There is no such thing as too much free storage. If you’re running low, below, you will find the seven best ways to free up storage on your iPhone in 2025 without spending a lot of time or deleting anything important.
How to Clear Storage on iPhone
Let’s jump right to it. We will start with the easiest and quickest methods and move gradually to more advanced (but still nothing too hard) ways to reclaim space. Here’s a list of how to clear space on an iPhone:
Method 1: Use iPhone Cleaner Apps
This one is probably the easiest since all you need to do is find a good app that can do the cleaning for you. There are quite a few of these apps, but one noteworthy and relatively new option we tried is Clever Cleaner: AI CleanUp App.
Like many modern apps, Clever Cleaner uses AI to automate the process as much as possible. But what makes it stand out is that it’s 100% free – no subscriptions, no paid plans, not even ads. So, if you’re wondering how to clean iPhone storage for free, this might be the answer.
What Clever Cleaner can do:
- Finds and deletes duplicate and similar photos (Similars tab) – AI scans your gallery and identifies exact and similar duplicates (unlike the Duplicates album in the Photos app, which can only spot identical images).
- Locates and removes large videos (Heavies tab) – Detects and sorts the biggest media files that take up the most space.
- Cleans unnecessary screenshots (Screenshots tab) – Spots and removes irrelevant screenshots.
- Converts Live Photos into regular still images (Lives tab) – Saves space by keeping only the best frame while removing the extra motion.
As you can see, this iPhone cleaner app developed by CleverFiles can automate and simplify a lot of cleaning. For example, if you’ve ever tried to find your biggest files (usually videos) in your library to remove unnecessary ones, you know that you can’t do it natively – there’s no way to sort files by size in the Photos app (as of iOS 18). With Clever Cleaner, this process takes seconds. Here’s how:
- Open Clever Cleaner and tap Heavies.
- Your biggest videos and photos appear, sorted from largest to smallest with file sizes listed.
- Tap any file to preview, or tap Select All to mark everything at once.
- Tap Move to Trash to remove them.
- At the bottom, tap Empty Trash to send files to the Recently Deleted album in Photos.
- To free up space immediately, go to Recently Deleted and permanently delete them.
Method 2: Clear App Cache
The next great way to clear up storage on an iPhone is to look at the cache your apps generate over time. It can easily accumulate gigabytes of waste, and that’s just from a single app.
Check apps you frequently use, like Safari, Snapchat, or TikTok. Some apps allow you to clear cache manually, but not all provide this option. You’ll need to check the official manual or settings for each one.
For example, according to Apple’s official support page, here’s how to clear the Safari browser cache:
- Open iPhone’s Settings and go to Safari.
- Tap Advanced > Website Data>.
- Tap Remove All Website Data.
If the button is grayed out, it means there’s no data to clear or Content & Privacy Restrictions in Screen Time are blocking changes.
Tip: For stubborn apps (e.g., Instagram), either offload or reinstall to wipe hidden caches. To reduce “System Data,” try the “large file download” trick: initiate a huge app or movie download that forces iOS to purge caches. If it fails due to lack of space, you’ll often see your free storage jump up afterward.
Method 3: Remove Unused Apps
This one might seem straightforward, yet it holds significant importance. An app on the iPhone might go unnoticed for long stretches, quietly existing in the background. It typically belongs to one of two worlds – the frequent companion that becomes part of every routine or the one that slips into obscurity, barely crossing the mind.
Removing an app clears a considerable amount of storage, encompassing installed files, cached content, offline data, and other saved material. To make thoughtful decisions before removing anything, it is wise to first check which app occupies the most storage space.
- Open Settings and go to General > iPhone Storage.
- Wait for the list to load – it will show apps sorted by size.
- Tap any app to see how much space the app itself takes vs. its stored data.
If an app is huge but rarely used, it’s probably safe to delete. Tap an app you don’t need and select Delete App.
Method 4: Offload Unused Apps
Ever since iOS 11, Apple has provided an alternative to outright deleting apps: offloading.
What does offloading mean? Selecting Offload removes the app while preserving its data within the iPhone. This will allow you to reinstall this app later with all settings and files intact as though it had never been removed.
This method is perfect if you want to free up storage on your iPhone but don’t want to fully delete anything. You technically delete the app, but not really.
