AARP Hearing Center
.jpg?anchor=17,8&q=80&color=ffffffff&u=8wsalu&w=375 "Fall Movie Preview 2026")
How to Free Up Space on Your Smartphone
When your storage is full, here’s help locating the files and data behind all that digital clutter
6-minute read
VIDEO: How to Save Space on Your Phone: Delete the Dupe Photos
AARP tech journalist Ed Baig explains a shortcut to easily delete redundant pictures.
Key takeaways
- iPhone and Android storage settings can show which apps, photos, videos, audio and other files are taking up the most room.
- Built-in cleanup tools identify large files, old downloads, duplicate files and unused apps that you may want to delete.
- Review files before removing them, and consider options such as offloading an iPhone app to free up space while keeping its documents and data.
Got a tech query? AARP members and readers are invited to send me their questions about devices, online safety, social media and navigating today’s technology.
I want to free up storage on my smartphone. How can I find out which files are eating up all the room?
More Ways to Benefit
- Related Benefit 1
- Related Benefit 2
- Related Benefit 3
- Related Benefit 4
- Related Benefit 5
I’ve told people that a good way to weed their smartphones of digital clutter is to get rid of apps they rarely use. But apps aren’t the only reason your smartphone storage is packed to the gills.
If your phone is anything like mine, you’re likely bumping up against capacity limits because of the audio, photo and video files on the device. You can certainly free up space by moving those files to the cloud, and generally, that’s a fine option, especially if you’re willing to pay for extra online storage.
But you asked specifically about which files are the main offenders on your phone now, and thus candidates for the scrap heap. Whether you have an iPhone or an Android, identifying such files and sending them off to pasture is pretty easy.
Breaking down iPhone storage
I used up roughly half of the 512-gigabyte (GB) capacity on my iPhone 15 Pro Max before trading it in. You can view the storage breakdown on your iPhone by opening Settings and tapping General | iPhone Storage.
Apple displays a simple color bar graph showing how space is used on the phone, categorized by applications, messages, music, photos, mail and so on.
Apple then suggests ways to free up space. The top recommendation on the 15 Pro Max was to Review Large Attachments, which reveals the photos, videos and attachments that are eating away at storage. At the time, I could save up to 40.18GB on my own phone by deleting all such large attachments, Apple said.
But I chose to cherry-pick the attachments I might be willing to discard and suspect you would, too. Tap the right-pointing arrow > to view these attachments by size order, along with a thumbnail of the files and the date from which they were created.
To get rid of some or all of the attachments, tap Edit in the upper-right corner of the screen, then tap your finger on the circle to place a check mark beside each of the files you want to delete. Tap the trash can symbol at the upper-right corner of the screen to complete the exorcism.
Apple’s next recommendation was to Auto Delete Old Conversations, which on my device meant I could save up to 29.37GB. This grouping consisted of all messages and attachments sent or received more than a year before. To automatically get rid of these, tap Enable, then tap Enable again.
Be aware: If you choose this option, all messages and attachments older than a year will continue to be discarded. If you don’t see the Auto Delete Old Conversations recommendation, it is likely because your Messages app setting for Keep Messages, under Messages History, is set to Forever (as opposed to 1 year or 30 days).
Review Downloaded Media is next on the list. Here, I was told I could save up to 1.33GB by removing downloaded videos and audio files. Again, I was able to see what those files were by tapping the right-pointing arrow >.
It turned out to be a couple of audiobooks from Audible. To remove the media, tap Edit and then tap the red circle next to each file you want to wave goodbye to.
The next recommendation was to Remove Older Downloads, which on my device didn’t amount to much: a mere 58.3MB. When you enable this setting, the iPhone will keep only the five latest automatically downloaded episodes of a given show. According to Apple, episodes that you saved or manually downloaded won’t be touched.
Separately, the iPhone shows you all the apps on your phone and how much storage they’re taking up, listed by default in size order. If you prefer, you can also list them by name or last-used date.
I was a tad surprised to discover that, at 40.01GB, the Messages app on my phone was the number-one storage offender, ahead of 38.73GB for music files, 33.64GB for photos and 28.37GB for voice memos.
Find Your Documents in One Place
No more searching through file cabinets, boxes or drawers. The AARP Digital Vault helps you securely organize important or treasured documents and records online, so they’re easy to find when you need them. The add-on AARP membership benefit is just $20 a year.
Tap the right arrow > next to these and other listings to see options for how to treat the files. In some cases, you can tap Delete App to remove not only the app but all related data, an option that Apple warns cannot be undone.
Alternatively, tap Offload App, which frees up storage used by the app but keeps its documents and data. If the app is still available, you can reinstall it later, and all your data will, in theory, be restored to the right place.
Depending on your phone and what’s on it, you may not see each of the above recommendations. That’s the case for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which replaced the 15 Pro Max I mentioned earlier. But I’ll likely go through a similar exercise on this newer device, since I’m currently using nearly 377GB of the allotted 512GB.
Breaking down Android storage
Google Pixel. Android devices are not all the same, thus where to get the skinny on bloated files also varies — and yes, I’m mixing a metaphor. On a Google Pixel, tap Settings | Storage.
Google reveals how much of your device’s capacity is already occupied and how much space you still have available. It then lists the apps, images, system files and other data that are consuming all that space.
If you tap Free up space, Google surfaces recommendations to delete duplicates, old screenshots, large files, recording media, unused apps, downloaded files and so on. But I chose to cherry-pick the attachments I might be willing to discard. You can dispose of all the items in each category or select the ones you want to remove by filling in the circles next to each item and tapping Move X files to Trash.
Samsung Galaxy. You’ll find your storage breakdown on a Samsung Galaxy by launching Settings | Device care | Storage.
Samsung reveals the percentage of your internal storage that is used and lists the files, apps and so on behind that number. As with Apple, Samsung lists shortcut options. Tapping Trash lets you delete files in the Trash across various apps.
Tapping Unused apps collects apps you haven’t used in 30 days and gives you the option to get rid of them.
Tapping Duplicate files identifies files that you have multiple copies of, which may be a no-brainer to delete.
And by default, tapping Large files flags files larger than 25MB. Not big enough? Tap the three vertical dots ⋮ in the upper-right corner of the screen to flag files larger than 100MB, 500MB or a custom size that you choose.
Bonus tip: Clean up more than your rarely used files
Why stop at removing files? Now that you’ve got momentum and freed up space on the phone, freshen up your device in other ways.
Curtail notifications, unsubscribe to newsletters you rarely if ever read, and clear an app’s cache or temporary data. You will not only be clearing out your phone but also your head.
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
AARP Membership
Join AARP for only $15 per year with automatic renewal. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of benefits, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine.
You Might Also Like
How and Why to Delete Your Old Text Messages
Wipe away financial risks, embarrassing exchanges. Save on storage too
How Do I Delete Apps on My Smartphone?
These forgotten or infrequently used programs are merely taking up space
Trim Your Smartphone Contacts Easily
The phone’s contacts list may be drowning in duplicates