Open Settings → General → iPhone Storage to see what takes the most room. Start there. If Photos is a large category, review videos and duplicates before removing anything.
Start at step 1. Most readers can stop after step 3.
Start in Settings → General → iPhone Storage. If Photos uses a large share of storage, compare videos, screenshots and duplicates before deciding what to remove.
Cleanuply scans your photo library on-device and ranks the top categories by recoverable bytes. Free to scan.
Check Mail and Files in iPhone Storage. Review attachments you deliberately saved in Files or Downloads. Before removing a local copy, make sure you can retrieve the original if you need it.
Check the size of Mail in iPhone Storage before taking action.
Messages keeps every photo, video, and GIF anyone has ever sent you, forever, by default. Settings → Messages → Keep Messages → 1 Year (or 30 Days for an aggressive cleanup) lets iOS automatically remove anything older. Pair this with Settings → Messages → Review Large Attachments to manually clear the heaviest threads.
Changing message retention can delete older conversations and attachments. Save anything you need first.
Photos normally keeps deleted items in Recently Deleted for up to 30 days. Open it to recover items you want back. Permanently delete only specific items you are sure you will never need.
Normally, photos remain recoverable for up to 30 days. Permanently removing files from Recently Deleted ends that recovery window.
If you have iCloud Photos turned on (Settings → Photos → iCloud Photos), enable Optimize iPhone Storage. iOS keeps high-res versions in iCloud and stores smaller, screen-sized copies on the device. Recovers a huge amount of space without changing your library at all.
Ideal if you have spare iCloud storage. Doesn't suit users with little iCloud space — Apple's iCloud tiers fill up fast.
Settings → General → iPhone Storage shows every app sorted by size. Tap any app you haven't opened in months and choose Offload App — iOS removes the binary but keeps the data, so reinstalling restores your state. You can also enable Settings → App Store → Offload Unused Apps for automatic offloading.
Choose an unused app and compare its app size with the size of its documents and data.
After reviewing a category, return to Settings → General → iPhone Storage and let the estimate refresh. Use the new breakdown to decide whether another category needs attention.
Costs nothing. Sometimes the only thing left to do.
If you only have time for one step, make it this one.
On a typical 3-year-old iPhone, the Photos library breaks down like this:
Check your longest or highest-resolution recordings
Heavy per file; usually forgotten about
Copies of the same local photo or video
20+ shots of one moment; pick a keeper
A still image paired with a motion clip
Old receipts, screenshots, expired offers
Apple's built-in Photos app surfaces some of this — there's a Duplicates album, and you can sort by file size in some views. But it doesn't cluster bursts, doesn't flag old screen recordings or dormant clutter, and doesn't give you a single ranked "here's the biggest wins" view. That's where a dedicated tool helps. We've covered the big three categories in detail: finding duplicate photos, identifying large videos, and bulk-deleting screenshots.
Scan and review your Photos library for free. Your first cleanup is free for up to 10 items per install. Further cleanups require Premium.
The recurring ones we see in support and forum threads.
Open Settings → General → iPhone Storage. iOS shows a stacked bar at the top broken down by category (Apps, Photos, Media, System Data, etc.) and a sorted list of every app and how much space it's using. Tap any category for details.
Look in Settings → General → iPhone Storage. Downloaded media, attachments and locally stored photos can grow over time. Inspect the largest category before changing settings.
Photos usually keeps deleted items in Recently Deleted for up to 30 days. Removing them there is permanent. The storage shown in Settings can take time to update.
Check which photos the app can access and whether it asks before deleting. Cleanuply scans on-device and lets you review selections before iOS asks for confirmation.
The amount depends on your library and what is stored locally. Compare the storage screen before and after your changes.
iCloud Photos can keep full-resolution originals in iCloud while Optimize iPhone Storage uses smaller copies on your phone when space is needed. An iCloud+ purchase alone does not change this setting.
Going deeper on the photo-library side?
Cleanuply