How to free up iPhone storage from Photos

Updated October 2026 · By Mohamed Elatabany

Photos and videos are usually the biggest item on an iPhone's storage screen. This guide goes through them in the order that tends to free the most space first: videos, then Live Photos, screenshots, bursts, duplicates and blurry shots.

Step 0: see what is actually using your storage

Open Settings → General → iPhone Storage.
Wait for the bar at the top to load. It shows how much space Photos, apps, iOS and System Data use.
Tap Photos in the list to see how much your library takes up on this device. If iOS shows recommendations, such as reviewing personal videos or emptying Recently Deleted, they appear here too.

If iCloud Photos is on, also read iPhone storage full with iCloud Photos. Optimize iPhone Storage changes how much space your library uses on the device.

Where Photos keeps its albums: on iOS 17, tap the Albums tab and scroll down. On iOS 18, scroll down below the photo grid to the collections. On iOS 26, tap Collections. Media Types (Videos, Live Photos, Screenshots, Bursts) and Utilities (Duplicates, Recently Deleted) are listed there.

1. Videos: usually the biggest win

A few minutes of 4K video can take more space than hundreds of photos. To see how much space your camera uses per minute, open Settings → Camera → Record Video; iOS lists the approximate size for each resolution and frame rate.

In Photos, open Media Types → Videos. Durations are shown on each thumbnail; long ones are the likely culprits.
Open a video and swipe up (or tap the i button) to see its resolution and file size.
Delete the ones you don't need, or save them elsewhere first.

Photos has no "sort by size" option. Photo Cleaner's Largest Files view sorts photos and videos by size, with big 4K videos first. More in how to find large videos on iPhone.

2. Live Photos

A Live Photo stores a short video clip along with the still image, so it uses more space than a normal photo.

Find them in Media Types → Live Photos.
To stop new ones, tap the Live Photos button in the Camera app. To make that stick, go to Settings → Camera → Preserve Settings and turn on Live Photo.
Photo Cleaner has a Live Photos category so you can swipe through only those.

3. Screenshots

Screenshots are small individually, but most people have hundreds or thousands, and almost none are worth keeping. Open Media Types → Screenshots, tap Select and drag your finger across rows to select many at once, then tap the trash icon. Full walkthrough: how to delete screenshots on iPhone.

4. Bursts

Holding the shutter takes a burst of photos, stored together. Open Media Types → Bursts, open a burst, tap Select, tick the frames you want, tap Done and choose Keep Only [number] Favorites. The rest go to Recently Deleted.

5. Duplicates and similar shots

Use the free Utilities → Duplicates album to merge exact copies. It ignores near-identical shots, so use Photo Cleaner's Similars / Duplicates finder for those; it marks the best shot in each group. Details: how to delete duplicate photos on iPhone.

6. Blurry photos

Photos has no filter for blur. Photo Cleaner's Blur Detection uses on-device analysis to flag likely out-of-focus shots for you to review. See how to delete blurry photos.

Also check: chat app photos

WhatsApp and similar apps can save every received photo to your library. In WhatsApp, check Settings → Chats → Save to Photos to stop it. Photo Cleaner has a WhatsApp/Messenger category for clearing the ones already saved.

Last step: empty Recently Deleted

Deleted photos and videos stay in Utilities → Recently Deleted for 30 days and keep using space until then. To get the space back now:

Open Utilities → Recently Deleted in Photos. On iOS 17 and later it is locked; unlock with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode.
Tap Select, then Delete All, and confirm.

Only do this when you are sure. After Recently Deleted is emptied, photos cannot be recovered from the device. If iCloud Photos is on, they are gone from iCloud too.

Doing it faster

Each step above is a separate trip through the Photos app. Photo Cleaner puts the same categories (Largest Files, Live Photos, Screenshots, Bursts, Similars, Blurry, WhatsApp/Messenger) in one place, and you clear them by swiping. Everything goes to a Trash Bin you review first, and the session recap shows how much storage you freed.

Try the faster way

Photo Cleaner is free to download, with 100 deletions free, one time.