How to Free Up Storage on Your Phone

Difficulty: Easy

Time needed: 10-20 minutes

What you'll need: Your phone (iPhone or Android)

Step 1: Check what's using your storage

iPhone: Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. You'll see a color-coded bar showing what's taking up space, plus a list of apps sorted by size
Android: Go to Settings > Storage. You'll see categories like Apps, Images, Videos, and Other

Step 2: Delete old photos and videos

Photos and videos are usually the biggest space hog. Open your Photos app and delete blurry shots, duplicates, and old videos you no longer need. Don't forget to empty the Trash/Recently Deleted folder — deleted items stay there for 30 days.

Step 3: Offload unused apps

iPhone: Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Enable Offload Unused Apps. This removes the app but keeps its data, so you can reinstall later without losing anything
Android: Go to Settings > Apps. Sort by size and uninstall apps you haven't used in months

Step 4: Clear app caches

iPhone: Some apps (like Safari) let you clear cache in Settings. For others, delete and reinstall the app to clear its cache
Android: Go to Settings > Apps, select an app (especially social media apps), tap Storage > Clear Cache

Step 5: Move photos to cloud storage

Back up your photos to Google Photos, iCloud, or Dropbox, then delete the local copies. Google Photos offers 15GB free. iCloud offers 5GB free (50GB for $0.99/month).

Step 6: Clear messaging app data

Apps like WhatsApp, iMessage, and Telegram store every photo and video sent in chats. Open these apps and delete old media-heavy conversations, or configure them to not auto-download media.

If that didn't work

If you're still running low after all these steps, your phone may just not have enough built-in storage for your usage. Consider upgrading to a phone with more storage, or subscribe to a cloud storage plan to keep files off your device.

Pro tip

Set up automatic cloud backups for your photos (Google Photos or iCloud). This way you can safely delete local copies knowing everything is backed up, and you'll never hit the "storage full" wall unexpectedly.