1. Photos
Photos is one of the biggest storage consumers on any iPhone, and for good reason—it stores not just your pictures, but also videos, Live Photos, edited versions of photos, and even deleted items (which stick around in the “Recently Deleted” album for 30 days). Over time, all of this media can quickly eat up tons of space. One way to help is to enable “Optimize iPhone Storage” in Settings > Photos. This stores full-resolution images in iCloud and keeps smaller, device-friendly versions on your phone.
2. iMessages
Messages may not seem like a storage hog at first glance, but all those text threads with photos, videos, voice notes, and GIFs can quietly pile up in the background. Attachments sent through Messages are often saved automatically, which adds up fast. One tip is to go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages and set it to 30 Days instead of Forever to regularly clear out old conversations and free up space.
3. Apple Maps
Apple Maps stores data like frequently visited locations, recent searches, and downloaded map tiles to help the app load faster and work more efficiently. While this is convenient and probably a must-have for you, it can gradually accumulate storage usage, especially if you travel often or use the app frequently. Free up some space by clearing your Maps history. Open Maps, tap your profile icon, select “Recents,” and choose “Clear” to remove stored locations and data.
4. Mail
Mail holds onto a lot of data, including entire email threads, attachments, cached images, and more. The longer you’ve been using Mail, the more space it tends to claim. It’s important to delete messages after some time so that you aren’t saving every message you’ve ever received. Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts, then select each email account and reduce how many days’ worth of mail is synced (e.g., setting it to sync only the last 30 days). This limits how much is stored locally on your device.
5. Apple Music
Apple Music can use a surprising amount of storage, especially if you’ve downloaded albums, playlists, or songs for offline listening. Over time, this offline content can take up several gigabytes without you realizing it. Head to Settings > Music > Downloaded Music to review and delete any albums or songs you no longer need offline. This can help save tons of storage space.