My iPhone was secretly hoarding space

Summary

  • Delete large message attachments for extra storage.
  • Ensure images are stored as HEIC for less space.
  • Clear your browser cache regularly to free up storage.

I remember when I had a 16GB iPhone 5s. It was my first iPhone ever after my LG Cosmos Touch, and I got it for my 13th birthday — don’t do the math. Notifications were already ruling our lives, but there was an infamous pop-up that plagued my screen every time I opened my phone to do something: iPhone Storage Full.

It was obviously annoying, but it wasn’t a unique issue. We were teenagers, so who cared how much data our brand-new iPhones could hold? I didn’t even know what a gigabyte was at the time — that was none of my business. But all I knew was that when it was time to take a group picture at the high school football tailgate, we had to use someone else’s phone. I wouldn’t have enough storage unless I made a cut-throat decision to delete Instagram or some other app at that moment to free up space. I was cutting off arms and legs every time I wanted to get a grainy shot of my friends and me covered in school spirit paint.

Brand

Apple

SoC

A18 Pro (3nm)

Display

6.3-inch 1,206 x 2,622 pixel resolution 120Hz LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED, 120Hz, HDR10, Dolby Vision, 1000 nits (typical), 2000 nits (peak)

Storage

128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB

Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro line features a few notable upgrades over last year’s iPhone 15 Pro, including a dedicated camera button, a new A18 Pro chip, a bigger screen, and several AI-powered Apple Intelligence features.


Well over a decade later, I’m thankful those days are long behind me. I’m currently the proud owner of a 256GB iPhone 16 Pro, and I have more than 4X worth of pictures on my phone than I had in original iPhone storage way back when. Granted, I’ve been in the Apple ecosystem now for 15 years, so it’s no wonder I’ve accumulated such a large amount of data. However, I just recently received my first “iPhone Storage Full” message in over 11 years. This is what I did to take it down and optimize the data on my phone.

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1

Delete large message attachments

You do not need a candid video from 2015

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There are all sorts of attachments buried under years of texts in your iMessage app. When I scurried to optimize my storage, the first place I went was General in Settings. There, the very first recommendation was to “Review Large Attachments.” Sure, it makes sense, but there were tons of videos I hadn’t saved in my messages that were living rent-free on my iPhone.

As part of the action item, it told me right off the bat that I could save over 150GB. Upon further review, I found duplicate videos from social media clients, birthday messages, and random saved Snapchat videos that I really had no use for. I reviewed the ones I wanted to keep, and was able to go in and cut out the ones that were taking up real estate.

Here’s how:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Select General.
  3. Choose iPhone Storage.
  4. If it appears immediately, select Review Large Attachments under Recommendations. If it doesn’t appear at the top, scroll down through the apps until you see Messages. Click it.
  5. When you open Attachments, your screen will populate with particular videos and how much storage they each take up. To mass-delete, select Edit in the top right corner and select a batch to delete them.

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2

Make sure images are stored as HEIC

Speaking of pictures and videos

Converting an HEIC file to JPEG.

Apple / Pocket-lint

Apple / Pocket-lint

The best way to not run out of storage is to store files that take up less space in the first place. This setting is usually a default when you get a new phone, but if you’re a photographer or someone who’s emotionally attached to their JPEGs, you might’ve toggled something on that caused your phone to store photos at a larger capacity than you need to.

iOS defaults to storing photos as HEIC files. It’s a new-ish format that takes up less storage, retains better image quality, and can support multiple images in one file (think Live Photos). You want your photos to be saved as HEIC files for storage’s sake — unless you’re dead-set on exporting them as JPEGs, which is usually the case if you’re editing them in third-party apps. To make sure this setting is on, follow these steps:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Select Camera.
  3. Choose Formats.
  4. At the top, under Camera Capture, choose High Efficiency over Most Compatible.

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3

Clear your browser cache

Unexpected, but effective

Safari unlocked in iOS 18 on iPhone 15 Pro

This is more of a maintenance thing rather than a last-ditch effort, but every gig counts, right?

I didn’t actually know this until I did it, but your browser cache is hiding some data. That’s right — while it’s temporary data, your browser stores information from the websites that you visit to help it load faster the next time you’re there. You probably haven’t even noticed it before, either. Sure, the cache is probably small, but think about how many websites you visit; all the data builds up to potentially take up a fair amount of your storage.

Here’s how to clear your browser cache:

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Scroll down to your browser app or select it among your apps list.
  3. Scroll all the way down to History and Websites Data.
  4. Select Clear History and Website Data. It will ask you to select a timeframe — choose whichever you desire, and then tap Clear History.

This will clear the cache for whatever browser app you chose. Be sure to do this with each of your browsing apps.

I was baffled to see that iMessages took up a solid 60% of my iPhone storage.

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You really don’t need that string from high school, trust me

An iPhone with the Overcast app open showing a list of saved podcasts, next to the House of Marley Little Bird earbuds and case.

I have over 55,000 photos and videos on my phone. Everyone knows that nowadays, the Photos app is the culprit when it comes to storage hogs. I mean, some of us have had our iPhones for well over a decade at this point, so there’s a fair amount of memory-accumulation. However, my phone is also littered with apps I haven’t opened since I downloaded them, and the biggest, sneakiest culprit of them all — iMessage.

When that “iPhone Storage Full” warning popped up a few weeks ago, I’ll admit it — I was shocked. How on earth had I even come close to scratching the surface of my 256G? Well, after some digging, I was baffled to see that iMessages took up a solid 60% of my iPhone storage. How?

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I had to come to terms with the fact that I was a text hoarder. What if I wanted to reminisce on AP Human Geography group chats from 2016 when I was old, 80, and wrinkly? I wouldn’t, and I had to let them go. I truly hadn’t deleted any texts unless they were spam since 2013, so it took a few days of hitting Select and Edit conversations to delete entire threads. I did have to wait 30 days to see the fruits of my tapping-labor — but when that time came, I was able to free up that 60% of my storage.

However, there’s an easier way to do this — and nip it in the bud entirely. If you’re a lot less attached to your old texts (most people are) here’s what you can do:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Search for Messages among your apps.
  3. Scroll all the way down to Message History.
  4. Click Keep Messages.
  5. Opt to delete messages after 30 days, a year, or keep them at “Forever.”

This way, you don’t have to go through the process of cleaning out your message inbox after years, like I did. You can also go into old podcast apps and delete episodes you’ll never listen to again, Netflix downloads you have no use for, or even the treasure trove of screenshots you’ll never use.

Every gig counts, doesn’t it?

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