"How to Clear Space on Your iPhone"

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9 Tips to Deep Clean Your iPhone Storage

As we mentioned earlier, here’s how to free up iPhone storage in 9 simple steps.

Data is scattered across your device, and there’s no way to delete everything at once without resetting your iPhone. Instead, we’ll tackle storage by cleaning up each type of data one by one.

Step 1: Clean Up Your Photo Library

For most people, Photos are the biggest storage culprit. Every picture, video, or imported file adds up fast. Hidden space drains like duplicates, large videos, and old screenshots you’ll never look at again can free up gigabytes if removed.

We’ll cover two approaches: using built-in iPhone tools or specialized apps that automate the process. Based on experience, apps usually offer a faster, more thorough cleanup.

Option A: Use Third-Party Apps

If you haven’t tried a photo cleaning app before, we’ve tested and ranked the best iPhone cleaners. Our top recommendation is Clever Cleaner: Free Photo Cleaner App—it’s fast, easy, and completely free, making it perfect for clearing out clutter without a lot of effort.

This app has gained serious traction since its release, and we think it comes down to two things:

• It works really well (thanks to its capable AI).

• It’s one of the few truly 100% free photo cleaners—no subscriptions, no paywalls, and no ads (something more apps should offer!). According to the official Clever Cleaner storage cleanup app’s page, it will stay free for current users, so even if new features are added in the future, you won’t have to pay for them.

Clever Cleaner helps clear out:

• Duplicates and near-duplicates. The app’s AI sorts out identical, nearly identical, and very similar photos, allowing you to automatically delete the extras.

• Unnecessary screenshots. It detects and removes screenshots in your library in one go.

• Large, outdated videos and photos. It finds files taking up the most space and helps you decide what to keep. You’d think this would be easy to do in the Photos app, but Apple still doesn’t let you sort by file size—even in iOS 18.

• Live Photo conversions. If you don’t need the short clips attached to Live Photos, you can convert them to standard images and save storage without deleting them.

The app is straightforward and intuitive, but let’s walk through how you can remove all duplicate and similar photos in literally one tap:

1. Download Clever Cleaner from the App Store.

2. Tap the “Similars” section. It finds images that look alike. The app suggests keeping the Best Shot and selecting the rest for removal.

   

3. Review the selections (optional). If you trust the AI’s choices, you can skip this step. Otherwise, you can fine-tune the selection on your own—pick a different Best Shot or skip the group entirely. The app will then automatically move to the next group.

   

4. If the selection looks good, tap “Smart Cleanup” to remove everything at once. After that, tap “Empty Trash” at the bottom and confirm the deletion one more time. That’s it—one scan, a couple of taps, and your library is cleaner.

   

ou can use the other tools in the app—Screenshots, Lives, and Heavies—in the same way. It’s simple and straightforward. Once the cleanup is complete, the app will show how much storage you’ve freed.

Important: Deleted photos go to the Recently Deleted folder in the Photos app, so you’ll need to empty that folder as a final step.

If you want a deeper look at these features and our experience with the app, check out our full Clever Cleaner review.

Option B: Use the Photos App

Another approach is to clean up your library manually using the built-in Photos app. It can be tedious, but the advantage is that it’s already on your iPhone—no downloads needed. Even if you’re familiar with the basics, following a thorough step-by-step process ensures you don’t miss anything.

Here’s how to clean up your photo library manually:

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone. This is where everything is stored, from your latest holiday snaps to those random screenshots you’ve forgotten about.

2. Scroll down to the ‘Media Types’ section. Here, your content is sorted by type, such as videos, selfies, and panoramas. Videos often take up the most space, so they’re a good place to start.

   

3. Tap on ‘Videos’ or any other category where you think you can free up some space. Maybe it’s time to let go of those slow-motion videos from two years ago?

4. Take a moment to look through your videos or photos. Tap ‘Select’ in the top right corner, then tap on the items you want to remove. Be honest with yourself about what you really need to keep.

   

5. Once you’ve selected the items to delete, tap the trash can icon and confirm. This will move them to the ‘Recently Deleted’ album.

We should also mention the Duplicates feature in the Photos app. While it’s not as powerful as third-party apps—it only flags exact duplicates, not near-identical shots—it’s a built-in way to quickly clean up exact copies. For example, if you snapped 10 slightly different photos of your pet, they won’t appear here. But it’s still handy for merging exact duplicates into one.

How to use Duplicates:

1. Open the Photos app and tap Albums at the bottom.

2. Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap Duplicates.

