7 Ways to Clear Storage on iPhone if Your iPhone Storage Full

Clare Weaver
Last updated: Apr 1, 2024

This post covers everything you want to know about iPhone storage full and how to clear storage on iPhone. Pick what you need below and run your iPhone like a new one again!

With time, there are more and more photos and apps on your iPhone. Once your iPhone storage reaches its limits, an iPhone Storage Full alert will appear.

This is a reminder for you before your iPhone crashes. So how to clear storage on iPhone?

In this post, you will find the 7 practical ways to clear iPhone storage. Just avoid or solve the iPhone storage full problem by following the tutorial below!

iPhone storage full

Why My iPhone Storage Is Full?

As we all know, the common iPhone storage is 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. It is limited, which means you will reach the limit if you keep using it and downloading or storing photos or apps on it.

Large apps, videos, and numerous photos are the main cause of your iPhone storage full. App caches and duplicate photos occupy a lot of space on your iPhone.

iPhone storage is full

To check your iPhone storage: Open SettingsGeneraliPhone Storage.

Check iPhone Storage

How to Clear Storage on iPhone to Fix iPhone Storage Full

In the previous section, we mentioned what takes up your iPhone storage and how to check your iPhone storage. Now it's time to introduce some practical ways.

In total, we list 7 methods to help you clear space on your iPhone. Read on to learn more details about each method.

Tip
If your Mac has the same issue of storage full and shows "Your disk is almost full/Your startup disk is almost full", have a try at BuhoCleaner - a professional Mac cleaner helping you free up Mac space in minutes.

1. Optimize Your iPhone Storage According to Recommendations

Once you have checked your iPhone storage, you can optimize your iPhone storage according to the recommendations listed below. It gives you estimated data about how much space each optimization can save.

Check iPhone Storage in Settings

The common optimizations are:

  • Enable iCloud Photos
  • Enable Offload Unused Apps
  • Empty “Recently Deleted” Album
  • Review Personal Videos
  • Review Download Videos
  • Auto Delete Old Conversations
  • Review Large Attachments

2. Delete Duplicate Photos, Similar Photos, and Large Videos

You may ignore that you have downloaded the same photo several times in your daily life because of mistaken presses, etc. When taking photos or screenshots, you may also keep many similar photos.

These photos will actually take up more and more space as they accumulate over time. So when you find that you are running out of iPhone storage space, you can start by clearing out these useless photos.

Large videos can also take up a lot of space on your iPhone. Sometimes you may have downloaded some online videos in the background and forgotten to delete them after watching them.

So go and check if you have any of these videos and clear them out - it can free up a lot of iPhone storage space for you.

3. Transfer Photos from Your iPhone to Your Computer

In addition to deleting photos and videos, you can also transfer some of your less-used photos from your iPhone to your Mac, as well as videos, documents, etc. Backing up them to a USB stick, hard drive, iCloud, and Google Photos are also good choices.

After backing up them successfully, you can delete them on your iPhone, which will contribute a lot to freeing up your iPhone storage space without data loss.

Tip
Still got iPhone storage full message even with iCloud enabled. This is mainly because iCloud drive not syncing on Mac. iCloud only provides you with 5GB of free storage space. Once you reach the limit and want to use more space, you need to pay. Check the iCloud+ plan

4. Delete/Offload Unused App

Offload or Delete App to Fix iPhone Storage Full

Sometimes you may download some apps to finish work. Apps are a major factor causing iPhone storage full.

So it's a good idea to delete apps that you don't use. It’s worth noting that deleting the app will also remove its related data.

In addition to deleting, the iPhone also offers the choice of offloading apps. This does not delete the documents and data in the app. The best part is that you can re-download it whenever and wherever you want to use it again.

You can manually offload the apps you want via iPhone Storage. Or you can set up an automatic offload of unused apps. Just perform the actions below:

Open Settings > App Store > Scroll down and enable Offload Unused Apps.

It is especially helpful when your iPhone storage full can't delete photos.

5. Delete Browsing History in Browsers

The browser's browsing history also takes up some iPhone storage space. So it is recommended you delete the browser's history regularly, as well as the browser's download history. You can delete this directly in the browser or in Settings.

And here's how to delete Safari browsing data in Settings:

Open Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data.

Clear History and Website Data of Safari to Fix iPhone Storage Full

If you have Automatically Save Offline turned on, you can disable it if you don't need it.

6. Delete Messages

The longer you use your iPhone, the more messages and conversations pile up on your iPhone.

Cleaning up some of the ads or spam messages will also help you to free up storage space. You can also automatically set your messages to be deleted after a certain period of time.

Open SettingsMessagesKeep Messages30 Days/1 Year/ Forever.

Keep Messages

7. Delete Music and Podcasts

If you have previously downloaded some music for offline listening, check and delete some songs that you no longer listen to or don't listen to often.

The same goes for podcasts. Don't forget to delete podcasts you've listened to and offline files of podcasts you won't listen to anymore.

Note
If you tried the above methods, but still failed to fix the iPhone storage full issue, then you may need an iPhone repair software. iPhone stuck on the Apple Logo can be caused by storage full and iOS system problems. When your iPhone is stuck on Apple Logo, you can try a third-party repair software. Learn more about choosing the best iPhone repair software.

How to Free Up Space on Mac

Besides cleaning up your iPhone storage, you may also want to clean up your Mac storage. Giving your iPhone and Mac a regular thorough cleaning will reduce the frequency of errors on your device.

Deleting similar photos on your iPhone requires you to do it manually, but here we recommend BuhoCleaner, a Mac cleaner that can delete duplicate photos, large and junk files, and uninstall apps completely from your Mac.

DownloadFor macOS 10.10 and above
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Free Up Space on Mac with BuhoCleaner

Conclusion

In this article, details on solving the problem of iPhone storage full are introduced. And what you should delete when your iPhone storage is full is listed above.

What’s more, skills to clear up your Mac storage is also at your fingertip.

Hopefully, these solutions work to free up your iPhone storage space and run your iPhone at a high speed like a new one!

FAQs

  1. Why Is iPhone Storage Full When I Have iCloud On?

This is because iCloud cannot sync your apps. And it has limited space. When you reach the limit of 5GB of free storage and want to use more, you will need to pay for the extra. Check iCloud+ plans and pricing.

Clare Weaver

Clare Weaver has been captivated by the world of Apple products since the launch of iconic iPhone in 2007. With a wealth of experience, Clare is your go-to source for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and all things Apple.