How to free up iPhone storage taken up by photos

"iPhone Storage Full" is almost always a photos problem. Here's how to see what's taking the space, and clear it without losing the shots you care about.

See what's using your storage

Open Settings → General → iPhone Storage. Wait a moment for the bar to fill in, then look at Photos. If it's the biggest slice, you're in the right place.

Turn on Optimise iPhone Storage

If you use iCloud Photos, the Optimise iPhone Storage option in the Photos settings keeps full-resolution originals in iCloud and smaller versions on your phone. It can free a lot of space without deleting anything. The catch is that your iCloud plan needs room for the whole library.

Go after the big files first

• Videos are the heavyweights. A minute of 4K video can be hundreds of megabytes.
• Screen recordings are often long, and rarely watched twice.
• Bursts and Live Photos quietly multiply what a single shot costs.

Clearing a handful of long videos often frees more than deleting a thousand photos.

Then clear the clutter

Screenshots, blurry shots and the twelve versions of the same sunset add up. Going through them one at a time, keeping the best and binning the rest, is the most reliable way to shrink a library without regret.

Don't forget Recently Deleted

Deleted photos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days and still use storage. Once you're sure, empty it to get the space back straight away.

▸ Sift

Sift shows your photos one at a time: swipe right to keep, left to bin. Nothing's deleted until you confirm, and it's free for 20 decisions a day.

Last updated October 10, 2026