To offload an app, follow a process similar to the previous method:
- Open Settings and go to General > iPhone Storage.
- Wait for the list to load, then tap an app you don’t use often.
- Tap Offload App and confirm.
Offloaded apps will stay on your Home Screen with a small cloud icon. Just tap the icon to reinstall the app instantly when needed.
You can also enable automatic offloading in the same settings – just toggle on Offload Unused Apps, and iOS will automatically offload apps you haven’t used in a while whenever storage runs low.
Method 5: Use iCloud & Cloud Storage
Another way to clear up storage on your iPhone involves shifting your files to the cloud. By doing this, media and documents are no longer stored directly on the device but can be accessed whenever necessary through cloud storage.
Take, for instance, a photo library. It can be securely stored in iCloud instead of occupying space on the device. To set it up:
- Open Settings
- Then select your Apple ID at the top.
- Select iCloud, then tap Photos.
- Toggle on iCloud Photos and select Optimize iPhone Storage.
So, what does this actually do? Once you turn it on, your iPhone swaps out full-resolution photos for smaller versions (that occupy a lot less space) while keeping the originals safe in iCloud. This way, you free up storage without losing access to any of your pictures – whenever you open a photo, your iPhone downloads the high-quality version automatically.
This setup has advantages and drawbacks. It does free up valuable storage. But those with extensive photo collections may find that the complimentary 5GB iCloud plan is insufficient. Additionally, to retrieve full images, an internet connection via Wi Fi or cellular data is necessary.
Apple provides iCloud+ options with increased storage, detailed on the official Apple support page. But not everyone wants to pay a monthly fee. If you’d rather avoid a subscription, services like Google Drive, Google Photos, and Dropbox are great alternatives. They often provide more free storage upfront (Google offers 15GB at no cost at all).
Tip: To save iPhone space without paying for extra iCloud, combine multiple free cloud options. For photos, Google Photos offers 15GB free, and Amazon Photos is unlimited for Prime members. Privacy-conscious users often prefer a personal NAS (e.g., Synology) to store images and videos privately. This lets you safely remove large files from your device while retrieving them on demand.
Method 6: Clear Your Downloads Folder
A lot of people don’t realize that iPhones have a Downloads folder, just like a computer. Whenever you download some document or media file from your Safari or Mail, it gets saved locally, and let’s be honest, most people completely forget about them.
Here’s how to find and delete those files:
- Open the Files app on your iPhone.
- Tap Browse at the bottom, then select On My iPhone.
- Open the Downloads folder.
- Review the files – if you don’t need them, tap Select, choose the files, and tap Delete.
Just like with most files on iPhone, to free up storage permanently, go to the Recently Deleted folder in the Files app and clear it – otherwise, the files will continue taking up space until they are automatically removed.
Tip: You can change how Safari and other apps save downloaded files to prevent them from taking up local storage. Just go to Settings, find Safari, tap Downloads, and switch the location to iCloud Drive (or another cloud service). This way, new downloads won’t take up space on your iPhone and will be accessible across all your devices.
Method 7: Delete Old Message Attachments
And the final method to clear storage on the iPhone we’ll cover is deleting old message attachments. Every time you send or receive photos, videos, voice memos, and documents in Messages, they stay stored on your iPhone – even long after you’ve read them. Over time, this can easily take up gigabytes.
If you want to delete attachments directly from your conversations, follow these steps:
- Open the Messages app.
- Select a conversation.
- Tap the contact’s name (or group name) at the top of the screen.
- Under Photos, Links & Documents, tap See All.
- Tap Select, choose the attachments you don’t need, and tap Delete.
- Confirm the deletion.
If you receive a lot of media via Messages, you can set up messages to auto-delete. Just go to:
- Settings and tap Messages.
- Scroll down to Message History and tap Keep Messages.
- Change the setting from >Forever to 30 Days or 1 Year.
Video Guide
Final Thoughts
These seven methods should help you free up space in no time – there’s really no easier way to reclaim a lot of storage fast.
If you’re a visual person, be sure to check out a video guide for a step-by-step walkthrough. We can honestly say that in 2025, clearing storage on an iPhone is easier than ever thanks to smarter iOS features and great cleanup tools.
