See What's Filling Your iPhone Storage

Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to see exactly what's taking up space, then delete large apps or offload unused ones to free storage fast.

5 min read · 6 steps · Checked April 2026

1. Step 1. Open the iPhone Storage screen

   Open the Settings app (the gray icon with gears). Tap "General," then tap "iPhone Storage." Wait 10–20 seconds for the screen to load. It needs to calculate storage for every app. You'll see a colored bar at the top and a list of apps below it, sorted from largest to smallest.

2. Step 2. Look at the breakdown bar and recommendations

   The bar at the top shows how your total storage is divided by color: yellow for Photos, blue for Apps, purple for Media, and gray for other. Below the bar, iOS often shows "Recommendations" for freeing space — for example, "Auto Offload Unused Apps" or "Review Large Messages." Tap any recommendation to act on it right away.

3. Step 3. Delete or offload large apps

   Scroll through the app list and look for large items — especially games, video streaming apps with downloaded content, and photo/video editing apps. Tap an app to see options. "Offload App" removes the app file but keeps your data and settings (recommended for apps you might want again). "Delete App" removes both the app and its data completely.

   Quick Tip

   Games are often the safest to delete if you don't play them. They can be re-downloaded for free from the App Store. Your game progress may or may not be saved depending on whether the game uses cloud saves.

4. Step 4. Clear large message conversations

   On the iPhone Storage screen, scroll down to find "Messages" in the app list. Tap it to see a breakdown of message storage by category: "Top Conversations," "Photos," "Videos," and "GIFs & Stickers." Tap "Review Large Attachments" to see the largest individual items. Swipe left on any item to delete it, or tap "Edit" to select and delete multiple items at once.

   Quick Tip

   You can also delete an entire message thread. In the Messages app, swipe left on a conversation and tap "Delete" to remove it along with all its attachments.

5. Step 5. Turn on Offload Unused Apps

   Back on the iPhone Storage main screen, look for the "Offload Unused Apps" recommendation and tap "Enable" if it appears. This setting tells iOS to automatically remove apps you haven't used in a while when you're low on storage. The apps come back when you tap them. You can also enable this in Settings > App Store > scroll down to "Offload Unused Apps."

   Warning

   Some apps lose your local data if offloaded, even though the icon stays. Confirm any important data is backed up to the cloud (like your contacts, photos, and passwords) before relying on this feature.

6. Step 6. Check and manage your Photos storage

   If Photos is using the most storage, open Settings > Photos and look for "Optimize iPhone Storage." Turn this on. It keeps smaller, compressed versions of your photos on your iPhone and stores the full-resolution originals in iCloud. You'll need iCloud storage space for this to work, but your 5 GB of free iCloud space is often enough for hundreds of photos.

   Quick Tip

   To see exactly how much of your iCloud storage you're using, go to Settings > tap your name at the top > iCloud. The bar shows how much of your storage is used and by what.