How to manage photo storage on iPhone without losing the photos you love

As a photo library grows over the years, the temptation is to delete photos in bulk. In practice, most of the space in a library is taken by a few predictable categories, and you can review them without touching a single memory you care about.

This guide walks through the categories in a sensible order: the largest items and the lowest-risk decisions first. Every step works with the built-in Photos app; Pruna simply does the sorting for you so each review takes minutes instead of an afternoon.

First, see what is actually using the space

Open Settings → General → iPhone Storage. The bar at the top shows how much belongs to Photos, Apps, Messages and System Data. On most phones Photos is the largest block, and inside it videos take far more room than pictures: a single minute of 4K video at 60 fps is roughly 400 MB, the same as several hundred photos.

That means the fastest win is almost never "delete lots of photos". It is "find the handful of large videos and the copies you forgot about".

Review these categories in order

1. Large videos. Sort videos by size and look at anything over 50 MB. Screen recordings, long clips of a concert and accidental pocket videos usually sit at the top. Pruna lists them largest first so you can decide in a few swipes.
2. Exact duplicates. Saved-twice downloads, WhatsApp forwards and re-imports create byte-for-byte copies. Removing them costs nothing because the original stays.
3. Similar shots. Bursts and series taken seconds apart. Keep the sharpest frame and let the rest go; Pruna groups them and preselects everything except the best shot and your favourites.
4. Screenshots and screen recordings. Boarding passes, receipts and chat captures from last year rarely need to stay in the camera roll.
5. Live Photos. Each one stores a short video next to the still. If you never play the motion, keeping only the still saves most of that space.
6. Blurry and dark shots. Photos that are out of focus or nearly black are easy to skip in the moment and easy to let go of now.

Safety rules that keep the memories

• Nothing is deleted until you confirm. Pruna shows a summary before anything leaves the library and never removes a photo you marked as a favourite on your behalf.
• Deleted items go to the Recently Deleted album first, where iOS keeps them for up to 30 days. If you change your mind, restore from there.
• Photos are analysed on the iPhone itself. Pruna does not upload your library to a server to find duplicates, so the review works offline as well.
• If a photo is private rather than unwanted, move it to the encrypted vault instead of deleting it. It leaves the camera roll but stays on your phone behind a PIN or Face ID.

Make it a habit

A library is easier to keep tidy a little at a time than to sort in one go. Once a month, open Smart Clean: it brings suggested items from several categories into a single review, counts each item once and lets you choose which categories to include before you confirm.

Pruna is free to download, and scanning, browsing every category and reviewing contacts and calendars are free. Deleting photos and videos is part of Pruna Pro, whose price is shown in the App Store before you subscribe.