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

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!

If your iPhone’s System Data is taking up too much space, this trick forces iOS to clear cached files. To make it work permanently, follow these steps:

1. Check Current System Data • Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and note the System Data size.

2. Close All Apps • Swipe up or double-press the Home button and close all apps.

3. Prevent Message Deletion (Important!) • Settings > Messages > Keep Messages > Set to “Forever” to avoid data loss.

4. Enable Airplane Mode • Turn on Airplane Mode and disable Wi-Fi & Bluetooth to stop iCloud sync.

5. Change the Date (First Time) • Settings > General > Date & Time > Turn off “Set Automatically” • Set the date 1 year ahead

6. Wait 60 Seconds • Keep your phone awake and unlocked • Check iPhone Storage. If no change, close and reopen Settings.

7. Change the Date (Second Time) • Now set it 3 months ahead from today.

8. Wait Another 60 Seconds • Keep your phone awake and check storage again.

9. Restore Settings • Turn “Set Automatically” back on • Disable Airplane Mode and reconnect Wi-Fi & Bluetooth

This should permanently clear unnecessary System Data. If you want Apple to fix this, submit feedback here: Apple iPhone Feedback

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!

What methods do you use to clear your storage? I’m running low, should have gotten the 128GB version 🥲

I have almost no apps on my phone and everything is laggy because I have no space how do I free space from system data

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!

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?

Hi,

So you may all be aware of the "date trick" for triggering maintenanced (a system process on iOS responsible for cache deletion and management) on iOS to invalidate and expunge System Data (caches) from the disk.

But, cache sometimes gets revalidated - as in System Data goes back to its original size - presumably because maintenanced doesn't finish its process before users set the date back, or because there is a scheduled maintenance period triggered by this date change to expunge the data that isn't triggered immediately (the change to storage after this maintenance period is shown in Storage settings but isn't actually freed at this time).

I have figured out a reliable way to prevent this, and to trigger maintenanced to immediately expunge all cache for good. As in, with this method, you can actually get iOS to immediately reduce System Data use on disk and to have it stay for good. Essentially, you need to set the date into the future, twice.

Read notes below before you begin.

Notes: Make sure you follow Step 3. Also, it's actually not recommended you do this consistently, as caches increase the performance of apps and iOS in general. This should only be done when it spirals out of control. Also only do this if you see System Data above 25GB for best results.

I also recommend deleting and reinstalling Instagram and Discord, if you use them, as they seem to be the mostly sneaky apps camouflaging cache into System Data.

1. Check your current System Data use on iPhone Storage settings.

2. Close all your apps.

3. Critical: Set your iMessages to stay around forever on iMessage settings on iPhone to avoid having your iMessages deleted! Go to Settings > iMessage > Message History > Select 'Forever'. This is important.

4. Set your iPhone in Airplane Mode and turn Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off (this is to avoid anomalies with iCloud, Apple Watch and other apps).

5. Change the date to 1 year into the future from the real date. Make sure you followed Step 3 before this step.

6. Wait 60 seconds. Keep your phone awake.

7. Check System Data use again. It should be much lower. If you don't see a change, close Settings, relaunch and keep checking.

8. Change the date to 3 months in the future from the real date (this is essentially 9 months in the past from the last setting).

9. Wait 60 seconds. Keep your phone awake.

10. Check System Data use again. It should be around the same or lower.

11. Change date back to Automatic.

12. Turn off Airplane Mode.

13. You're golden!

It's absolutely ridiculous this process is even necessary, Apple should get on board to fix the System Data woes. They have been an issue for many years now.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone/

We’ve all been there when you're about to snap the perfect photo, download an app, or update iOS, and bam! “Storage Full.” It’s the absolute worst and always seems to happen at the most inconvenient time. Dealing with limited storage is a headache, whether you’re trying to save a moment or just make space for something new. But don’t stress, freeing up space on your iPhone is way easier than you’d think.

Here’s a no BS guide to some quick and easy ways to clean up your phone and get it running smoothly again. From dealing with a million old photos and unused apps to tackling that mysterious “Other” storage that comes out of nowhere, we’ve got you. Let’s jump right in and get your iPhone back in shape!

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?

This has been moved here as my original post was removed in a separate subreddit for an unknown reason.

This method still works as of iOS 26.2, but may take multiple tries. Send feedback to Apple to have this issue fixed. This method shouldn’t be required these many years later!

—

Hello,

So you may all be aware of the "date trick" for triggering maintenanced (a system process on iOS responsible for cache deletion and management) on iOS to invalidate and expunge System Data (caches) from the disk.

But, cache sometimes gets revalidated - as in System Data goes back to its original size - presumably because maintenanced doesn't finish its process before users set the date back, or because there is a scheduled maintenance period triggered by this date change to expunge the data that isn't triggered immediately (the change to storage after this maintenance period is shown in the Storage view in Settings but isn't actually freed at this time).

I have figured out a reliable way to prevent this, and to trigger maintenanced to immediately expunge all cache for good. As in, with this method, you can actually get iOS to immediately reduce System Data use on disk permanently.

Essentially, you need to set the date into the future, twice.

Read notes below before you begin.

Notes

Make sure you follow Step 3. Also, it's actually not recommended you do this consistently, as caches increase the performance of apps and iOS in general. This should only be done when it spirals out of control. For best results, perform this method when System Data is above 25GB.

I also recommend deleting and reinstalling Instagram and Discord, if you use them, as they seem to be the mostly sneaky apps camouflaging cache into System Data.

General Procedure

1. Check your current System Data use on iPhone

Storage settings.

2. Close all your apps.

3. Critical: Set your iMessages to stay around forever on iMessage settings on iPhone to avoid having your iMessages deleted! Go to Settings > iMessage > Message History > select 'Forever'. This is important.

4. Set your iPhone in Airplane Mode and turn Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off (this is to avoid anomalies with iCloud, Apple Watch and other apps).

5. After following step 3, change the date to 1 year into the future from the real date.

6. Wait 60 seconds. Keep your phone awake.

7. Check System Data use again. It should be much lower. If you don't see a change, close Settings, relaunch and keep checking.

8. Change the date to 3 months in the future from the real date (this is essentially 9 months in the past from the last setting).

9. Wait 60 seconds. Keep your phone awake.

10. Check System Data use again. It should be around the same or lower.

11. Change date back to ‘Automatic’.

12. Turn off Airplane Mode.

13. You're golden (hopefully)!

Hope this helps! If you hate having to do this, contact Apple.

—

Updated December 25th, 2025.

Please, I’m getting desperate

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?