How to Compress Photos on iPhone for Email, Sharing, or Backup

iPhone photos are huge. A single image can be a few MB depending on your camera settings, the lighting conditions, and other parameters. That means that the resulting output is super high-quality, even if you expand it on a computer.

However, they quickly eat up your storage space. They can also be difficult to send or upload through mail, messengers, etc. due to their size. In this article, we’ll show you how to compress photos on your iPhone so they take up less space and are easier to manage.

When You Need to Reduce the Size of the Photo

There are many good reasons to compress photos, especially since it usually doesn’t result in the loss of quality. Not only can photo compression improve your device experience, it can also help you work with images faster (e.g. sharing them with colleagues).

Below are common scenarios where photo compression is especially useful. Some of them aren’t that obvious, but they are actually relevant to many day-to-day tasks we use our devices for.

• Printing: If you need to print a lot of photos, raw iPhone camera photos can take a long time to transfer due to their file size. Compression will speed up this process while maintaining image quality.
• Sending emails: There are 3 reasons to compress photos for emails: (1) the email gets sent faster, (2) some mail clients only allow attachments until a certain file size, and (3) large attachments take up more of the limited storage space your mail client provides.
• Free up storage space: The average iPhone photo is just under 3 MB in size—compression can help lessen that footprint by more than half. Alternatively, use third-party apps to manage clutter automatically (like Clever Cleaner: AI Cleanup App—completely free).
• Upload to a website: If you want to display photos on a website, compression is almost necessary. Large images take much longer to load online and can greatly decrease page load speed.
• Faster image transfer: Transferring images via all mediums (Airdrop, bluetooth, etc.) is way faster if they are compressed.
• Manage storage limits for iCloud and other apps: Cloud storage services like Google Drive and iCloud have limited space (unless you pay up). Compressing the photos you store will keep you from reaching the storage limit much longer.
• Saves mobile data: If you need to transfer or upload your photos using mobile data, compressed photos will consume much less of it.

Does the iPhone Compress Photos?

By default, the iPhone compresses photos taken by the camera. It does so by using the HEIF (High Efficiency Image File) format, which takes up 2 to 5 times less storage space than the JPEG format without a noticeable loss of quality.

You can check any photo’s format easily in the Photos app. Simply open any photo and tap the i button.

If you want to, you can modify these settings and save photos as JPEG instead (e.g. for cases of compatibility).

To check or modify your iPhone’s default format for photos:

Step 1. Open the Settings app. Scroll down the page and tap Camera.

Step 2. Tap Formats.

Step 3. Choose between High Efficiency (HEIF) or Most Compatible (JPEG).

How to Compress Photos on an iPhone

There are many ways to compress photos on the iPhone, depending on what you need them for and how much control you want over the reduction. The methods below cover all common scenarios where you’d need compression and they use all the tools and workarounds the iPhone has to offer.

Method 1: Activate iCloud’s Optimize iPhone Storage Setting

The Optimize iPhone Storage function is a game-changer for your storage space, without requiring you to modify any photos. With this setting enabled, your iPhone only keeps lower-quality copies of your photos on the device, which are much smaller in file size. The original, high-resolution photos are automatically uploaded to iCloud for safekeeping.

To use this function, you first have to enable iCloud Photos and iCloud synchronization. We’ll demonstrate how to set it up in the guide below.

To enable Optimize iPhone Storage on your iPhone:

Step 1. Open the Settings app and tap your Apple ID.

Step 2. Tap iCloud.

Step 2. In the Saved to iCloud section, tap Photos.

Step 3. Enable Sync this iPhone and select Optimize iPhone Storage.

Method 2: Send the Photos Through a Mail Client or Messenger Apps

Mail clients and messenger apps (like WhatsApp, etc.) automatically compress and/or resize photos or at least offer such options when sending photos. By sending photos to yourself via mail and messenger apps, you can automatically compress multiple images quickly without much work.

For example, Apple’s Mail app allows you to resize photo attachments right before sending emails. We’ll demonstrate how it works:

To compress your photo for email attachment:

Step 1. Open the Mail app and create a new message. In the email body’s field, tap and hold on the blank space until a menu appears. Then, tap the right arrow twice and tap Insert Photo or Video.

