When your iPhone warns that storage is almost full, Photos is usually near the top of the list in Settings → General → iPhone Storage. That screen tells you how big the library is, but not what inside it is big.
Here’s what usually takes the space, from biggest to smallest.
1. Videos
A minute of 4K video at 30 frames per second is roughly 170 MB in HEVC, and more at 60 frames per second or with HDR. One long recording of a concert or a school play can be larger than a whole holiday of photos.
Videos are also where you free the most space with the fewest decisions. Sort them by size, look at the top ten, and you’ll usually find a few you don’t need: pocket recordings, duplicates of clips you edited, videos already shared and saved elsewhere.
2. Near-duplicate photos
Each photo is only a few megabytes, but we take a lot of them of the same moment: five tries at a group photo, a burst of a child running, the same sunset every minute. Keeping just the best shot of each set often clears hundreds of photos without losing a single memory.
3. Live Photos
A Live Photo stores a short video alongside the still image, so it takes noticeably more space than a regular photo. If you rarely play them back, it’s worth knowing how much they add up to.
4. Screenshots
A screenshot is small, but years of boarding passes, receipts and memes add up to thousands of files mixed in with your real photos.
How to see the split
The Photos app doesn’t show sizes by type. Photo Cleaner measures every item on your device and shows the total for videos, photos, Live Photos and screenshots, next to the free space left. Tap any of them to browse, largest first.
Before you delete
Deleted photos and videos move to Recently Deleted and still take space until they’re removed for good, after 30 days or when you empty it. If you need the space right away, empty Recently Deleted in the Photos app after you clean up.
