Free up iPhone storage by removing large files

[wasabi]

Looking to delete large attachments on your iPhone? If your storage is filling up or your device feels slower because of bulky files in Messages, Mail, or other apps, clearing them out can make a big difference. This guide walks you through how to quickly locate and remove those files so your iPhone runs more smoothly.

Note: If you’d rather skip the manual steps, you can explore an alternative all-in-one cleaning method that removes saved attachments and other unnecessary files more quickly and with less effort.

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How to Find Large Attachments on iPhone

Large attachments can take up a significant amount of space, but deleting them can free up storage and improve performance. If you dismissed the iOS prompt to review these files and aren’t sure where to find them now, no problem—the option is still available in your storage settings. Here’s how to locate those space-hogging attachments and take control of your storage.

1. Open your iPhone’s Settings, go to General, and from there to iPhone Storage.

   

2. Wait for your iPhone to display a multi-colored graph of your storage usage. Below this graph, it will show all recommendations for cleaning up your storage.

3. If the Review Large Attachments option is visible, tap it. If it’s not there, hit Show All and look for it in the list.

   

4. Next, you’ll see a list of large attachments that you’ve received or sent through the Messages app, sorted from largest to smallest.

5. From here, you can delete the ones you no longer need. Tap Edit in the top-right corner, check the boxes next to the files you want to remove, and tap the trash icon. That’s it.

   

This method isn’t always the most convenient since it doesn’t let you filter files by type. For example, if you only want to delete videos, you’ll have to scroll through the entire list to find them. That’s why in the following sections, we’ll cover more efficient ways to remove large attachments from your iPhone. We’ll also show you how to manage files stored in other apps—like Mail and third-party messaging apps—since attachments aren’t limited to just Messages.

How to Delete Large Attachments on iPhone

Ok, now let’s look at our methods. We have 3 step-by-step solutions that cover the Messages app, the Mail app, and a more general approach for other apps that might store large attachments. Since Messages is the most used app for sending and receiving files, let’s start there.

Method 1: Remove Large Attachments From the Messages App

There is also another way to find and delete large attachments on your iPhone. For this, you’ll need the Settings app again, but this time you’ll be working directly with the Messages section. When might this option be useful?

• If you don’t have the Review Large Attachments notification in Settings, but you know for sure that you sent or received attachments.

• If it’s easier for you to delete attachments by category instead of browsing through a single mixed list.

• If you want to remove all large attachments on iPhone at once within a category (for example, keep the photos but clear out the videos).

Here’s how to do it:

1. Open Settings, head into General, then scroll down and tap iPhone Storage again.

2. From the app list, pick Messages. You’ll see attachments grouped into five sections (Conversations, Photos, Videos, GIFs& Stickers, and Other).

   

3. Choose a section, tap Edit in the top-right, and mark the files you don’t need.

   

4. Hit the trash can to delete them.

If this method doesn’t seem convenient to you either, and you’d like to clear attachments on your iPhone from a specific contact, you can do it right from the Messages app. Of course, this option can take more time if you decide to clean up every conversation where you had active chats, but it may be exactly what you need. We’ll show you how to do it:

1. Open Messages and select the conversation.

2. Tap the contact’s name at the top. A new window will open with details about the user.

   

3. In the row with Info, Backgrounds, and Photos option, tap Photos (this section will also include videos, despite the name).

4. In the upper-right corner, tap Edit, and from the menu choose Select Photos.

5. Select the attachments to delete, then tap the trash icon. Repeat this process for each conversation you want to clean up.

   

When you delete attachments—whether through Settings or directly in Messages—they’re removed from your iPhone right away, without any confirmation prompt (there’s no “Are you sure?” pop-up). However, those files aren’t deleted for the person you were chatting with.

During testing, we also noticed an unusual behavior: if you use iCloud to sync across devices like an iPad or Mac, the deleted attachments may still remain on those devices. It might seem counterintuitive for a sync feature, but this is how iMessage currently works.

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Method 2: Delete Attachments from the Mail App

In the Mail app, photos and videos are typically stored in the app’s cache rather than directly on your iPhone—unless you’ve manually saved them to Photos or Files. When you open an email, its attachments stay in the cache even after you close it.

Although iOS does eventually clear cached data, it doesn’t happen immediately. This means that deleting an email won’t always free up storage right away, as the attachment may still linger in the cache or trash for some time.So why bother deleting the message at all? Because once you remove an email with a big attachment and clear it from Trash, the file won’t load back into the cache the next time you check your inbox. In this way, if the attachment is no longer needed and you want to stop Mail from loading it in the future.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the Mail app on your iPhone and find the email that contains the large attachment.