3. Tap Merge beside the set of duplicates you want to remove.

4. Tap Merge Exact Copies to confirm.

Note: No matter which method you use—app or manual—you always need to check the Recently Deleted folder. Deleted files remain there for up to 30 days and continue to take up space.

To permanently delete them and free storage:

• Go to the Recently Deleted album, tap Select, then Delete All.

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Step 2: Clear Your Browser Cache

Another often-overlooked storage drain is your web browser cache. Over time, cached files like high-resolution images and page assets can add up to gigabytes. These files are stored to speed up page loading—but many come from websites you’ll never visit again.

Cleaning the cache is simple and won’t delete your personal data.

Important: Clearing the cache also deletes browser cookies, which store login details and site preferences. Make sure your login info is saved elsewhere, because you’ll need to log in to websites again after this step.

To clear your Safari browser cache:

Open the Settings app. Then, scroll down a bit and find Safari. Scroll down to the PRIVACY & SECURITY section and tap Clear History and Website Data. Choose a timeframe:

• Last hour

• Today

• Today and yesterday

• All history (Recommended for a full cleanup)

And finally, make sure to tap Clear History to confirm the action!

Other browser apps may provide an option to clear cache within the app itself. For example, you can clear Google Chrome’s cache by opening the Google Chrome app > menu button > History menu page.

Step 3: Delete Your Apps’ Cache

Just like browsers, other apps hoard storage with cached files. Social media and messenger app caches are especially notorious for taking up a lot of space; they usually involve lots of media files like photos and videos being downloaded or saved by users.

When it comes to clearing out those cluttered app caches on your iPhone, you’ve got two handy methods up your sleeve:

• First, some apps come with a built-in cache-clearing tool (although not all of them do).

• Second, you can opt for the classic delete-and-reinstall approach.

In our guide below, we’ll walk you through both methods for three popular apps: TikTok, WhatsApp, and Facebook. For more insights on how to clear caches in other apps, check out this tutorial: Clear Cache on iPhone.

Option A: Use In-App Settings

Deleting TikTok app cache:

Open the TikTok app and tap Profile in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Then, tap the menu icon (3 lines) in the top-right corner of the screen and tap Settings and privacy. Select Free up space.

Finally, tap the Clear cache button and close the app.

Deleting WhatsApp app cache:

Open the WhatsApp app and tap the Settings button in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Then, tap Storage and Data. Under the STORAGE section, tap Manage Storage. Under the CHATS section, tap on any conversation whose media files you want to delete.

Next, tap Select in the top-right corner of the screen. Then, tap the photos and videos you want to clear and tap the Trash icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Tap Delete Item to delete the file.

Deleting Facebook app cache:

1. Open the Facebook app and tap on the Menu button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

2. Then, tap the dropdown arrow beside Settings & privacy.

3. Under the Preferences section, tap Browser.

4. Under the Browsing Data beside Your browsing data, tap Clear.

Option B: Delete and Reinstall the App

To delete an app on your iPhone:

On your iPhone’s home screen, tap and hold on the app you want to delete and tap Remove App. Then, tap Delete App to confirm the action.

Step 4: Offload the Apps

If you have apps that you don’t use often or won’t need in the near future, consider offloading them. Offloading an app deletes the app itself but keeps the app data, which usually includes user preferences, login credentials, user-generated content, and other you-specific data.

Offloaded apps keep their icons on your home screen. You can identify them by the download icon beside their name, which looks like a cloud with a downward-pointing arrow.

Offloading apps is a good option if you need to reclaim a lot of storage space quickly but still intend to use those apps in the future. In some cases, you may get a recommendation from iOS to offload your unused apps in the iPhone Storage menu (Settings > General > iPhone Storage). This is what it looks like:

But if the above prompt doesn’t appear for you, you can also offload unused apps manually:

Open the Settings app and tap General. Then, tap iPhone Storage. Tap on any app you want to offload.

Next, tap Offload App. Finally, tap Offload App again when prompted to confirm the action.

Step 5: Remove Unused Apps

If there are apps you no longer use, delete them. Apps can take up significant storage—and some even grow in size with updates. You could choose to offload them, but that only removes the app while keeping its icon on your Home Screen and storing app data and cache. Deleting apps completely frees up space.

For a detailed, step-by-step guide on removing apps, check the relevant section earlier in this guide.

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Step 6: Delete Message Attachments

Photos, videos, documents, and other files sent via iMessage can accumulate over time and take up a lot of storage. Deleting old attachments is an easy way to reclaim space.

How to delete message attachments:

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap General > iPhone Storage.

