Your iPhone Storage Keep Filling Up? Here’s What to Do

Does your iPhone storage keep filling up, even after you’ve just cleared space? This is a super common problem, and the internet is full of people looking for answers.

So, we decided to put together a list of every method that actually worked well for us. If your iPhone storage keeps filling up, these fixes should help you finally take control. Let’s get to it.

Why Does Your iPhone Storage Keep Increasing?

If you frequently manage your iPhone storage, it is important to understand what typically causes this rapid fill-up. It’s not always about the number of apps or photos you have, but other less visible elements also occupy space.

• Unused Apps: You may have apps that you downloaded and forgot about. These can accumulate and occupy significant space, especially if they store data or cache files.
• Cache and Temporary Files: Your regular use of apps like social media platforms, streaming services, and browsers creates a lot of temporary data that can inflate your storage capacity.
• Large Media Files: Photos and videos, particularly those shot in high resolution, can quickly consume storage. Also, downloads or media received through messages that you forgot can accumulate without notice.
• Old Messages: Text messages and, more significantly, iMessages with attached media files can remain on your device indefinitely, consuming storage over time unless you manage them.

How to Fix the Issue of ‘iPhone Storage Keep Going Up’

You can identify what’s eating up your iPhone storage in Settings > General > iPhone Storage (here’s a quick guide). Most of the time, it’s things like photos, apps, and messages, but there are other hidden culprits too.

We’ll start with the biggest storage hogs and work our way down to the less obvious ones. Follow these, and you should be able to free up space—and keep it that way.

Manage Photos and Videos

For most people, photos and videos are what clog up iPhone storage the fastest. Between Live Photos, photos taken in Burst Mode, 4K videos, screenshots, and duplicates, your library can fill up before you know it. You probably already know how to organize them manually—just scroll through your library and delete what you don’t need. But why do it by hand when you can automate the process?

There’s an app for everything, and photo library cleanup is no exception. There are tons of options out there, but one of the best we’ve tested is Clever Cleaner: AI iPhone Cleaner App. Here’s why. (1) It’s 100% free, no subscriptions, no paywalls. (2) It has four different tools designed to clear out useless media fast. (3) It actually works, thanks to smart AI that helps find junk you don’t need.

First, we’ll show you how to use it to clear out space from unnecessary duplicates and near-duplicate photos. And after that, we’ll cover its other just-as-useful features.

1. Download Clever Cleaner from the App Store. Once installed, open the app and allow it to access your photo library.
2. Head to the Similars tab, where you’ll find exact duplicates and similar images. Tap Smart Cleanup, and the app will clean your library, using AI to identify lower-quality, redundant images. It automatically marks extras for deletion while keeping the best shot based on clarity, resolution, and other factors. If you see photos you want to keep, tap Restore to deselect them.
3. When everything looks good, use Slide to delete and then confirm the cleanup. The app will remove selected images.
4. For more control, you can manually review and merge duplicates. Tap a group to review the images and either accept the selection or pick the ones to keep.
5. If you don’t want to delete anything in a group, tap Skip All to move on.
6. To remove unwanted duplicates, tap Move to Trash, then finish by tapping Empty Trash. The app moves deleted photos to the Recently Deleted album, where they stay for 30 days. If you want to free up space immediately, clear Recently Deleted in the Photos app.

While your iPhone has a built-in duplicate finder (since iOS 16), it’s pretty basic. It only detects exact duplicates, so it won’t catch all those near-identical selfies and photos. Even if you’re sure you have exact duplicates, they might not immediately appear in the Duplicates folder. With this app, we were able to clean more than half a gigabyte of duplicates in basically one tap—you can read all about it in our Clever Cleaner review. Combined, these tools can easily free up several gigabytes. For some people on our team, it was dozens of gigabytes!

Another thing that sets it apart—it’s completely ad-free. We didn’t run into a single ad while using any of its features, which is almost unheard of for a free iPhone cleaner. So, make sure to take advantage of other its tools:

• Screenshots. Delete all unnecessary screenshots in one go.
• Livesp. Convert Live Photos into still images to save storage—a rare option, we haven’t found in most other apps.
• Heavies. See all media files sorted from largest to smallest for quick removal. Since videos usually take up the most space, your largest videos will appear at the top. It’s a useful feature that the Photos app surprisingly lacks (as of iOS 18).

Delete Unused Apps

And of course, apps are usually just as guilty as photos and videos when it comes to filling up your iPhone’s storage. Some apps take up way more space than you’d expect, especially if these apps store data or maintain large cache files. Social media and messaging apps are usually the biggest hoarders when it comes to this. Apps like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Telegram accumulate massive amounts of cached media, which could be one of the biggest reasons your storage keeps filling up.

