How to free up storage on iPhone without losing photos

The "iPhone Storage Almost Full" warning usually arrives at the worst moment, and the obvious fix, deleting photos, is the one nobody wants. The good news is that most of the space on a full iPhone is not taken up by photos you care about. It is taken up by videos, duplicates, screenshots and files that were already deleted but have not left the phone yet. This guide goes through the steps in the order that frees the most space for the least risk.

1. See what is using the space

Open Settings > General > iPhone Storage. After a few seconds you get a coloured bar and a list of apps sorted by size. Photos is often at or near the top, but check the others too. A messaging app with years of shared media, or a streaming app with downloads, can be several gigabytes on its own.

The same screen may show recommendations, such as reviewing large attachments or your own videos. They are safe to open and look at. Nothing is removed until you choose it.

2. Back up before you clean

You are far less likely to lose a photo if a second copy exists. Any of these works:

• iCloud Photos keeps your library in iCloud and in sync across your devices.
• A computer. Connect the iPhone with a cable and import through the Photos app on a Mac or on a Windows PC.
• Another cloud service you already use for photo backup.

One thing to know: iCloud Photos is a sync, not an archive. If you delete a photo on your iPhone while iCloud Photos is on, it is deleted from iCloud and from your other devices as well.

3. Turn on Optimize iPhone Storage

If you use iCloud Photos, this one setting can recover a large share of your photo storage without deleting anything. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos and choose Optimize iPhone Storage. The full-resolution originals stay in iCloud and the phone keeps smaller versions, downloading the original when you open or edit a photo.

It needs enough iCloud storage to hold your library, and it works gradually, so give it time on Wi-Fi and power.

4. Merge exact duplicates

On iOS 16 and later, Photos detects duplicate photos and videos and lists them in a Duplicates album under Utilities. Tap Merge and the iPhone keeps the best-quality version, combines details such as captions and favourites, and moves the others to Recently Deleted. You lose nothing you would notice. Our guide to deleting duplicate photos on iPhone covers this step in detail.

5. Shrink your videos instead of deleting them

Video is usually where the real space is. A minute of 4K footage takes several times the space of a minute of 1080p, and a handful of long clips can outweigh thousands of photos.

For videos you record from now on, open Settings > Camera > Record Video and pick a lower resolution or frame rate. The screen shows roughly how much space each option uses per minute. Under Settings > Camera > Formats, High Efficiency also keeps new files smaller.

For videos you already have, the Photos app has no compress button. A compression tool can save a video again at a smaller size, so you keep the video and lose the weight. Cleanup does this: choose low, medium or high compression and it shows the size before and after. See how to compress large videos for the full walkthrough.

6. Clear screenshots and screen recordings

In Photos, scroll to Media Types and open Screenshots and Screen Recordings. Most of these were only needed for a day. Tap Select, drag across the ones you no longer need, and delete them. These are not the photos you were worried about losing.

7. Sort the rest a little at a time

After those steps, what is left is the ordinary camera roll: several near-identical takes of the same scene, blurry shots, photos of receipts. Going through it in one sitting is unrealistic, so take one month at a time.

You can do this in Photos by scrolling to a month and selecting as you go. A swipe photo cleaner makes it quicker. In Cleanup you pick a month, swipe right to keep and left to delete, and review what you marked before anything is removed. Our plan for cleaning your camera roll in 10 minutes a day turns this into a routine.

8. Empty Recently Deleted

Deleted photos and videos move to the Recently Deleted album and stay there for up to 30 days. Until then they still take up space. In Photos, open Recently Deleted under Utilities, unlock it, and delete the items permanently.

Do this last, and only when you are sure. It is the one step in this guide that cannot be undone, and it is also the step that makes the free space actually appear.

A quick checklist

1. Check Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
2. Make sure a backup exists.
3. Turn on Optimize iPhone Storage if you use iCloud Photos.
4. Merge duplicates.
5. Compress large videos, or record new ones at a lower quality.
6. Delete screenshots and screen recordings.
7. Work through the rest month by month.
8. Empty Recently Deleted.

Done in that order, you can free up storage on your iPhone and still have every photo you wanted to keep.

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