Step 2. Choose the photos you want to attach and tap Done.

Step 3. Attempt to send the email–a popup should appear that will allow you to compress your photos.

Method 3: Take a Screenshot of the Photo

Taking a screenshot of the photo is another easy way to quickly compress images without manually modifying them. Screenshots are usually much smaller in size compared to camera photos on the iPhone because the camera uses loads of image processing technology to increase the quality of its output.

Camera photos are also higher in resolution and capture details that screenshots don’t, especially when you use features like HDR Mode.

To take a screenshot of your photo, use one of these button combinations (quickly press and release them at the same time):

• If your iPhone has a Home button: Home button + Lock button
• If your iPhone has NO Home button: Lock button + Volume Up button

Method 4: Utilize Online Photo Compressors From Your iPhone or a Computer

Online compressors are photo compression tools embedded into websites. They are one of the most convenient ways to compress photos because they don’t require any downloads or installation—just a browser and a stable connection. You can even utilize them directly from your iPhone browser!

You’ll find a lot of options if you key in “online photo compressor” in a search engine, but here are some of our favorites:

• TinyPNG. A straightforward web app that only offers a compression tool. All you have to do is drag and drop your photos into the browser and click 2 buttons to compress the pictures on your iPhone. We use this one a lot. Only supports WebP, PNG, and JPEG. However, uploading photos directly from your iPhone (using a mobile browser like Safari) automatically converts HEIF/HEIC photos to JPEG for compression and output.
• iLoveIMG. An all-in-one suite of image tools where you can compress, resize, and perform other modifications to your photos. The interface is simple and easy to understand, even when modifying photos in bulk. Supports JPG, PNG, SVG, and GIF files. Similar to TinyPNG, direct upload from your iPhone automatically converts HEIF/HEIC photos to JPEG.
• XConvert Online HEIC Compressor. An intelligent HEIC/HEIF compressor. Compress the images on your iPhone and set your own percentages for photo file size and quality reduction and/or specify your photos’ exact output size. Its web interface is simple but effective. It’s the only web app on this list that can compress raw photos on your computer.

Method 5: Use iPhone Photo Compressor Apps

The App Store has a wide selection of photo compressor apps for the iPhone. Many of them can not only compress photo sizes on your iPhone, but some of them allow you to modify image dimensions and even compress or resize videos. They can work directly on your device and usually have direct access to your Photos app and iCloud.

• Compress Photos & Pictures. One of the best apps for photo compression for the iPhone. Compress individual images or multiple photos in bulk while seeing in real-time how much storage space is being freed up. It even compiles all compressed photos in an album for you. Super simple interface and you can bulk compress up to 3 photos at once for free.
• Photo Compress – Shrink Pics. A popular photo compression app that allows you to compress individual or multiple photos with your own custom parameters. It only works with JPEG but you can conveniently convert HEIC/HEIF photos from within the app. You can pay to remove apps and access advanced features.
• Resize: Photo & Video Edit.or. Expensive but high-quality app with a beautiful interface and lots of features. Compress and resize photos and videos without sacrificing quality; crop and convert images. You can even add custom canvases to your photos for social media.

Method 6: Crop Your Photos

The smaller a photo’s dimensions are, the smaller its size compared to the original. By cropping out unnecessary parts of your photos, you can reduce their file size further.

Using the Photos app, you can crop your photos freehand or by using one of the various pre-made sizing settings.

To crop your photos using the Photos app:

Step 1. Open the Photos app and open the photo you want to resize. Then tap the edit button in the bottom menu.

Step 2. Tap the crop button at the bottom of the screen. You can now choose one of the preexisting dimensions or manually drag the corners of the cropping tool inward until you’re satisfied with the output. Finally, tap Done.

Need More Storage But Can’t Delete Stuff?

Photo compression is a valid way to reclaim storage space that doesn’t require you to get rid of more data–but it’s not the fastest solution for this. Don’t worry–we literally have a guide for that. Check out our blog post on how to free up storage on an iPhone without deleting anything. It has a total of 7 different methods–some of which you might not have even encountered before!

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