3. Scroll down the list of apps and tap Messages.

4. From here, you can review and delete large attachments, photos, and videos stored in Messages.

Under the DOCUMENTS section, tap on the file type you want to purge first. For example, Videos. Tap Edit in the top-right corner of the screen. Select the files you want to erase and tap on the Trash icon.

Step 7: Clear Downloaded Files in the Files App

Don’t forget about files stored locally in the Files app. Documents, videos, or other media downloaded from the web may be saved here instead of the Photos app. Over time, these files can accumulate and take up significant storage.

How to delete downloaded files:

1. Open the Files app on your iPhone.

2. Tap Browse at the bottom and select On My iPhone to view locally stored files.

3. Tap Downloads (where most large files are stored).

4. Open the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and select Size to sort by file size.

5. Select files you no longer need and tap the trash bin to delete them.

And don’t forget about Recently Deleted (delete everything from there to free up the space immediately).

Do not skip this step, even if you think you haven’t downloaded anything. Some apps save files directly in the Files app without making it obvious. If you use a document scanner, file manager, or media downloader, it’s definitely worth checking.

Step 8: Utilize iCloud to Free Up Space on Your iPhone

Another step you can take is using iCloud to “offload” data from your iPhone’s storage to the cloud. Let Apple’s servers store your files and keep a lightweight version on your device. This way, you free up storage without losing access to your data. There are different ways to use iCloud:

• Photos – Enable iCloud for Photos to upload all media files to iCloud. This is good for your storage for 2 reasons. (1) You can access them from multiple devices without downloading them. (2) You can enable the Optimize iPhone Storage setting, which only keeps lower-resolution versions of your media on your device and stores the originals in iCloud (we’ll cover this one in detail below).

• iCloud Drive – Many apps allow you to save data to your iCloud drive. The files won’t take up local storage space and are accessible from any device without having to download them.

• iCloud Mail – Unlike some mail apps that store data locally, iCloud Mail stores all of its data (including attachments) on its servers.

• Notes – While notes created with the Notes app don’t take up much space, you can also opt to store them in iCloud and save a few MB of local storage.

• Messages – The Messages app can take up a lot of space due to attachments like photos and videos. Enabled iCloud for Messages to store them on iCloud’s servers instead of on your device.

Step 9: Delete Duplicate Contacts

Duplicate contacts may be small, but they still take up space—and can be frustrating when you’re trying to make a quick call. Luckily, cleaning them up is simple.

How to remove duplicate contacts:

1. Open the Phone app and tap Contacts at the bottom.

2. If iOS detects duplicates, you’ll see Duplicates Found on-screen. Tap View Duplicates.

3. Tap the individual duplicates you want to delete, or choose Merge All to combine all duplicates iOS found into single entries.

Finally, tap Merge again to confirm the action.

Bonus Ways to Clear Storage on iPhone

We didn’t include these tips in the main guide because many are things people try first, or they’re more specialized tricks. Still, they’re worth knowing. Here’s a quick rundown:

Method 1: Enable “Optimize iPhone Storage”

We’ve mentioned iCloud Photos before, but here’s a closer look at this handy feature. If your iPhone is often connected to Wi-Fi or cellular, Optimize iPhone Storage can save a lot of space. It keeps full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud while storing smaller, space-saving versions on your device.

How to enable it:

1. Open Settings and tap [Your Name] > iCloud > Photos.

2. Turn on iCloud Photos if it’s not already on.

3. Select Optimize iPhone Storage.

This ensures your photos take up minimal space on your device without losing any full-quality originals.

1. Tap into Settings: Start by opening your iPhone’s Settings app.

   

2. Hit ‘Photos’: Scroll through the list until you find ‘Photos’.

   

3. Select ‘Optimize iPhone Storage’: You’ll see two choices here. Pick ‘Optimize iPhone Storage’. What this does is keep smaller, space-friendly versions of your photos and videos on your iPhone, while the originals are stored in iCloud. If you need the full-res version of a photo or video, it’ll download from iCloud next time you’re connected to Wi-Fi.

   

Note. Every iPhone user gets a free iCloud plan, but it only includes 5GB of storage—which, for most people, is barely enough for backups, let alone photos and videos. If you need more space, Apple offers paid plans with options going as high as 12TB.

Method 2: Review Downloaded Music and Podcasts

Music and podcasts are great companions for our daily routines, but downloaded episodes and songs can quietly eat up a lot of space. Here’s how to spring clean your downloads:

1. Open the Music or Podcasts app: Depending on what you want to clean up, start by launching either the Music app for your tunes or the Podcasts app for your episodes.

   

   • For Music: If you’re in the Music app, go to your ‘Library’ and tap on ‘Downloaded Music’. Here, you’ll see everything you’ve downloaded, organized by artists, albums, and songs.