2. Swipe left on the email and tap the More (three dots) icon. In the menu, select Trash Message (keep in mind that Mail doesn’t let you delete just the attachment and you need to remove the entire email).

   

3. After that, open the Mailboxes view and go to the Trash folder.

4. Find the same email, swipe left again, and tap Delete to remove it permanently (or tap Select in the upper-right corner, pick the email, and tap the trash icon at the bottom).

   

The space may not free up right away since the cache clears gradually, but Mail won’t save that attachment again in the future.

Method 3: Remove Large Attachments From Other Messengers

If you don’t stick with Apple’s default Messages app and instead chat in Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, or something similar, those apps often end up holding the biggest attachments on your iPhone. They store data differently than Apple’s Messenger, which means the cleanup process works a bit differently too. To show how it works, we’ll use Telegram as an example. Other messengers have their own menus and names for settings, but the logic is much the same, so once you know it in one app you can find it in the others.

In Telegram, you can clear the cache of the app. This keeps the attachments visible in the chat, but the local cached files stored on your iPhone are deleted.

1. To do this, open Telegram and go to Settings.

2. Tap Data and Storage option, then open Storage Usage section (in other messengers, look for options like Data Usage, Manage Storage, or something similar)

   

3. You’ll see a pie chart showing how much space the cache takes. You can clear everything at once, or select specific categories like videos, photos, or files. Just leave checkmarks next to the types you want to remove, uncheck the rest, and confirm.

   

If you open photos, videos, or other files again after clearing the cache, they’ll be saved to your device once more and take up space in the cache. In other words, they’ll be available offline until you clear them again. To avoid repeating the same cycle and wiping the cache every few minutes, it may be better to delete the attachments directly from your chats. This way they disappear not only from the cache but also from the conversations themselves, so you won’t reload them over and over.

1. Just open the conversation that contains the attachment.

2. Find the file you want to remove, press and hold it.

3. In the menu that appears, tap Delete.

   

4. Choose whether to delete it just for yourself or for both you and the other person.

Pick whichever option is more convenient, either way, you’ll reduce the space taken by large attachments on your iPhone.

Alternative Way to Remove Saved Attachments and Other Unnecessary Files

Very often, the largest attachments on an iPhone are video files, especially if you’ve saved them from Messages to your storage or gallery. A few minutes of 4K video can take up gigabytes of space, and these files pile up fast. Of course, you can manually scroll through your library, find the biggest files you no longer need, and remove them—but there are two problems. First, the Photos app doesn’t let you sort files by size, so finding the largest ones is no easy task. Second, why do it by hand when there’s an app that can do it for you?

There are plenty of apps on the App Store that can automate the process. One app we recently tested for our best cleaning apps for iPhone rating is Clever Cleaner: iPhone Storage Cleaner. It showed solid performance despite being 100% free. If your goal is to clean up space with just a couple of taps for free, it’s hard to beat. Here’s how you can find and clear out large videos with Clever Cleaner in seconds:

1. Download Clever Cleaner.

2. Open the app and grant permission to access your Photos library.

3. At the bottom, you’ll see five tabs. You need Heavies.

   

4. This section automatically sorts all your videos from largest to smallest, so the biggest space hogs appear at the top. Each video displays its file size right at the bottom of the thumbnail.

5. Tap on any video to open the selection screen.

   

6. Swipe to preview and mark the videos you want to delete. The app will display the total size of the selected files under the delete button, so you know exactly how much space you’re freeing up. If you want to remove all videos at once, just tap Select All in the top right corner.

7. Once you’ve made your decision, tap Move to Trash.

8. Now, tap the Empty Trash button and confirm deletion.

   

9. The app will congratulate you on freeing up space and remind you to visit the Recently Deleted album in Photos to remove these files from your iPhone for good, so your storage is actually reclaimed.

Note. As stated on its official Clever Cleaner cleanup app page, the app will stay free, and early users will never be asked to pay for upgrades or new features. Not bad for an app that has no ads and uses high-end AI algorithms.

Heavies is just one of 5 cleaning features in Clever Cleaner. The other tools might be useful to you too. Here’s what they can do:

• Similars – Detects duplicate and similar photos, including Live Photos, burst shots, and edited versions that Apple’s built-in Duplicates album might miss (it only detects exact duplicates and won’t show photos that look nearly identical to your eyes but have slight differences). You can manually decide what to keep or let Smart Cleanup handle it all in one tap. At the end, just Slide to delete, and what would have taken hours to do manually gets done in seconds.

