iPhone Storage Full? Start With the Largest Apps and Photos

For space on the phone, open Settings > General > iPhone Storage. For cloud space, open Settings > your name > iCloud. These are separate limits. If the phone is full but iCloud has room, deleting mail from iCloud may leave your phone’s main problem untouched. Use the storage breakdown to choose your next action.

Tap a large app in iPhone Storage. Offload App removes the app itself while keeping its documents and data; Delete App removes the app and its related data. If documents account for most of the space, offloading alone may not help much. Check inside the app for downloaded episodes, videos, or other files you no longer need. Preserve anything you cannot download again.

If you use iCloud Photos, open Settings > your name > iCloud > Photos and check Optimize iPhone Storage. In iOS 27 or later, open iPhone Storage within that Photos screen to find the option. Full-resolution originals stay in iCloud while the phone can keep smaller copies when space is needed. This requires enough iCloud space; it is not an immediate promise of a particular saving. If you prefer not to use iCloud, copy wanted photos to a computer and open the copies before removing originals.

Return to iPhone Storage after your changes and inspect the category that was taking the most space. Review Apple’s storage recommendations individually. System and cached data are not all user-removable files, so avoid treating every large System Data reading as something a cleaner app can safely erase. If storage remains unexplained, use Apple’s support link below with the storage breakdown.