     

   • For Podcasts: In the Podcasts app, head over to your ‘Library’, then tap ‘Downloaded Episodes’. You’ll find all the podcast episodes you’ve saved for offline listening.

     

2. Select the content to remove: Browse through your downloaded music or podcasts. Think about what you’ve already listened to or what no longer suits your taste.

3. Delete individual items: Swipe left on any song or episode you want to remove and tap ‘Delete’. Then choose ‘Only Remove Download’ This will remove the file from your device but keep it in your library for streaming.

   

4. Delete entire albums or podcasts: For a quicker clean-up, you can also delete entire albums or shows. For music, tap on the album and then on the three dots in the upper right corner to find the delete option. For podcasts, go to the show’s page, and you’ll see ‘Delete from Library’ to remove all downloaded episodes.

   

Note: Apps like Spotify, YouTube Music, and others can also store offline downloads. Check their settings for options like Manage Storage or Downloads to remove old songs and playlists you no longer need.

Method 3: Delete Old Voice Memos

If you use the Voice Memos app, you might have hours of recordings you no longer need—meeting notes, interviews, or random clips. While not as large as videos, longer recordings can still take up significant space.

How to delete old voice memos:

1. Open the Voice Memos app.

2. Browse your recordings and swipe left on any you want to delete.

3. Tap Delete.

Repeat for any recordings you no longer need to free up additional storage.

1. Open the Voice Memos app: Launch the Voice Memos app from your home screen.

2. Find large or unused recordings: Scroll through your recordings and look for older ones you no longer need. Longer recordings take up significantly more space, so focus on those first.

3. Delete individual files: Swipe left on a recording and tap Delete. If you prefer, tap the memo, then tap the trash icon at the bottom.

4. Delete multiple recordings: Tap Edit in the top-right corner. Select multiple recordings, then tap Delete to remove them all at once.

Just like with Photos, you’ll need to go to Recently Deleted in the Voice Memos app to remove recordings permanently and clear up storage for good. Otherwise, deleted memos will continue taking up space for 30 days.

Method 4: Use Alternative Cloud Storage Services

Hit the limits of iCloud? Don’t want to pay Apple for more storage? You can use other cloud services instead—either as a replacement or a complimentary storage option.

• Google Drive: Handy for anyone who’s big on Google stuff. You start with 15 GB for free, which is really generous, and it works great with all the Google apps. You can grab it from the App Store and get your stuff uploaded pretty easily.

• Dropbox: It’s super easy to use and gives you 2 GB to start with. If you need more, they’ve got plans you can check out. Good for sharing files with friends or between your own devices. Find it in the App Store and see how it fits your needs.

• OneDrive: If you’re all about Microsoft and Office stuff, OneDrive could be your best bet. Starts you off with 5 GB for free. It’s all pretty seamless if you’re using Office apps a lot. Just download it from the App Store and start moving your files over.

• Box: This one’s great if you’re into security and working with a team. You get 10 GB free to start, which is pretty sweet. The app’s easy to use and you can get it from the App Store whenever you’re ready.

These apps are great for freeing up extra storage, and each has its own strengths. Pick the one that works best for you to give your iPhone some breathing room.

Even though some of these tips are basic, a little reminder goes a long way. Staying on top of them helps keep your iPhone’s storage under control with minimal effort.

Summing It Up

We’ve covered a lot, but don’t feel like you need to tackle every step. We aimed to be thorough because everyone uses their iPhone differently—what works for one person might not be as useful for another.

If we had to highlight the top three must-do steps, we’d recommend:

• Clean Up Your Photo Library – Especially with a third-party cleaner app. It’s a no-brainer since apps usually can instantly free up gigabytes of space in just a few taps.

• Clear App Caches – Social media, messaging, and streaming apps hoard a ridiculous amount of storage over time.

• Clear Downloaded Files in the Files App – This one depends on your habits. Some people will barely get anything out of it, but others will find years’ worth of forgotten downloads that waste space.

That said, every other method can still make a noticeable difference—it really depends on how you use your iPhone. Different people swear by different strategies based on their experiences. For example, one Redditor had a bad experience with automatic app offloading, so that approach might not work for everyone.

Similarly, some steps—like using iCloud to store photos and files—may not be ideal if you’re often offline or need instant access to original files, since it can be inconvenient without a connection.

As you can see, there’s no single “right way” to free up iPhone storage. The key is to pick the methods that fit your usage. By focusing on the steps that match your habits, you’ll reclaim significant space and keep your iPhone running smoothly.