iPhone storage full: How do I free up space?

DomMT

Rédactrice Web

02-17-2025

Is your iPhone indicating that the storage is full or that your device is almost at capacity? Find out which items take up the most storage space on an iPhone and check out our 5 practical solutions for freeing up valuable gigabytes.

Tip #1: Follow iPhone recommendations
Tip #2: Delete old text messages
Tip #3: Delete cached files
Tip #4: Move photos and videos to iCloud
Tip #5: Transfer your photos and videos to a computer

What takes up space on a mobile phone?

Mainly it’s photos, videos, music, podcasts, email attachments you’ve downloaded, text messages with attachments, as well as apps and their saved data.

Good to know
Some of the items that take up memory space cannot be deleted, such as the operating system, fonts, and Siri voices. That’s why there’s always a little bit of space taken up on your device, even when it’s brand new.

How to view your iPhone storage capacity

Open the Settings app.
Tap General.
Tap iPhone Storage.

Good to know
A given iPhone model can be sold with different storage capacities. For example, the iPhone 16 is available with 128 GB, 256 GB, or 512 GB of storage capacity.

Tip #1: Follow iPhone recommendations

Your device can suggest quick ways to clean up your stored files.

Open the Settings app.
Tap General.
Tap iPhone Storage.
Read the suggested recommendations to free up space, and tap Enable next to a recommendation to apply it.

What’s the difference between “offloading” and “deleting” an app?

Among the recommendations for freeing up space, your iPhone may suggest that you offload or delete some of the applications you don’t use very often. These two actions are slightly different:

Offloading: The app is removed from your device, but its associated data are kept.
Deleting: The app and all of its data are erased from your device.

Quick method for deleting apps

To quickly free up storage space on your iPhone, you can offload or delete apps you no longer use, directly from the phone’s home screen or from the App Library.

To delete an app:

Touch and hold the app.
Tap Delete App, then tap Delete to confirm.

Learn more about deleting an app from an iPhone.

Tip #2: Delete old text messages

Text messages that accumulate on your phone take up space, especially if they contain large attachments such as photos or videos. You can delete messages, entire conversations, or categories of attachments. Read the steps for deleting items from the Messages app.

Better yet, schedule automatic message deletion after a certain period of time, and you won’t have to tidy up later!

In Settings, go to Apps > Messages.
Scroll down to Message History and choose an option.

Tip #3: Delete cached files

An app’s cache is a memory that saves your usage data. It enables you to access certain content more quickly when you return to the app.

Your iPhone automatically clears the cache from apps when you’re running low on space. However, you have to clear the cache on your browsers, such as Safari and Chrome.

To clear the Safari cache:

Go to Settings > Safari.
Tap Clear History and Website Data.

Learn more about clearing the Safari cache on an iPhone.

To clear the Chrome cache:

In the Chrome app, tap More > Delete Browsing Data.
Select the time range and data you want to delete, then tap Confirm.
Tap Delete Browsing Data.

Learn more about clearing the Chrome cache on an iPhone.

Tip #4: Move photos and videos to iCloud

Apple offers free cloud storage. You can use it to save the original, high-resolution versions of your photos and videos. You’ll still keep a leaner version of your files on your phone.

First, make sure you turn on iCloud Photos:

In Settings > [Your Name], tap iCloud.
Tap Photos, then tap the switch next to Sync this iPhone.

Next, configure the optimization of your photo and video storage:

In Settings > [Your Name], tap iCloud.
Tap Photos, then choose Optimize iPhone Storage.

See the complete procedure for using iCloud Photos.

If necessary, you can take out a paid subscription to iCloud+ to get more cloud storage space.

Tip #5: Transfer your photos and videos to a computer

You can store photos and videos on your computer before deleting them from your iPhone to free up space. Note: If you have a Mac and are using iCloud Photos, your files are already automatically imported to your computer.

To perform the transfer, connect your iPhone to your computer with a USB cable. Then follow the Apple procedure for transferring files to a Mac or PC.