How to Free Up Space on an iPhone That Is Full

The storage warning keeps appearing, photos will not save, and the update refuses to install. The usual reaction is to start deleting apps, which rarely recovers much. On most iPhones the space is held by photos, videos, and downloaded media inside apps, so the fix is to find the real occupants and clear those first.

Open iPhone Storage and wait for the list

Go to Settings, General, iPhone Storage. The bar chart fills in after a few seconds and the app list below it takes longer, so give it a moment. Apps are sorted largest first, and the number under each one includes its downloads and caches, not just the app itself.

Act on the recommendations at the top

Above the app list, iOS suggests specific reclaims such as Review Large Attachments, which lists the biggest videos and files sent through Messages, and Offload Unused Apps, which removes apps you have not opened while keeping their data. These are the fastest gigabytes on the screen.

Offload or delete the biggest apps

Tap an app in the list. Offload App deletes the app but keeps its documents and data, so reinstalling restores it where you left off. Delete App removes both. Offload anything large you want back later; delete anything you will not reinstall.

Shrink the photo library

Turn on Settings, Apps, Photos, Optimize iPhone Storage while iCloud Photos is on, which leaves smaller versions on the phone and keeps full resolution in iCloud. Then empty the trash: open Photos, Albums, Recently Deleted, tap Select, and tap Delete All. Deleted photos sit there for 30 days and take up space the whole time.

Clear Safari and remove downloaded media

Go to Settings, Apps, Safari, Clear History and Website Data. Then open the apps that store downloads and remove them from inside the app: podcasts already played, offline music, and saved Netflix or YouTube titles are common multi-gigabyte holdouts that never show up as files.

System Data is mostly caches. It looks alarming and cannot be deleted directly. It shrinks on its own as iOS clears caches, and a restart usually brings it down.

Leave headroom for updates. iOS needs several gigabytes of free space to download and install an update, more than the update size itself, so clear past the point where the warning stops.