How to free up storage on iPhone without losing what matters

The quickest way to free up storage on iPhone is to open Settings > General > iPhone Storage, follow the recommendations at the top, and offload the apps you have not opened in months. After that, the biggest wins are usually old videos, Messages attachments, and the Recently Deleted album in Photos, which still takes up space until you empty it. This guide goes through each area in order, with the exact path for every step.

The paths below use the layout from iOS 18 onward, including iOS 26, where the settings for Apple's own apps sit under Settings > Apps. If a menu looks different on your phone, type its name into the search bar at the top of Settings.

Start here: see what is using space

Before deleting anything, find out where the space actually went. Guessing usually means deleting photos when the real problem is a single app's downloads.

1. Open Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
2. Wait a few seconds. The coloured bar at the top fills in as the phone calculates each category (Apps, Photos, Media, Messages, Mail, iCloud Drive and so on).
3. Read the recommendations below the bar. Tap Show All to see every one. Tap Enable to turn a recommendation on, or tap the recommendation itself to review what it would remove.
4. Scroll down to the list of apps, sorted by size. Tap any app to see how much is the app itself and how much is its documents and data.

Offload apps you do not use

Offloading removes an app but keeps its documents and data. The icon stays on your Home Screen with a small cloud symbol, and tapping it downloads the app again with everything where you left it. It is the safest way to reclaim space from apps you open twice a year, such as an airline app or a game you finished.

To offload one app:

1. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
2. Tap the app.
3. Tap Offload App, then confirm.

Delete App on the same screen removes the app and its data. Use that only when you are sure you do not need anything stored inside it.

To let the iPhone do this automatically when space runs low, turn on Settings > Apps > App Store > Offload Unused Apps. The same switch often appears as a recommendation at the top of iPhone Storage.

Offloading only helps when the app itself is large. If most of an app's space is "Documents & Data", offloading frees very little. The section on caches below covers those apps.

Clean up Messages

Years of photos, videos and voice notes in Messages can quietly grow into one of the largest categories on the phone.

Stop keeping messages forever

By default, iPhone keeps every conversation. Go to Settings > Apps > Messages > Keep Messages and choose 1 Year or 30 Days. Conversations older than that, including all their attachments, are deleted automatically.

Think before you switch this on. It removes old conversations for good, so save any photos or messages you want to keep first.

Delete large attachments

To review attachments across all conversations at once, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Messages. The categories there, such as photos and videos, show how much space each type uses and list the attachments inside. Swipe left on an item to delete it, or tap Edit to select several.

To clean up one conversation, open it and tap the contact or group name at the top. On iOS 26, tap Photos, then Edit and Select Photos, choose the items and tap Delete. On iOS 18 and earlier, tap See All instead of Photos, then Edit and Select.

Deleted messages and attachments stay in a Recently Deleted folder in Messages for up to 30 days, and you can delete them from there sooner if you need the space now.

Clean up Photos and videos

Photos is the largest category on most phones. A few settings and two albums make a big difference.

Turn on Optimize iPhone Storage

If you use iCloud Photos, the iPhone can keep full-resolution originals in iCloud and smaller versions on the phone, downloading the original when you open a photo.

1. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos.
2. Make sure Sync this iPhone is on.
3. Choose Optimize iPhone Storage.

This needs enough iCloud storage to hold your whole library. The free plan includes 5 GB, which fills up quickly with photos, so this setting usually goes together with an iCloud+ plan.

Empty Recently Deleted

Deleted photos and videos stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days before they are removed for good. Until then, they still use space on the phone.

1. Open Photos and tap Collections (on iOS 26).
2. Swipe up and tap Recently Deleted under Utilities. Open it with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
3. Tap Select, choose the items, then tap the More button and choose Delete.

This cannot be undone. With iCloud Photos on, deleting a photo anywhere removes it from iCloud and your other devices too, so copy anything you want to keep to a computer first.

Merge duplicates and review videos

In Photos > Collections > Utilities, the Duplicates album groups exact copies and near-identical shots. Tap Merge to keep the best version of each set.

Videos take far more space per minute than photos. Under Media Types in Collections, open Videos and look for long recordings you no longer need: school concerts filmed in full, accidental pocket recordings, screen recordings you made once to show someone a bug.

Record smaller files from now on

Settings > Camera > Record Video shows roughly how much space a minute of video takes at each resolution and frame rate. 4K at 60 fps uses much more than 1080p at 30 fps, so pick the lowest setting you are happy with for everyday clips. Under Settings > Camera > Formats, High Efficiency saves photos and videos in a format that takes less space than Most Compatible.