Here’s how to delete unused apps from your iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on General, then select iPhone Storage. This screen will display a list of all your apps, along with the amount of space each one uses.
3. Review the list and identify apps that you no longer need or use, especially those closer to the top of the list, as they are the ones taking up the most space.
4. Tap on an app to view more information. You will find two options: Delete App and Offload App. Deleting the app removes it completely, along with all its data. Offloading the app removes the app but retains your documents and data until you reinstall it.
5. If you decide to delete, tap Delete App, then confirm your choice by tapping Delete App again in the pop-up menu.

Clear Browser Cache and Data

Web browsers store temporary internet files to load websites quickly. This process enhances your browsing experience by reducing load times but also accumulates a significant amount of data. This stored data can consume precious storage space on your iPhone. By clearing the browser cache and website data regularly, you free up storage and might even improve your browser’s performance by removing old or corrupted data.

Here’s how to clear the cache and data in Safari, the most commonly used browser on iPhones:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap on Safari.
3. Scroll to the bottom and find the section labeled Privacy & Security.
4. Tap on Clear History and Website Data.
5. A dialog box will appear, warning you that this action will clear your browsing history, cookies, and other browsing data. Tap Clear History to confirm.

If you use other browsers like Chrome or Firefox on your iPhone, you will typically find similar options within the app’s settings menu under Privacy or History.

Delete Downloaded Files from Files App

Another possible offender that makes your storage keep going back to full is all the downloaded files sitting in your iPhone’s local storage. Whether it’s Word documents, PDFs, videos, or random files from the web, they tend to pile up here. To check what’s taking up space:

1. Open the Files app.
2. Go to Browse > On My iPhone > Downloads.
3. You’ll likely find old files you don’t need anymore. Tap Select, choose the ones to delete, and hit Trash.

If you use apps like Safari, Chrome, or Mail, they also store downloads separately. Safari saves files in Files > Downloads, while Chrome has its own Downloads section in the app. Cleaning these out can free up even more space.

And don’t forget—deleted files go to the Recently Deleted folder in the Files app, where they’ll stay for 30 days unless you clear them manually.

Review and Delete Large Attachments in Messages

Another sneaky reason your iPhone storage keeps filling up is large attachments in Messages. Whether they are images, videos, or documents, quickly take up a significant amount of storage on your iPhone. Here’s how to locate and delete large attachments from your messages:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on General and then select iPhone Storage.
3. Scroll down and tap on Messages.
4. Select the Review Large Attachments option. This shows a list of all the attachments that take up space.
5. Look through these attachments and decide which ones you no longer need. Swipe left on an item to reveal the Delete option.
6. Tap Delete to remove the attachment from your messages and free up space.

This simple maintenance step is vital for preventing your iPhone’s storage from quickly filling up. To keep your storage from filling up again, make this cleanup a habit. Or better yet, let your iPhone handle it automatically.

You can set messages to auto-delete after a certain period. Here’s how:

1. Open Settings and go to Messages.
2. Scroll down to Message History and tap Keep Messages.
3. Choose 30 Days or 1 Year instead of Forever.

Clean Up Voicemail

Voicemails might not be the first thing you think of when trying to free up storage, but they can silently take up space, especially if you have a lot of old messages or saved audio files. Here’s how to manage and delete old voicemails:

1. Open the Phone app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on the Voicemail tab at the bottom of the screen.
3. Scroll through your voicemails and listen to any you might have missed or need to review.
4. To delete a voicemail, swipe left on it and tap Delete.
5. If you want to delete multiple voicemails at once, tap Edit in the top right corner, select the voicemails you wish to delete, and then tap Delete.

With these steps, you’ll free up iPhone storage quickly and keep it from filling up frequently.  Also, if you use a carrier’s voicemail app, check its storage settings. Some carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have their own voicemail apps that store messages outside of the iPhone’s default Phone app. If you use one of these, open the app and look for options to delete old voicemails or clear cache.

Factory Reset Your iPhone

It might seem like overkill, but some people have reported that due to a “storage bug,” no matter what they tried, their iPhone storage kept filling up again. The only thing that worked was a factory reset.

If you’ve deleted everything you can, cleared caches, and tried every fix, but your storage still keeps going back to full for no reason, a factory reset might be worth considering. This wipes your device completely and resets it to factory settings, clearing out any system glitches or corrupt storage data that could be causing the issue.

Before you do this, make sure to back up your important data, either to iCloud or a computer using Finder (Mac) or iTunes (Windows).

Once backed up, follow these steps to reset your iPhone:

1. Open Settings and go to General > Transfer or Reset iPhone.
2. Tap Erase All Content and Settings.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions and confirm the reset.

