How to free up storage on iPhone

Everything below uses the tools built into iOS 26. They are free and they work. Where they get slow is the part that usually matters most, the photo library, and that is where PrunePic comes in at the end.

Check what is using your storage first

Open Settings, tap General, then iPhone Storage. The bar at the top takes a few seconds to load, then shows your storage split by category: apps, photos, media, Messages, iOS and System Data. Below it you see recommendations and a list of apps sorted by how much space each one uses, including its documents and data.

Two things to look for:

• The top three items in the list. On most phones these are Photos, Messages and one or two apps that cache a lot, such as a podcast or streaming app with downloads.
• The recommendations. iOS suggests actions based on what is on your phone, such as turning on Offload Unused Apps. Tap Show All to see every suggestion.

If Photos is at the top, that is your biggest win, and it is the one the rest of this guide spends the most time on.

The biggest wins, in order

1. Delete long videos

A photo usually takes a few megabytes. Apple’s camera settings put a minute of 1080p video at 30 fps at about 60 MB and a minute of 4K at 30 fps at about 170 MB, so a single ten-minute clip can weigh as much as hundreds of photos. Open Photos, tap Collections, scroll to Media Types and open Videos to see only your clips.

The Photos app cannot sort videos by size, which makes the big ones hard to find. Our guide to finding large videos on iPhone covers the workarounds.

2. Empty Recently Deleted

Everything you delete in Photos goes to Recently Deleted and stays there for 30 days. During that time it still takes up space on your iPhone. To get the space back now:

1. In Photos, tap Collections, then tap Recently Deleted below Utilities.
2. Tap View Album and unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
3. Tap Select, choose the items, tap the More button, then tap Delete.

Items deleted from here are gone for good, so check before you confirm.

3. Clear Messages attachments

Photos and videos in busy group chats add up. Open a conversation, tap the name or picture at the top, then tap Photos. Tap Edit, choose Select Photos, pick the attachments you no longer need and delete them. Repeat for your busiest chats.

To stop the pile from growing, go to Settings > Apps > Messages > Keep Messages and choose 30 Days or 1 Year. Be careful: this deletes whole conversations older than that, attachments included.

4. Offload apps you do not use

Go to Settings > Apps > App Store and turn on Offload Unused Apps. When storage runs low, iPhone removes apps you have not used recently but keeps their documents and data, so nothing is lost when you reinstall. You can also offload or delete a single app by tapping it in the iPhone Storage list.

5. Remove downloaded shows and files

Episodes and films downloaded for offline viewing in the TV app and other streaming apps are easy to forget. Remove the ones you have watched. In the Files app, check On My iPhone and your Downloads folder for large files you no longer need.

6. Let iCloud keep the originals

If you use iCloud Photos, check that Optimize iPhone Storage is selected in Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos. Your full-resolution originals stay in iCloud and your iPhone keeps smaller versions, downloading the original when you open it. It is on by default, but many people switch to Download and Keep Originals at some point and forget. This only works if your iCloud plan can hold your whole library; if it cannot, see what to do when iCloud storage is full.

What the built-in tools miss

The settings above are quick. The photo library is not, and it is usually the biggest category.

• No sort by size. Photos can filter your library to videos, but it cannot list them biggest first.
• Thumbnails hide the differences. Choosing between six similar shots in a grid of tiny squares is slow, so most people give up and keep all six.
• It is easy to lose your place. Select mode has no memory. Stop halfway through a few thousand photos and you start again tomorrow from the top.
• Duplicates only catches copies. The built-in Duplicates album finds exact copies and near-exact versions, not the five almost identical shots you took of the same sunset. Our guide on deleting duplicate photos shows what it does and does not catch.

Clean up your photos faster with PrunePic

PrunePic shows your library one photo or video at a time, full screen. Swipe left to delete, up to keep, right to add to Favorites. It remembers every decision, so you can stop after five minutes and pick up exactly where you left off.

A few things make it suited to freeing space:

• Videos mode, longest first. Videos mode shows only your clips and screen recordings and can sort them longest first. You can set each card to show its file size or duration in the corner, so you see what each swipe is worth.
• Screenshots mode. Screenshots are the easiest category to clear, and this mode puts nothing else in your feed. Our guide to deleting all your screenshots covers the built-in way too.
• Nothing is deleted on a swipe. Everything you swipe left waits in the PrunePic Trash until you empty it, and then sits in Recently Deleted for 30 days like any other deletion.

Your photos never leave your device: PrunePic works through Apple’s Photos framework on your iPhone.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting Recently Deleted. Deleting 5 GB of videos frees nothing for 30 days unless you empty Recently Deleted too.
• Expecting deletions to stay on the iPhone. With iCloud Photos on, deleting a photo on your iPhone deletes it everywhere. If you want to keep a copy in iCloud, read how to delete photos from your iPhone but not iCloud first.
• Chasing System Data. It is mostly caches iOS manages on its own. Clear photos, videos and Messages first; that is where the space is.
• Setting Keep Messages without thinking. It removes old conversations, not only attachments. Save any photos you want from them first.

The bottom line

Check iPhone Storage, start with the biggest category and finish by emptying Recently Deleted. For most people that means videos and Messages first, then offloading unused apps. If the photo library is the problem and you keep putting it off, a few minutes a day of swiping gets through it without a marathon session. If your iPhone is already full and blocking you, start with our iPhone storage full checklist.