Apple fans know how frustrating it is to manage storage space; the lack of SD card slots prevents users from easily getting more storage, and iOS updates, apps, and media files are taking up more and more space (which may cause performance issues).
However, iOS actually provides multiple ways to both manage and optimize your storage without having to expand it. As long as you’re mindful, you easily stretch that 64 (or even 32) GB. We’ll show you how to avoid the dreaded warning, “iPhone storage is full.”
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What Do Different iPhone Storage Full Notifications Mean?
iOS does a good job (for the most part) of letting users know what exactly is going on in their devices. When it comes to storage, your iPhone has a number of warnings it will notify you about, depending on the exact issue. Let’s go through all of them:
| Warning | What it means |
| iPhone Storage Almost Full | Your iPhone is running out of storage space and you must take action now (by deleting apps, files, or other data) to avoid filling it up completely. You may also consider using iCloud to free up space on your iPhone. |
| iPhone Storage Full | Your iPhone memory is full and you can no longer save new apps, photos, and other data on your iPhone. It also means iOS can no longer delete cache data and other system files to clear up storage on your iPhone. Manually delete files, apps, and other data, and consider keeping your files in your iCloud Drive so it’s stored on the server, not your iPhone. |
| iCloud Storage Full | Your iCloud storage is full and you may have issues syncing media files and other documents in your iCloud drive folders. Delete files from your iCloud Drive or consider buying more storage space. |
| Photos and Videos Sync Paused | Photos and videos will no longer sync to your iCloud Photo Library (due to full storage). Consider deleting some photos or saving them to a separate storage device, or buying more storage space. |
| Mailbox Almost Full | You may begin having issues opening email attachments due to overloaded email storage. Consider deleting/archiving emails. |
| App Storage Almost Full | A specific app on your iPhone has almost reached its storage limit. You can try deleting the app’s cache, but if that’s not enough or the option isn’t available, you need to delete or offload the app and reinstall it. |
How to Check What Takes Space on iPhone
The first step of cleaning up your iPhone is figuring out where your storage space is being allocated. Its disk space is mainly distributed among apps, personal data, and system files. Identifying the biggest offenders will allow you to quickly make a big impact on your iPhone storage by focusing your cleanup efforts efficiently.
Method 1: Using Your iPhone
The Settings app on your iPhone has a very useful and easy-to-read breakdown of your device’s storage space, helping you pinpoint which data types should go first for the best results. We’ll show you how to find and interpret it.
To check your iPhone’s local storage allocation:
Step 1. Open the Settings app and tap General.
Step 2. Tap iPhone Storage.
Step 3. Note the colored bar. It shows you the distribution of your device’s local storage space among your apps, media, iOS files, and system data. This way, you can make an immediate impact on your device storage.
Method 2: Using Finder on Mac
If you have a Mac running macOS Catalina or later (and the necessary cable) you can check your iPhone storage using Finder. The device menu in the Finder interface gives you a useful visual breakdown of your iPhone’s storage allocation as well as a handy tool that lets you directly manage files on your iPhone.
If you’re running macOS Mojave or earlier, skip to method 3.
To manage your iPhone storage using Finder, connect your iPhone to your Mac and select it from the left sidebar. Then, you can navigate to the Files app to delete app data or click Manage Storage… to delete the movies, TV shows, songs, podcasts, audiobooks, and books you no longer need.
Method 3: Using iTunes on Mac or Windows
If you’re using a Windows PC or a Mac running macOS Mojave or earlier, you can use the iTunes app to check your iPhone storage. Similar to the storage management interfaces on iPhone and Finder, iTunes displays a handy breakdown of your device’s storage allocation. You can also review and delete unwanted data directly from the app. Here’s how:
Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your computer, launch the iTunes app and click on the phone icon.
Step 2. On the left sidebar under On My Device, you can browse the data on your iPhone and remove them right from iTunes. You should also see a familiar visual breakdown on your device’s storage allocation.
How to Clear Storage on iPhone
There are many iOS data types stored on your iPhone, which can be impossible to clean up in one sitting. The goal for this section is to quickly free up as much space as possible on your device, so we compiled the most common iOS data that takes up a lot of storage space but can easily be optimized or deleted.
1. Apps
The most efficient way to review the apps on your device isn’t by browsing your home screen, but by reviewing the iPhone Storage menu we featured earlier. Aside from a breakdown of your local storage space, this menu also shows you all the apps you have installed on your device.
They are displayed in order of file size, making it much easier to quickly make a dent in your iPhone’s storage. The iPhone Storage menu also has a feature called RECOMMENDATIONS, which we’ll briefly show you below.
Step 1. Open the Settings app and tap General.
Step 2. Tap iPhone Storage.
