How to Free Up 50GB on Your iPhone Without Deleting Memories

Last month, my iPhone was gasping for air. 247GB used out of 256GB. Every photo I tried to take triggered that dreaded "Storage Almost Full" warning.

Three hours later? I had 73GB free. I didn't delete a single memory.

Here's exactly what I did, in order of effectiveness. Follow along and track your savings—most people find 30-50GB they didn't know they were wasting.

Before We Start: Check Your Current Storage

Go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage

Write down these numbers:

• Total storage: ___GB
• Available: ___GB
• Photos/Media: ___GB
• Apps: ___GB
• System Data/Other: ___GB

We'll check these again at the end to see your total savings.

Step 1: Empty Recently Deleted (5 minutes, 2-10GB)

This is the fastest win. When you delete photos and videos, they sit in "Recently Deleted" for 30 days—still taking up space.

How to do it:

1. Open Photos app
2. Tap Albums at the bottom
3. Scroll down to Recently Deleted
4. Tap Select → Delete All
5. Confirm deletion

My savings: 4.2GB

Most people have 2-10GB sitting here. It's basically free space waiting to be claimed.

Step 2: Clear Safari Data (3 minutes, 1-5GB)

Safari caches websites, history, and data that accumulates over time.

How to do it:

1. Open Settings → Safari
2. Tap Clear History and Website Data
3. Confirm

For deeper cleaning:

1. Settings → Safari → Advanced → Website Data
2. Tap Remove All Website Data

My savings: 2.8GB

If you've never done this, you might be shocked how much Safari is hoarding.

Step 3: Offload Unused Apps (5 minutes, 3-8GB)

This removes apps you don't use but keeps their data, so if you reinstall, everything is still there.

How to do it:

1. Settings → General → iPhone Storage
2. Enable Offload Unused Apps (automatic), OR
3. Scroll through apps and tap Offload App on ones you don't use

Target these first:

• Games you finished months ago
• Apps you downloaded once and forgot
• Social media apps you rarely open
• Shopping apps (reinstall when needed)

My savings: 5.1GB (from 12 apps I hadn't opened in 6+ months)

Step 4: Delete Old Message Attachments (10 minutes, 5-15GB)

Messages quietly hoards every photo, video, and file ever sent to you.

How to do it:

1. Settings → General → iPhone Storage
2. Tap Messages
3. Under Documents & Data, tap:
   • Review Large Attachments - Delete big files you don't need
   • Top Conversations - Clean out attachment-heavy threads
4. Go through and delete old videos, memes, and files

Alternative method:

1. Open Messages app
2. Open a conversation
3. Tap the contact name at top → See All Photos
4. Select and delete what you don't need

My savings: 8.7GB

This was my biggest surprise. Group chats from years ago were holding gigabytes of memes and videos I'd forgotten existed.

Step 5: Review App Data (10 minutes, 3-10GB)

Some apps store massive amounts of cached data that you can clear.

Check these apps specifically:

Spotify:

• Settings → Storage → Delete Cache

Netflix:

• Settings → App Settings → Delete All Downloads

Podcasts:

• Library → Downloaded → Remove downloads you've listened to

YouTube:

• Settings → Clear Watch History (won't clear saved videos)

TikTok:

• Profile → Settings → Clear Cache

Instagram:

• This one's tricky. Best way is to delete and reinstall the app

My savings: 4.3GB (mostly Spotify cache and old podcast downloads)

Step 6: The Big One—Optimize Your Videos (30-60 minutes, 20-50GB)

Here's where the real storage savings happen. Videos are the #1 storage killer on most iPhones.

The math:

• Average 4K video: 350MB per minute
• Average user has: 2-4 hours of video
• That's: 40-80GB just in videos

Option A: Compress with Bonsai (Recommended)

1. Download Bonsai from the App Store
2. Let it scan your video library
3. Start with videos older than 6 months
4. Compress from 4K to 1080p (visually identical on phone screens)
5. Delete originals after confirming quality

Expected savings: 60-75% of video storage

Option B: Delete Duplicate/Similar Videos

1. Photos → Albums → Videos
2. Look for multiple takes of the same moment
3. Keep the best one, delete the rest

Option C: Export to Computer and Delete

1. Connect iPhone to Mac/PC
2. Import videos to computer
3. Delete from iPhone
4. (Warning: You lose easy access to these videos)

My savings: 31.2GB (compressed 47GB of videos down to 16GB with Bonsai)

Step 7: Check "Other" Storage (15 minutes, 2-20GB)

"Other" or "System Data" is the mysterious storage category that grows over time.

What's in there:

• System caches
• Siri data
• Software update files
• Streaming caches
• Corrupted data

How to reduce it:

Method 1: Offload and reinstall large apps

1. Settings → General → iPhone Storage
2. Find apps with large "Documents & Data"
3. Offload them, then reinstall

Method 2: Sign out and back into iCloud

1. Settings → [Your Name] → Sign Out
2. Wait a few minutes
3. Sign back in
4. This clears some iCloud-related caches

Method 3: Factory reset (nuclear option)

1. Backup your iPhone completely
2. Settings → General → Transfer or Reset → Erase All Content
3. Restore from backup
4. This clears ALL system cruft

I only recommend Method 3 if "Other" is over 30GB and nothing else works.

My savings: 3.4GB (from Method 1 on a few apps)

Step 8: Optimize Photos Storage (5 minutes, varies)

If you use iCloud Photos, you can store optimized versions on your phone.

How to do it:

1. Settings → Photos
2. Enable Optimize iPhone Storage

This keeps full-resolution photos in iCloud and stores smaller versions on your phone.

Warning: This requires an iCloud storage plan if your library is large.

My savings: Already had this enabled, but it typically saves 40-60% of photo storage.

My Total Results

Before:

• Used: 247GB
• Available: 9GB

After:

• Used: 183GB
• Available: 73GB

Total freed: 64GB

Breakdown:

Time Investment vs. Results

Best ROI: Video compression. It takes the most time but yields 50%+ of total savings for most people.

Maintenance: Keep It Clean

Once you've freed up space, keep it that way:

Weekly (2 minutes):

• Empty Recently Deleted
• Delete obviously unnecessary screenshots

Monthly (10 minutes):

• Clear Safari data
• Review Message attachments
• Clear app caches

Quarterly (30 minutes):

• Compress videos older than 3 months
• Review and offload unused apps
• Check overall storage breakdown

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Only deleting apps Apps are usually small. Videos are the real problem.

Mistake 2: Ignoring Messages Message attachments are a hidden storage killer.

Mistake 3: Deleting memories instead of compressing You don't have to delete videos. Just make them smaller.

Mistake 4: Paying for more iCloud storage first Try these steps before upgrading your plan. You might not need to.

Mistake 5: Not doing regular maintenance Storage fills up again. Set a monthly reminder.

The Bottom Line

You probably have 30-50GB of wasted space on your iPhone right now. Not memories you need to delete—just inefficiently stored data, forgotten caches, and oversized videos.

The biggest win is always video compression. If you do nothing else from this guide, at least compress your videos from 4K to 1080p. You won't see the difference on your phone screen, but you'll feel the difference in available storage.

Your iPhone can breathe again. Your memories can stay. You just need to store them smarter.

Ready to tackle the biggest storage hog? Try Bonsai free (10 conversions) to compress your oldest, largest videos first. Most users free up 20-40GB in their first session.