Why videos fill your iPhone
A photo is a few megabytes. A minute of video is many times that, and the setting you record in makes a huge difference. These are roughly the sizes your iPhone shows under Settings, Camera, Record Video:
| Recording | About per minute |
|---|---|
| 720p HD at 30 fps | 40 MB |
| 1080p HD at 30 fps (the default) | 60 MB |
| 1080p HD at 60 fps | 90 MB |
| 4K at 24 fps | 135 MB |
| 4K at 30 fps | 170 MB |
| 4K at 60 fps | 400 MB |
So one 10 minute clip in 4K at 60 fps can be around 4 GB. That is why clearing a handful of long videos often frees more space than deleting a thousand photos.
Find big videos in the Photos app
- Open Photos and tap Collections.
- Scroll down to Media Types and tap Videos.
- Each video shows its length. Start with the longest ones.
- Open a video you do not need, tap the bin and confirm.
Length is only a rough guide, because a short 4K clip can be bigger than a long 1080p one. Look in Slo-mo and Screen Recordings under Media Types too. They are often big and rarely watched again.
Check a video's file size
Open the video in Photos and swipe up, or tap the info button. The details show the file size along with the date and the camera it was taken with.
See your videos biggest first with Scrub
In Scrub, open Scroll. Your videos play in a full screen feed, biggest first. Flick up for the next one and tap Delete to add it to your delete list, or tap again to take it off.
Sweep also has a Big videos pile for videos over 200 MB, which you can save as smaller HD copies, and a Screen recordings pile. A video that is only in iCloud shows as In iCloud while you are offline.
Big videos sent in Messages
Videos people send you in Messages are stored on your iPhone too. Open Settings, General, iPhone Storage, tap Messages, then Review Large Attachments to see them biggest first.
Record smaller videos from now on
In Settings, Camera, Record Video, pick the quality you record in. 4K at 60 fps looks great but takes the most of the everyday settings. 1080p HD at 30 fps, the default, is a good middle ground at about a seventh of the size.
Also check Formats in the same Camera settings. High Efficiency saves video at roughly half the size of Most Compatible.
Get the space back
Deleted videos wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days. Empty it in the Photos app to free the space right away. More tips in how to free up storage on your iPhone.