How to free up iPhone storage taken by photos

The storage warning never comes at a good time. Mine hit at a birthday, mid-video, candles still lit. Photos was eating more space than anything else on the phone. I worked through the list below in that order. The steps near the top matter most.

See where the space is going

Open Settings → General → iPhone Storage and wait for the list to finish loading. Tap Photos and note the number. You want a before-and-after you can trust.

1. Delete videos you won’t rewatch

Video is almost always the culprit. A minute of 4K runs about 170 MB, closer to 400 MB at 60 fps. One long clip can outweigh hundreds of stills. I cleared Photos → Collections → Media Types → Videos first and picked up a gigabyte before I touched a single photo. Screen recordings live in the same area. They’re easy to make and easier to forget.

2. Turn on Optimize iPhone Storage

If you use iCloud Photos, the phone doesn’t need every full-size original on disk. In Settings → your name → iCloud → Photos, turn on Optimize iPhone Storage. iOS keeps originals in iCloud and lighter copies on the device. Open a photo and the full file downloads again.

I tried this on a phone that was nearly full. It helped within a day, once iOS had time to swap files. The catch is unchanged: iCloud itself needs room for the library. If iCloud is full, optimization stalls and deleting is the only fix.

3. Merge duplicates

Open Collections → Utilities → Duplicates and merge. Photos keeps the best copy. My library had survived two upgrades and one messy import. The duplicate count was embarrassing. Yours might be too.

4. Clear the photos you don’t need

Screenshots, blur, nine versions of the same dinner. They add up. No shortcut sorts these for you. Going one by one is slow, but it’s the step that shrinks the library and improves it. Swipico turns each choice into one swipe: right to keep, left to delete. For an order that doesn’t burn you out, see how to clean up your iPhone camera roll.

5. Empty Recently Deleted

People skip this step. I did, the first time. Deleted photos sit in Recently Deleted for 30 days and still occupy space on the iPhone until you clear them. Open Collections → Utilities → Recently Deleted and tap Delete All when you’re sure.

One exception: if you’re over your iCloud storage limit, iOS removes deleted photos immediately instead of holding them for 30 days. How Recently Deleted works.

Lower the size of new photos and videos

Cleaning buys space once. These settings slow the refill.

• Settings → Camera → Formats → High Efficiency stores photos as HEIF and video as HEVC, much smaller than JPEG and H.264. It’s the default. I had switched to Most Compatible for one picky app and forgot to switch back.
• Settings → Camera → Record Video: 1080p is enough for most clips. The menu shows roughly what a minute costs at each resolution.
• On a Pro iPhone, check ProRAW and ProRes under Settings → Camera → Formats. They’re for editing and they’re huge. I leave them off unless I’m shooting on purpose.

Set these once. The next warning, with luck, waits until after the candles.