How to Check Storage on iPhone: 8 Ways to Free Up Space (2023)

Running out of storage is annoying. And unless you have a phone with lots of gigabytes, you’re likely going to run into this problem sooner or later. In the past, when this has happened to me, I looked for the fastest and easiest way to free up some quick storage and move along. That means the simpler the tip, the better. There are multiple places on iPhone where storage is being used that you might not even consider, so here’s how to check your iPhone storage and eight easy way to free up space.

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• How to Check Storage on iPhone
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How to Check Storage on iPhone

If you're getting notifications that your iPhone storage is low, it might be a good idea to review what apps and data are currently taking up space. For more iPhone storage management advice, be sure to sign up for our free Tip of the Day newsletter. Now, here's how to check the storage on your iPhone:

1. Open Settings, and tap General.
   
   
2. Tap iPhone Storage.
   
   
3. On this screen, you can see how much storage space your iPhone has.
   
   
4. In some cases, your iPhone may also prompt you to enable certain settings or delete specific items, like in the screenshot below. However, if these options do not appear for you, we will be going more in-depth on how to enable them.
   
   

Luckily, whether you're looking for how to clear your iPhone cache or get more iPhone storage, we are here to help. Continue reading for the eight easiest ways to free space on iPhone.

1. Delete Photos & Music You Don’t Need

I hesitated to include this, because it seems obvious. But it’s always a good first step when you need to clear storage. Music especially takes up a lot of space if you have a decent collection, and if you have Apple Music, there’s no need to keep everything downloaded on your phone. So do a quick check of photos and delete any you don’t want to keep. Then go to the Music app and do the same. If you have Apple Music, consider removing downloads but keeping the song in your My Music collection.

1. In Apple Music, simply tap and hold an album.
   
   
2. Tap Remove.
   
   
3. Tap Remove Downloads.
   
   
4. Alternatively, if you want to remove individual songs, swipe left on the song.
   
   
5. Tap the trash can icon.
   
   
6. Tap Remove Download.
   
   

Removing music downloads will clear space on your iPhone. This gives you the best of both worlds: extra storage and lots of music.

2. Remove Downloaded Videos

If you tend to listen to a lot of podcasts or watch offline videos from Netflix, YouTube, Disney Plus, etc., the accumulated downloads can end up taking up more space than you think. Luckily, your iPhone will detect when you have too many downloaded videos, and will prompt you to delete them:

1. Open Settings, and tap General.
   
   
2. Tap iPhone Storage.
   
   
3. Tap the prompt to Review Downloaded Videos.
   
   
4. Tap Edit.
   
   
5. Tap the minus sign.
   
   
6. Tap Delete.
   
   
7. Tap Done, when you are finished deleting videos.
   
   

You might not see the Review Downloaded Videos prompt if you don't listen to podcasts or save movies and TV episodes offline.

3. Delete Message Attachments

My friends and I love to send silly, funny pictures and gifs to each other constantly. If you receive a lot of messages with attachments, those pictures or videos are probably taking up a lot of storage without you realizing it. Luckily, there is a quick way to delete these attachments:

1. Open the Settings app, and tap General.
   
   
2. Tap iPhone Storage.
   
   
3. It will probably take a second for this page to load, and when it does, you can tap the Messages app.
   
   
4. Under Documents, there are a few different categories. Tap one to manage your attachments; I'm going to choose Photos.
   
   
5. Tap Edit.
   
   
6. Tap each attachment you want to delete.
   
   
7. Tap the trash can to delete the attachments.
   
   
8. You can repeat steps 4-7 for each category.

If you send or receive a lot of photos or videos in Messages, they quickly pile up and take up valuable storage space.

4. Delete Old Messages

As someone who is very sentimental, I keep all of my text messages. However, when you have years of text message history, this can end up taking up a lot of space. If you're not a sentimental person, you can set your messages to automatically delete after a certain amount of time:

1. Open Settings, and tap Messages.
   
   
2. Under Message History, tap Keep Messages.
   
   
3. Choose between keeping your messages for 30 days, 1 year, or Forever.
   
   

Depending on your selection, your messages will now be automatically deleted after the set period of time (unless you selected Forever).

5. Delete Apps That Take Up Too Much Storage

Just like you can see which apps are taking up a lot of battery, you can view which apps are taking up a lot of storage too. If you love and often use an app, it may be worth keeping, even if it uses a decent chunk of space. However, if you have extraneous apps you don’t often use that are taking up space, deleting a few of them will give you a good boost:

1. Open Settings, and tap General.
   
   
2. Tap iPhone Storage.
   
   
3. Scroll through the list of apps, and tap one to review your options.
   
   
4. Tap Offload App to remove the app from your phone but keep its data.
   
   
5. Tap Delete App to completely delete the app and its data from your phone.
   
   

If you find yourself frequently running out of space and you have a lot of apps that you don't use often, it's usually a good idea to regularly review your installed apps.

6. Clear Browser Cache

To provide faster load times, Safari collects information on websites you often visit and saves data in the cache. But if you need some extra storage, this is an easy thing to clear. This will remove history, cookies, and other browsing data, which means you will get signed out of your online accounts and you'll lose any recent websites you've visited. Here's how to do it:

1. Open Settings, and tap Safari.
   
   
2. Tap Clear History and Website Data.
   
   
3. Tap Clear History and Data to confirm.
   
   

This should help remove excess data and clear up your iPhone storage.

7. Delete Duplicate Photos

Photos can sometimes consume more storage than you realize, especially if your library is full of duplicates. Thankfully, the iPhone's Photos app has a built-in feature to help you go through your duplicate photos and delete any you no longer want or need. Once you do this, you should free up plenty of storage from your device.

8. Optimize iPhone Photos

If you have an iCloud subscription, you can optimize your iPhone's storage by uploading your photos to iCloud and keeping lower-resolution versions on your device. You'll still have access to the full-resolution photos in your iCloud Photos, but you'll save space on your iPhone. Here's how to enable Optimize iPhone Storage:

1. Open Settings, and tap Photos.
   
   
2. Tap Optimize iPhone Storage.
   
   

With this setting on, your iPhone will now upload your full-resolution photos to the cloud, and keep smaller versions on your device.

Next, find out how to clear system data on iPhone, and save even more storage space.

Top Image Credit: Jeramey Lende / Shutterstock.com