These days, your iPhone is basic for everything, from work tasks to raising a child. It’s your video nanny, your go-to for educational and entertaining videos, and your local call line, all in one.
But if you don’t keep an eye on all the data piling up, it can get cluttered fast, and your phone could slow down. To stop that (or fix it if it’s already happened), you need to free up your iPhone’s storage.
But how do you manage that when you barely have time between work and parenting, let alone for iPhone cleanup? Trust us, it’s easier than you think. With the right strategy, this task only takes a few minutes. In this guide, we’ll show you how to free up your iPhone’s storage without skipping a single task on your packed schedule.
Step 1: Check your iPhone Storage
To make your iPhone cleanup as quick as possible, start by checking which content category is using the most space, and tackle that first. For instance, you don’t want to spend time deleting apps that only take up 10 GB when photos are hogging 90 GB.
- Tap the Settings icon on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap General.
- Next, tap iPhone Storage. It might take a few seconds to load while your phone calculates the data.
- Once it loads, you’ll see a color-coded graph at the top showing how your storage is being used.
- Below that, there’s a list showing exactly how much space each content category is taking up. This section updates in real-time, so you always see the most current info.
Step 2: Clean Up the Most Space-Consuming Category in Your iPhone Storage
Now that you know what type of files is the largest in your iPhone storage, it’s time to review the items that correspond to this category and delete the ones that are no longer needed. We have prepared a step-by-step guide for most categories, so just choose the method that you need. If you want to free up even more space later, you can always come back and try the other methods when you have a bit more time.
Just a heads-up – we won’t be covering how to manage System Data or iOS storage. Those areas aren’t really user-accessible, and your iPhone handles them on its own.
2.1 Photos
What’s in this category: photos and videos saved in your Photos app, whether you took them yourself or they came from other sources like messaging apps, photo editors, or downloads.
We’re not going to suggest deleting everything manually because, let’s be honest, that takes way more time than most people have – scrolling through all your media, deciding what to keep and delete. Instead, a smarter move is to use iPhone cleaner apps that speed up the cleanup and do half the work for you.
If you’re unsure which app to pick from the hundreds in the App Store, we recommend giving Clever Cleaner: AI CleanUp App a try. It’s totally free and helps you clean up your photo and video library without risking the loss of important files.
Let’s start with Heavies feature, which targets large videos and photos. We’ll cover the rest of the app’s features a little later.
- Install the free Clever Cleaner app from the App Store on your iPhone.
- Open the app and grant it full access to your Photos app.
- By default, the app opens to the Similars tab. To continue, tap on the last option in the bottom menu called Heavies. This feature shows all videos and photos larger than 25MB.
- Scroll through the list and tap on any photo or video you want to delete. The layout will switch to a horizontal scroll view.
- You can select more files by scrolling or tap Select All at the top if you want to remove everything shown.
- Once you’ve made your selection, tap the red Move to Trash button in the center.
- The files will move to the app’s trash folder. You can review or restore them if needed. To open its area, tap the message that appears at the bottom of the screen (don’t tap Empty Trash right away – it will skip the review and delete the selected items).
- Drag the red slider to delete, then tap Delete in the confirmation window.
- The files will move to your Recently Deleted album in the Photos app and stay there for 30 days unless you clear the album manually. The app will show you how to do that if you want to free up space immediately.
When you tap on Heavies in the bottom toolbar, you’ll probably notice three other features listed before it. Similars helps you quickly find and remove both duplicate and similar-looking photos. Screenshots mirrors the Screenshots album from your Photos app and lets you delete all of them at once or just a few. Lives compresses your Live Photos into common still images to save space. We recommend using all of these features one by one to free up as much storage as possible, but of course, how many you use depends on how much time you’ve got.
Alternatively, (if you’re not ready to delete your photos or videos), you can enable Optimize iPhone Storage instead. This option uploads your full-resolution media to iCloud and keeps smaller, space-saving versions on your device. Just go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos and tap Optimize iPhone Storage. Just keep in mind that iCloud only gives you 5GB for free. If you need more space, you’ll need to upgrade to an iCloud+ plan.
2.2 Application
What’s in this category: both the apps installed on your iPhone and anything saved in the “On My iPhone” section of the Files app. It might seem a little odd to group those together, but that’s how Apple organizes it.
Unlike the Photos app, which has handy tools for quick cleanups, managing this category requires more hands-on work. You’ll need to delete files manually.
- Open the Files app on your iPhone.
- Tap Browse at the bottom, then select On My iPhone to see files saved directly to your device.
- Look through the folders and find what you want to remove. Swipe left on any file or folder and tap Delete.
- To permanently delete those files, go to Recently Deleted > tap Select > choose the files (or tap Select All) > then hit Delete again to confirm.
Regarding other apps, remember that each one takes up space both as an app and through the cache it builds over time. Some (mostly messengers and social media apps) have built-in cache-clearing options, but hunting for that in each app can be a hassle if you’re short on time. So, the quickest way is just to reinstall the apps you actually use and delete the ones you don’t.
- Go to your iPhone’s settings.
- Find and tap on General.
- This will show you a list of all apps and the amount of storage each one is using.
- Tap on the app whose storage you wish to manage. Here, you can see the app size and the documents and data it contains. Tap Delete App to remove it along with all its data.
- If you no longer need the app, you’re good to go. But if you plan to keep using it, you can reinstall it by heading to the App Store.
2.3 Media
What’s in this category: content from standard iPhone applications such as Music, Podcasts, Ringtone, and Voice Memos.
The steps to delete files can vary depending on the app, so we’ll use Podcasts as an example to show you the general process.
- Open the Podcasts app on your iPhone.
- Tap the Library tab at the bottom.
- Go to Downloaded to see all the episodes saved on your device.
- Tap the three dots in the top right corner.
- Select Remove All Downloads to clear them out in one go.
2.4 Messages and Mail
What’s in this category: logically encompasses letters and chats in the Mail and Messages apps, as well as any attachments contained within them (photos, videos, documents, etc.).
Since these two categories are pretty similar, we didn’t break them into separate steps. Sure, attachments usually take up more space than the messages themselves, but going through and deleting them one by one takes way too long, and let’s be real, you’ve got better things to do at home and work. The quickest move? Just clear out any messages or emails you don’t need in both apps.
Messages:
- Start the Messages app on your iPhone.
- Scroll through your conversations to identify any you no longer need.
- Swipe left on the conversation and tap “Delete” to remove it.
Just like in the Photos and Files apps, there’s a Recently Deleted folder here, too, and you’ll need to clear it out to free up space. Go to your main list of conversations > tap Edit > then choose Show Recently Deleted > tap Select, pick the messages you want to delete or tap Delete All to clear everything > then confirm by tapping Delete [number] Messages to permanently remove them from your iPhone.
Mail:
- Launch the Mail app on your iPhone.
- Browse through your inbox and other folders for emails you no longer need.
- Swipe left on an email and tap More > then tap Trash Message to move it to the trash.
- Go to Trash > Select > Select All > Delete to clear all deleted emails permanently.
Conclusion
Now you know how to quickly free up space on your iPhone without putting off everything else on your to-do list. Just a reminder – for basic cleanup, it’s usually enough to concentrate on the category taking up the most storage. You only need to go through the other categories if you want to clear out as much space as possible and if you’ve got the time.
Also, feel free to use these same steps on your kids’ phones, too, just make sure to check with them before deleting anything!
