“Not enough storage” is one of the most frustrating messages your iPhone can show you, usually just when you’re trying to take a photo or download something. The good news is that it’s almost always fixable, and with a few small changes you can prevent it happening again.

Here’s how to manage storage on your iPhone.

Checking what’s using your space

Go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage.

You’ll see a coloured bar at the top showing how full your phone is, broken down by type (apps, photos, messages, etc.). Below it is a list of every app, ordered by how much space it’s using.

This list is the most useful thing here, it immediately shows you where your storage is going.

The quickest win: Offload Unused Apps

Near the top of the iPhone Storage screen, you may see a recommendation to Enable Offload Unused Apps. Tap it.

This setting automatically removes apps you haven’t opened in a long time, but keeps all your data and settings. If you ever open the app again, it re-downloads in seconds and picks up right where you left off. It’s the lowest-effort way to keep your storage under control.

Deleting apps you don’t use

Scroll through the app list and look for anything large that you rarely (or never) open. Tap the app name, then tap Delete App. This removes both the app and its data.

Common culprits: games, streaming apps, old navigation apps, or anything you downloaded for a one-off purpose.

Photos and videos: usually the biggest culprit

Photos and videos typically take up the most space. A few options:

Turn on iCloud Photos. This uploads your entire photo library to iCloud and removes full-resolution versions from your phone, keeping only smaller previews. Your photos are still completely accessible, they download in full when you open them.

To turn it on: Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Photos → Sync this iPhone.

Note: iCloud’s free plan only includes 5GB. If you have lots of photos, you’ll likely need to upgrade (79p/month for 50GB, £2.49/month for 200GB).

Use Google Photos instead. If you’d rather not pay Apple, Google Photos is a free alternative that backs up your photos and lets you safely delete them from your phone. Download it from the App Store, sign in with a Google account, let it back up, then delete the originals.

Clearing WhatsApp storage

WhatsApp is a hidden space hog. Every photo, video, and voice note sent in chats is saved to your phone.

To clear it: open WhatsApp → Settings → Storage and Data → Manage Storage. You’ll see which chats are using the most space. Tap a chat, select large files, and delete them.

You can also turn off automatic media saving: WhatsApp → Settings → Chats → Save to Camera Roll → Off. This stops new photos being saved to your phone’s camera roll (they’re still in WhatsApp).

Messages

If you’ve been using your iPhone for years, old message threads, especially ones with lots of photos, can take up significant space.

Go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage → Messages. You’ll see a breakdown of attachments. You can delete large attachments without deleting the conversations themselves.

Alternatively, set messages to auto-delete after a year: Settings → Messages → Keep Messages → 1 Year.

When you’re still stuck

If you’ve done all of the above and storage is still tight, it may be worth considering an iCloud+ plan for more online storage, or, if you have an older phone with a small capacity, whether it’s time for an upgrade. iPhones still working well on 64GB are genuinely limited in today’s world of large apps and high-resolution photos.

Running out of storage, or not sure what’s safe to delete? Get in touch with Hebden Tech Tutors, we can go through it with you.