Remove downloaded music, podcasts and videos

Downloads for offline listening and watching are easy to forget, because you never see them in Files or Photos.

Music. Settings > Apps > Music > Optimize Storage removes downloaded songs you have not played in a while when space runs low. Settings > Apps > Music > Downloaded Music shows what is stored on the phone. Tap Edit to delete everything or specific artists. The songs stay in your library and can be streamed or downloaded again.

Podcasts. Turn on Settings > Apps > Podcasts > Remove Played Downloads so finished episodes delete themselves. To clear everything at once, open the Podcasts app, go to Library > Downloaded, tap the More button and choose Remove All Downloads.

Films and series. Streaming apps keep downloads inside the app. Open each app's downloads section and remove anything you have already watched. In Settings > General > iPhone Storage, a streaming app with a large "Documents & Data" figure is usually the sign.

Files. Safari downloads and other saved files often end up in the Files app. Open Files > Browse > On My iPhone > Downloads and remove old PDFs, installers and zip files.

Clear browser and app caches

Caches are temporary files that help apps and websites load faster. iOS removes many of them by itself when space gets low, so clearing them by hand is mainly worth it for a browser you use heavily or an app that has grown very large.

Safari. Settings > Apps > Safari > Clear History and Website Data removes history, cookies and cached data. You will be signed out of websites, and history is cleared on other devices signed in to the same Apple Account with Safari syncing. For a gentler option, go to Settings > Apps > Safari > Advanced > Website Data to see which sites store the most, and swipe left to remove individual ones.

Chrome. In the Chrome app, open Settings > Privacy and security > Delete browsing data, choose a time range and what to delete.

Messaging and social apps. Apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram store media separately from Messages and often have their own storage manager. In WhatsApp, Settings > Storage and Data > Manage Storage lists the largest chats and files.

Apps with no clear-cache option. Deleting the app and installing it again removes its cached data. Only do this when the app's content lives in an online account, such as a streaming or social app. For apps that keep your data only on the phone, deleting removes that data too.

What System Data is

Near the bottom of iPhone Storage you will see the space used by iOS and a category labelled System Data (Apple's support pages also call it Other). There is no button to clear it.

Apple describes it as items that cannot be removed directly: things like Siri voices, fonts, dictionaries, logs, caches, the Spotlight search index, and system data such as the Keychain and CloudKit database.

A few honest points about it:

• The size goes up and down on its own. iOS removes cached files when it needs the space, so it often shrinks after you free space elsewhere.
• No setting targets it directly. Freeing space in the other categories gives iOS room to manage it.
• Apps and websites that promise to "clean" System Data cannot reach it, because iOS does not let other apps access system files.

If System Data stays very large for weeks and nothing else helps, some people back up the iPhone, erase it and restore from the backup. It is slow and only worth trying as a last resort, after making sure the backup has finished.

When iCloud is the better answer

A phone with years of photos may simply need more space somewhere else. Two things to know before paying for more iCloud storage:

• iCloud Backup does not free space on the iPhone. A backup is a copy. Your photos stay on the phone unless you also use iCloud Photos with Optimize iPhone Storage.
• iCloud storage is shared across your backups, photos, Messages in iCloud, iCloud Drive and mail. The free plan includes 5 GB, and iCloud+ plans add more.

To see what is using your iCloud space, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud. Recommended for You on that screen suggests large files and old backups you may no longer need. Under Storage (or Manage Account Storage) > Backups, you can choose which apps are included in your iPhone backup and delete backups from devices you no longer own.

If you want a reminder to repeat this clean-up, a personal automation can nudge you once a month. Our guide to iPhone Shortcuts automations shows how to set one up, and the list of hidden iPhone features covers other settings worth knowing about.

Common questions

Does offloading an app delete my data?

No. Offloading removes the app itself and keeps its documents and data on the phone. Tap the icon to reinstall it, as long as the app is still available in the App Store. Deleting an app is different and removes its data too.

Why is my storage still full after deleting photos?

Deleted photos sit in Recently Deleted for 30 days and still use space. Open Photos > Collections > Recently Deleted and delete them from there. The storage bar may also take a little time to update.

How much free space should I keep?

Apple does not publish a fixed figure. Leaving some room helps the phone run smoothly and lets iOS updates download and install. When you start an update, the iPhone tells you if it needs more space.

Will turning on iCloud Backup free up space?

No. A backup is a copy kept in iCloud, and your files stay on the phone. To move photos off the phone, use iCloud Photos with Optimize iPhone Storage, or copy them to a computer and then delete them from the phone.