOS automatically offloads apps you have not opened in a long time. Offloaded apps show a small cloud icon on their Home Screen tile — tap them to re-download when needed.

You can also offload apps one at a time: in the Storage list, tap an app and then tap **Offload App**.

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Method 3: Clear out large message attachments

Every photo, video, and file that someone sends you in a text message is stored on your iPhone. If you text a lot, this can add up to gigabytes over time.

1. 1Open the **Messages** app.
2. 2Tap on a conversation with someone who sends you a lot of photos or videos.
3. 3Tap the person's name or number at the top of the conversation.
4. 4Tap the word **Photos** or the grid of images shown in the info panel to see all photos shared in that conversation.
5. 5To delete individual photos, tap and hold a photo, then tap **More** → select additional photos → tap the trash icon.

Alternatively, in Settings → General → iPhone Storage, scroll down and tap **Messages**. You will see categories like "Photos," "Videos," and "GIFs" with the total storage used. Tap any category to review and delete items.

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Method 4: Delete old photos and empty the Recently Deleted album

When you delete a photo in the Photos app, it does not disappear right away. It moves to an album called "Recently Deleted" and stays there for 30 days before being permanently removed. This means deleting photos does not free up space until you also empty that album.

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Method 5: Turn on iCloud Photos to store photos in the cloud

iCloud Photos is a service from Apple that automatically uploads all your photos and videos to Apple's servers (the cloud). Once uploaded, your phone can keep smaller, lower-file-size versions of the photos instead of the full originals — freeing up significant storage space.

1. 1Go to **Settings** and tap your name at the top.
2. 2Tap **iCloud**.
3. 3Tap **Photos**.
4. 4Turn on **iCloud Photos**.
5. 5Select **Optimize iPhone Storage**. This setting lets your phone keep smaller versions of your photos locally while the full originals remain safely stored in iCloud.

Your photos are still accessible any time — when you tap one to view it or edit it, the full version downloads automatically. You can also access all your photos on any Apple device signed into your Apple ID, and at icloud.com from any web browser.

What does iCloud Photos cost?

Apple gives you 5 GB of free iCloud storage. If you have thousands of photos and videos, that may not be enough. Additional storage plans cost: - **50 GB:** $0.99 per month - **200 GB:** $2.99 per month (can be shared with family) - **2 TB:** $9.99 per month

If your photos are precious to you, the $0.99 per month plan is a small price for both the backup protection and the freed-up phone storage.

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Method 6: Clear your Safari browser cache

Every time you visit a website in Safari, your phone stores a copy of parts of that page to help it load faster next time. Over time, this "cache" of saved web data can grow to hundreds of megabytes.

Clearing it removes that stored data — websites will load slightly slower the first time you visit them again. But they will still work normally.

1. 1Open **Settings**.
2. 2Scroll down and tap **Safari**.
3. 3Scroll down to the Privacy section and tap **Clear History and Website Data**.
4. 4Tap **Clear History and Data** to confirm.

This also clears your browsing history from Safari. It does not delete your bookmarks or saved passwords.

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How much space should you aim to keep free?

As a general guideline, try to keep at least 5–10% of your phone's total storage free at all times. On a 64 GB phone, that means keeping at least 3–6 GB free. When storage drops below that level, iOS starts slowing down because the operating system needs some free space to function properly.

After completing the steps above, go back to Settings → General → iPhone Storage and check the bar again. Most people free up several gigabytes just by emptying Recently Deleted, offloading unused apps, and turning on iCloud Photos.