So I own a 128Gb iPhone 12 mini. Have experienced the same issue with my prev iPhone as well. My storage got full almost three days back. Now I deleted an app taking around 1.5 gb of space and then it got emptied as expected. But after sometime what do I see, the storage is full again with me not doing anything. Next I uninstall another app, storage empties and then it is full again… What the….

Now I delete some pictures and clear my bin too almost 2 gb.. After some time the storage is full again.. Don’t know why and what is happening, does this happen with you guys too ?

And also , how do you deal with the issue once your storage is full…

Has your phone run out of space, and you did your due diligence to clear it out? Was that space then turned into “system data?” How do you get rid of system data?

Well, from what I read on different blogs and Apple support articles, all you can really do is offload unused apps, get rid of messages, clear out caches in different apps, etc. but that’s not really getting rid of system data…and I’ve noticed my phone seemingly getting sluggish over the last few weeks after offloading a ton of movies from traveling recently. It basically turned that data into system data. So here’s the trick…

If you have an iPhone capable of shooting ProRes video, go into your camera, go into video mode, and enable ProRes. You’ll notice a ticker at the top that tells you the maximum amount of time you can shoot in this mode. It will more than likely be 0 minutes, but you will see right below that a spinning ticker saying “optimizing resources.” This is getting rid of that system data that’s unneeded. I just left my phone in this mode for a few minutes and it freed up five minutes worth of video, but then gave me the option to continue free resources. It essentially got rid of the rest of the system data that wasn’t needed and left me with the free space above!

Hope this helps!

My iPhone storage is constantly full, and I’m tired of manually deleting stuff. Got a message "Iphone Storage Full" Is there a way to free up space automatically without going through every app and photo? Looking for something simple that actually works! Any recommendations? Thanks a lot guys

My phone keeps giving me the notification that my phone storage is full. But I’ve offloaded or deleted all but maybe 4 apps in my phone. Deleted some photos and videos, text and large attachments. Every suggestion. But more than half my storage isnt even being used by me. What do I do here? It’s an iPhone XR

Currently trying to clear up space on my iPhone storage - I’ve deleted all large attachments but it still shows that it’s taking up 12.75GB. When I click Messages it says it’s photos within my messages that are taking up space. But I’ve deleted it all? Anyone have any advice? I’m at wits end with this storage stuff - and I pay $9.99 for iCloud too!

Hey I have recently purchased iCloud of 200GB and it’s sync and already used up 150GB! And my iPhone storage gets being filled again and again even though I have iCloud sync on! How can I free up my iPhone storage? Please help!

even if i delete every photo and every single app on my phone, they add up to practically less than 2.5GB

everything else is eaten up by "other" storage.

how do i clear "other" storage?

I never have enough storage to update or to download new apps because my storage always seems to be full and I can’t remove any of these apps cause I need them all and why is my photos out taking out almost a gigabyte? I have often my storage on.

I have an iPhone 11 and an iPad and they're constantly reporting storage full, no matter how many photos & apps I delete or offload. This is a constant problem.

I'll go through with a cleaner program and I'll delete about 4GB of photos and videos, and even the storage indicator will show that I have tons of room left. Then, an hour later, I’ll still get “storage full” messages.

This happens on both my iPhone and iPad.

I have iCloud storage and also pay extra for added storage; it's nowhere near full on my iCloud account.

Is this a bug? Known issue?

Hi guys!

My IPhone 8 says the storage is full even though I keep deleting apps and pictures. This has been going on for 2 weeks.

When I connect it to iTunes, it shows that I have 8GB available. When I try to save the phone on iTunes, it’s says the storage is too full to sync, though.

I keep deleting pictures and nothing changes. I emptied the deleted pictures section. I deleted my browser history.

It says I have around 18Gb of system data and every time I delete something the number just gets bigger instead of the available storage.

I still have ICloud storage available. I’ve turned on/off the phone a few times, doesn’t change anything.

Do you have any idea what i could do ? I can’t even open WhatsApp so it’s been really hard :( thanks !

I’m under iOS 16.3.1 btw.

UPDATE: After searching the internet far and wide for solutions, as well as having further glitches with my phone (such as an unresponsive touchscreen), I was able to get my phone working again. Although iTunes couldn't update my phone in Recovery Mode, my phone did start working properly after I exited Recovery Mode. It was as simple as that. Because I never clicked on the "Restore" option on iTunes, I did not lose any data.

I'm currently in the process of heavily reducing the amount of storage I have and backing everything up in order to ensure that my phone doesn't glitch the way it did again.

—

Hello all! I currently have an iPhone 13, and my storage on it is currently full -- it is currently at 127.9 GB (which I have never seen before; I've only ever seen it at 127.8) out of 128 GB. However, I've been trying to clear up space and it seems that I'm unable to do so. I know it's normal to not be able to delete any photos when having full iPhone storage, but I've never experienced a time when I couldn't delete any apps either. I've tried deleting my apps from the homescreen, both by long pressing the app and tapping "Remove App" as well as long pressing the homescreen and tapping that "-" sign. Neither method works. I also tried to delete my apps through Settings and the App Store, but I get kicked out of both before I can do anything meaningful on either. This means I have no proper access to Settings or the App Store at the moment; I can only view both for a quick amount of time before I get kicked out. I can't even tap on some of my Settings categories either.

Before this issue started occurring, I had offloaded most of my apps as a way to free up space. Only two apps of mine (specifically ones that I had downloaded from the App Store) remain. One of them seemingly still works. This app also gives me the option to clear app cache, which I have already tried doing multiple times yet my iPhone storage is still full. The other app I have is not letting me do anything on it, meaning that it's not working for me. I also noticed that neither of these apps appear when I go to the main screen of my Settings and scroll all the way down to view my list of apps. As for some of Apple's apps, I have no access to Notes or Safari. I get kicked out of Notes every time I try to go on the app, and when it comes to Safari, the search function does not go through. My bookmarks on Safari also seem to have deleted by themselves because of full storage.

I have also tried seeing if I could transfer my photos and videos to my USB flash drives, but I can't do that either. I have a USB adapter, and when I connect it to my iPhone, my iPhone is not detecting it in the Files app. I have also tried connecting my iPhone to my HP laptop using my USB-C to Lightning cable. While I can still charge my phone this way, my laptop is unable to access any of my iPhone photos, even when I tap on "Trust" when the "Trust This Computer?" prompt on my phone pops up. The iTunes Store on my laptop is also saying that an unknown error is occurring, every time it asks if it can access the contents of my phone.

Honestly, I'm at a loss. I have no idea what to do. I've had full storage multiple times in the past, and there were two times a few years ago where I restarted my old iPhone (it was an XR at 64 GB) only for my phone to be stuck on the Apple logo. This caused me to have to get the phone factory reset at Best Buy. I am not willing to have that happen again with my iPhone 13, especially since there are several photos and memories that I have not yet backed up to my USB drives.

Does anyone know what else I can do?

I've searched the thread but haven't found anything

So I’ve got the Iphone 16 plus 256gb iOS 26.0 and honestly thought that would be more than enough, but I still end up filling it up mostly with pictures and videos. My storage is constantly close to full.

Do most people actually pay for the monthly iCloud subscription? Or is that just Apple convincing us we need it?

Also, I’ve seen those USB drives you can plug into your iPhone to move files over are those actually worth getting, or do they end up being more hassle than they’re worth?

And if you don’t mind, could you share a screenshot of your storage breakdown? I’m curious how other people’s storage looks compared to mine. Thanks y'alll