Step 3. If you have Offload Unused Apps under your RECOMMENDATIONS, consider Enabling it. This uninstalls the app itself while keeping your user data on the device. If it doesn’t appear to you, skip to the next step.
Step 4. Below RECOMMENDATIONS (if you have it), you’ll find the list of all your iPhone apps. Tap one you want to delete or offload.
Step 5. Tap either Offload App or Delete App depending on your needs.
2. Photos and Videos
Photos and videos take up a lot of space on your iPhone, especially if you use special effects like Live Photos. Fortunately, iOS automatically compiles enhanced photos in their own albums so you can review them easily.
In the Photos app, navigate to the Albums menu and scroll down to Media Types. We recommend reviewing the Videos, Live Photos, and Burst albums and deleting all the data you don’t need. Due to the file sizes of the media in these albums, you should quickly end up with a lot of free space.
Alternatively, you can automate the process of identifying duplicates by using third-party apps. We specifically recommend Clever Cleaner: AI Cleanup App because it’s the only known and reliable iPhone cleanup tool that is completely free to use without limitations AND pesky popup ads.
It automatically finds duplicates, screenshots, Live photos, and heavy camera roll files for you. And most importantly, Clever Cleaner can also identify “similar” photos — which are like duplicates but have barely obvious differences in the image (e.g. slight blur).
Step 1. Download and install Clever Cleaner for iPhone from the App Store.
Step 2. Open the app and tap Manage access.
Step 3. When prompted, tap Allow Full Access. Clever Cleaner will begin scanning your camera roll for the first time — wait for the status bar to fill up at the bottom (don’t close the app).
Step 4. Based on what you want to delete first, tap one of the menus on the bottom. Let’s review some Duplicates. At this point, you can tap Smart Cleanup to send all found similars to the trash, where you can review them before deleting them permanently.
Step 5. You can also tap a group of similars for more actions. You can: skip a photo (for review later), skip the entire group of photos, move photos to the Trash, and even proceed to the next group from this menu. Clever Cleaner automatically suggests the Best Shot for you to keep.
Step 6. To restore or permanently erase deleted images, tap Trash at the bottom.
Step 7. Finally, you can either restore individual photos, restore all trashed files, or confirm their deletion by activating the slider at the bottom of the screen.
4. Messages
Like mail, messages don’t impact storage space too much on their own. However, users can send attachments that are up to 100 MB in file size (each). Simply clearing out old attachments from a single conversation thread can instantly free up gigabytes of storage space.
To delete message attachments:
- Open the Messages app and tap on a conversation thread you want to review for attachments.
- Tap on the contact’s icon at the top of the screen.
- Beside the media gallery, tap See All.
- Tap Select in the top-right corner of the screen.
- Tap the attachments you want to erase and tap Delete.
- Tap Delete Attachments to confirm the action.
5. Data Types We Didn’t Mention
Depending on what you have on your device, the following data types may also appear in the graph. Here’s a short breakdown of each of them (and what you can do about it):
- Books. Apple Books store PDF and EPUB files, which don’t take up much storage space on their own but pile up when you forget to clear your Library – especially if you tend to download a lot of books to read “for later.”
- Music. Some songs that get as large as 10 MB. You don’t have to delete your music – you can simply remove the downloaded file so you can still stream it in your catalog whenever you’re connected to the internet. In Apple Music, click the ellipses button beside any song and select Remove Download from the context menu.
- iOS. Your iPhone’s operating system itself – iOS – actively takes up space on your device as it runs. You can’t really get rid of this data.
- System Data. Aside from iOS, your iPhone generates a lot of different miscellaneous files that help it function efficiently. Like iOS files, there’s not much you can do about system data, unfortunately.
iPhone Storage Still Full After Deleting?
There are many cases where users notice that their iPhone’s storage remains full despite uninstalling multiple apps and deleting a lot of data. There multiple possible reasons for this – it could be, a bug, iOS lagging, residual data, and more. Fortunately, it’s usually an easy fix. Check out this guide on why your iPhone storage is full after deleting everything and how to address it.
FAQ
When your iPhone storage is full, try the following:
- Offload or delete unused apps.
- Delete unnecessary files (like old podcasts, music, books, etc.).
- Upload your photos and videos to iCloud and delete local copies or opt to keep smaller copies by enabling the Optimize Storage feature.
- Clear your app and browser caches.
- Save email and message attachments to the cloud and delete local copies.
When your iPhone memory is full, expect the following issues:
- Your iPhone may struggle to receive email and email attachments, as well as messages and message attachments.
- You will no longer be able to download apps or save new photos, videos, or other files.
- Your iCloud Photo Library will struggle to sync with your iPhone.
- You may notice a drop in your iPhone’s performance.
- You will get quite a few error messages and warnings.