  

• Swipe — a feature made for those who don’t fully trust the automatic cleanup but still want an easier way to remove unwanted shots. It groups all your photos by the month they were added to your iPhone, and you simply swipe through them — keep what you like, delete what you don’t. The “game-like” format makes the whole process a lot lighter and quicker compared to scrolling through everything manually in the Photos app.

  

• Screenshots – completely mirrors the Screenshots album from the Photos app. At first glance you might wonder why this function is even needed, but it’s actually quite useful, as it shows exactly how much space your screenshots take up, both in MB and as a percentage of total storage. You can delete everything in one tap or review them one by one. Plus, you can combine this feature with the app’s other tools and finish cleaning your photo library right from its interface, without having to switch back to the Photos app.

  

• Compress — a small but handy feature tucked inside the Heavies tool we described earlier. It lets you reduce the size of video files on your iPhone by compressing them, and you can even pick the level — optimal, medium, or max. It’s perfect if you need more free space but aren’t ready to part with your videos.

  

• Lives – Clever Cleaner can compress Live Photos by converting them into still images. The app shows exactly how much space you’ll recover before you confirm. It removes the short video clip you see when you swipe through your gallery. Since it keeps the original still image, your library will look the same, but you’ll save a ton of space without those hidden video files. Just remember to empty the Recently Deleted folder afterward to free up the space for good.

  

Clever Cleaner is a solid choice, but it’s not the only option, here are a few other apps we tested. Unlike Clever Cleaner, they aren’t completely free, but they still have useful features that might be worth it:

• Boost Cleaner is designed to efficiently scan your iPhone for duplicate and unnecessary images. With its advanced sorting features, you can organize your photo albums by date and location, making it easier to find and delete unwanted images. This app also includes contact management features and quick storage boosting tools. It’s a versatile solution for those looking to streamline their iPhone’s photo library and overall storage.

• Cleaner – Free Up Storage is an extensive iPhone tool for managing your device’s storage. It excels in identifying similar photos, merging duplicate contacts, and locating large video files for deletion. The app’s user-friendly interface facilitates fast and efficient cleanup, helping you maintain an organized and efficient iPhone library. Whether you’re dealing with redundant photos or oversized videos, this tool provides a reliable solution.

• Clean Up Storage – Cleaner Kit is an all-encompassing app. It includes features for saving battery life and protecting your privacy. The app’s smart cleaning function simplifies the cleanup process, allowing you to manage your device’s storage with just a few taps. If you’re looking for a complete tool that covers various aspects of iPhone maintenance, Clean Up Storage – Cleaner Kit is a strong contender.

• Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner focuses on simplifying the process of cleaning your iPhone’s internal storage. This App Store app efficiently detects and helps you remove duplicate images and sorts videos by size for easier management. It also includes unique features such as charging animations and a secret photo vault, adding extra functionality to its primary cleaning capabilities. Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner is ideal for those who need a straightforward and effective tool to manage their iPhone’s storage.

How to Automatically Delete Message Attachments on iPhone

Gone through the methods above and wondering whether you could automate this next time? Unfortunately, not completely. Apple doesn’t let you set auto-deletion for attachments only. What you can do is configure the standard Messages app to automatically delete all messages after a set period of time. This means not just the photos or videos, but all text messages will be removed from your iPhone.

1. Go to Settings > Apps and select Messages.

2. In Message History, tap Keep Messages.

3. Choose 30 Days or 1 Year to auto-delete older messages and attachments.

   

As an alternative, if you’d prefer to keep your text messages intact, you can enable iCloud sync. With this option turned on, attachments are gradually uploaded to iCloud instead of being stored locally on your iPhone. This helps reduce the space they take up in your chats, and you can always re-download them later by tapping the download icon in the conversation.

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Final Tips

If you found this guide because your iPhone is running out of storage, keep in mind that removing large attachments is just one part of the solution. There are several other ways to free up space that are worth exploring.

For instance, junk mail can build up over time and quietly consume storage. If you haven’t cleared it recently, it’s a good idea to review and delete unnecessary emails.

Another area to check is the “Applications” section in iPhone Storage. It often includes a mix of app data and cached files, which can be confusing. Understanding what’s stored there can help you decide what’s safe to remove.

And don’t forget about the “Other” storage category, which tends to grow quickly and can be tricky to manage. Clearing it out can make a noticeable difference in your available space.

Take a few minutes to explore these options—your iPhone will run smoother and have more room for what matters most.