Once your iPhone restarts, you can restore your backup during setup or start fresh to prevent old data from causing issues again. If a system bug was behind your storage problem, this should fix it for good.

Long-Term Strategies to Keep Your iPhone Storage from Filling Up

While quick fixes can help right now, using long-term strategies will make sure your iPhone storage stays under control for good. This way, you won’t have to constantly fight the same battle and maintain a healthy amount of free space on your device.

Use Cloud Services for Photos and Videos

Storing photos and videos in the cloud frees up significant space on your iPhone. Services like iCloud, Google Photos, and Dropbox offer seamless ways to back up your media while keeping it accessible.

Here’s how to set up iCloud Photos:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on your Apple ID at the top, then select iCloud.
3. Tap on Photos and turn on iCloud Photos. This action will automatically upload and store your entire library in iCloud.
4. Select Optimize iPhone Storage to keep smaller, space-saving versions of photos on your device, with the full-resolution versions stored in iCloud.

Using cloud services like this helps you maintain ample free space on your iPhone while keeping your media safe and easily accessible from any device.

Set Up Automatic App Offloading

Automatic app offload allows your iPhone to automatically remove apps you don’t use frequently while keep their data intact. This feature helps you free up storage space without lose important information from those apps.

Here’s how to set up automatic app offload:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap on General, then select iPhone Storage.
3. Look for the option Offload Unused Apps. Tap Enable next to this option to turn it on.
4. Your iPhone will now automatically offload apps that you haven’t used in a while when it needs more storage space. The app icons will remain on your home screen, and you can easily reinstall the apps by tapping on them.

Setting up to automatically unload apps will help you save the data of apps you rarely use, while always being able to return to them.

Use Streaming Services for Music and Videos

Instead of storing large media files on your iPhone, use streaming services for music and videos. This method frees up significant storage space and provides access to a vast library of content without the need to download it. Services like Spotify for music and Netflix for videos allow you to stream content directly to your device.

By using streaming services, you can listen to music and watch videos without taking up valuable storage space on your iPhone. Simply install the app, sign in, and start streaming. If you prefer to have some content available offline, these services offer download options for specific songs, albums, or videos. Be mindful of the storage settings within the app to avoid filling up your device.

Utilizing streaming services is a practical long-term strategy for maintaining a large amount of free space on your iPhone. This method guarantees that you always have access to entertainment without the burden of large media files consuming your storage.

Regularly Update iOS and Apps

Continuous iOS and app updates provide optimal performance and efficient storage management. Developers often release updates that optimize storage usage, fix bugs, and improve overall functionality. Regular updates keep your iPhone operating smoothly and efficiently.

To update your iOS, go to Settings, tap General, and then select Software Update. If an update is available, follow the on-screen instructions to download and install it. Ensure your device is connected to Wi-Fi and has enough battery life or is plugged into a power source.

Updating your apps is equally important. Open the App Store, tap your profile icon at the top right, and scroll down to view available updates. Tap Update All to install the latest versions of all your apps, or update them individually.

By regularly updating both your iOS and apps, you benefit from the latest improvements and optimizations. This practice not only enhances your device’s performance but also helps manage your iPhone’s storage more effectively.

Use Third-Party Storage Management Apps

Third-party apps can automate cleanups and organize your files, saving you from manually sifting through every download, photo, or junk file. They often include advanced features like AI-powered detection, duplicate-finders, and media-organizing tools—features that iOS alone may not offer.

We won’t go into any specific tools here since we have multiple ratings of some of the best options available, you can check out our dedicated lists:

• To clean junk from your iPhone storage, check out our list of the best iPhone junk file cleaners.
• If you want an app with AI-powered automation, take a look at our top AI cleaners for iPhone.
• If you’re looking for a totally free option, see our rundown of the best free iPhone cleaner apps.
• Need software to better organize your photos? Explore some of the best iPhone photo organizers.

Final Words

Years pass, iPhones get smarter, yet the “iPhone storage keeps filling up” issue just won’t seem to go away. Even the newest models, starting with at least 128GB of storage, quickly fill up and leave users hunting for solutions.

Apple’s usual recommendation is to buy more iCloud storage to handle this, but that’s not the ideal solution for everyone. Not everybody’s willing to pay the monthly fees—sometimes pretty hefty ones—and not everyone has constant internet access or wants their data stored somewhere in the cloud. Many users prefer to keep their files locally on their devices, right where they can access them offline.

We hope this guide helps you finally take control of your iPhone storage. With the tips and tools we’ve shared, you should be able to solve the issue of storage constantly filling up.

And if you’re still looking for more storage tips or have questions, we invite you to join our iPhone forum. It’s a great place to ask questions, share your own tips, or get advice from other users experiencing similar problems. If you have additional questions, feel free to start a conversation there—our community would love to hear them!