Delete stuff, storage fills right back up.

IPhone 13

128g storage


This all started when I tried to upload a 3 hr video to Dropbox. There wasn’t enough room to process it. Tried reducing to 3 one hour videos. Still wouldn’t do it, so gave up.

( yes, I’m old and don’t have a good grasp of storage needs.)


Then, in the past week, I started getting messages that my Iphone storage was full. They pop up all the time and interrupt stuff. Annoying. I have been doing some video editing and I saw there was way too much photo/video being stored. I sent tons to Dropbox, deleted, emptied “recently deleted”, cleaned out iMovie and offloaded apps like crazy.


Great! Freed up about half my storage!


Not great- recorded another gig Saturday, went to edit the songs down and my storage is full again. So I repeat the process this morning, merged duplicate photos/videos, deleted apps I really didn’t want to delete, dumped more videos I didn’t want to dump. Emptied recently deleted again. I freed up about 30g more


That was a few hours ago. It’s full again.


WTH? I don’t have a PC - my phone is it. Help!

Posted on May 29, 2023 10:22 AM

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Posted on May 30, 2023 2:06 AM

Free up space on your device

You can make storage space available on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch when you use iCloud Photos and turn on Optimize Storage. Or you can remove content from your apps—like photos, music, and Podcasts—or delete the apps that you're not using.


  • Settings > [Tap your Name] > iCloud > Photos > Optimise iPhone Storage (Refer Pic 1}
  • Settings > iTunes & App Store > Offload Unused Apps [Enable] (Refer Pic 2}



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3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

May 30, 2023 2:06 AM in response to Shadageeirish

Free up space on your device

You can make storage space available on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch when you use iCloud Photos and turn on Optimize Storage. Or you can remove content from your apps—like photos, music, and Podcasts—or delete the apps that you're not using.


  • Settings > [Tap your Name] > iCloud > Photos > Optimise iPhone Storage (Refer Pic 1}
  • Settings > iTunes & App Store > Offload Unused Apps [Enable] (Refer Pic 2}



May 30, 2023 2:10 AM in response to Shadageeirish

To clear storage on your iPhone, you can follow these steps:


  1. Go to "Settings" on your iPhone and tap on "General" > "iPhone Storage." This will show you a breakdown of the storage used by different apps and data on your device.
  2. Scroll down to the list of installed apps and review which ones you don't use frequently. Tap on an app and select "Offload App." This will remove the app from your device while keeping its data intact. You can always reinstall the app later if needed.
  3. Go through the list of apps and delete the ones you no longer need. To delete an app, tap on it and select "Delete App." Additionally, you can delete other types of data such as photos, videos, messages, and unused files to free up space.
  4. If your Photos app takes up a significant amount of space, you can enable iCloud Photos to store your photos and videos in the cloud and keep optimized versions on your device. Go to "Settings" > "[Your Name]" > "iCloud" > "Photos" and enable "iCloud Photos."
  5. If you use Safari as your web browser, you can clear its cache to free up storage. Go to "Settings" > "Safari" > "Clear History and Website Data."
  6. Messages and attachments can take up a substantial amount of storage. Open the Messages app and delete unnecessary conversations or individual messages. You can also enable the option to automatically delete messages after a certain period. Go to "Settings" > "Messages" > "Keep Messages" and select an appropriate duration.
  7. If you have music, movies, or TV shows downloaded on your device that you no longer need offline access to, you can remove them to save space. Open the respective app (e.g., Music or TV), find the content, and delete it.
  8. Consider reviewing other apps and data that may be taking up storage space, such as documents, downloads, and podcasts. Delete unnecessary files or manage them accordingly.
  9. After performing the above steps, it's good practice to restart


Delete stuff, storage fills right back up.

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