iPhone storage not clearing after deleting photos

i deleted all my photos from my photo gallery to clear storage on my iphone, but the storage does not clear on my iphone

iPhone 11

Posted on Feb 16, 2026 6:52 PM

Reply
1 reply

Feb 17, 2026 7:43 AM in response to Daniel_flyin

What is your storage on this iPhone? At Settings>General>iPhone Storage, my phone says 50.5 GB of 128 GB used. What does yours say? Do you have more than 10% free storage on your iPhone?


You need at least 10% of your storage free for the phone to be able to move files around. Less storage than that means that normal operations, even deleting files, becomes laborious. Photos may not even have enough space to optimize its Library. If you have less than 10% free storage, you need to get rid of some stuff so you can deal with other stuff. Start with small things, since deleting them requires less room. Deleting a few pictures may not help much-- a few megabytes is like nothing if you need gigabytes to get to 10%. If you use Optimize Storage for Photos, then the effect is even smaller. Try deleting some apps that you don't use-- apps and their storage can take up lots of space.


Here are some suggestions:

Manage storage on iPhone - Apple Support


iPhone storage not clearing after deleting photos

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