How To Reduce Photo File Sizes On Your iPhone

No matter how much you might love your Apple products, even the most dedicated fans can be frustrated with its storage space. Unlike some Android phones, whose storage space you can expand with an SD card, an iPhone can't change its internal device storage as easily. 

Apple has been introducing iPhone models with more storage space for the past few years, which has been a welcomed change. The company's also made iPhones work well with cloud storage, and it's even introduced compatibility with external storage devices with its Files app. 

Still, some people feel like there's never enough space. One reason is that many of us often take and share thousands of photos. Add in the iPhone's increasingly advanced cameras possibly pushing file sizes up too, and you can see where this is going.

Because of the nature of how we use our iPhones, you're bound to invest in cloud storage solutions, like iCloud+, at some point. Or, you might even be one of those rare people who buy external hard drives just to store vacation pictures. Regardless, this doesn't mean you shouldn't try to free some space on your phone.

So, if you're ready to get back some storage space and maybe a few extra dollars worth of storage solutions, here are some quick and easy ways for photos to take up less space on your iPhone.

Many people don't realize that when they delete a photo on their Photos app, those images aren't removed from their iPhones immediately. Typically, the iPhone keeps newly deleted photos and videos in a "Recently Deleted" folder for up to 30 days. The Recently Deleted folder is perfect if you tend to rage-delete entire albums of your partner's face after every fight, for example. However, for people who need storage urgently, this folder can be why your iPhone's used storage isn't changing after a photo deletion spree. To get rid of your photos in the Recently Deleted album permanently, here's how:

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1. On your iPhone, launch the Photos app.
2. In the lower section of the screen, tap Albums.
3. Under Utilities, tap Recently Deleted.
4. In the upper-right corner, tap Select.
5. Select what photos you want to delete.

   

6. Tap the more or three dots icon in the lower-right corner of the screen > Delete.
7. (Optional) To delete all the photos at once, tap the more or three dots icon in the lower-right corner of the screen > Delete All.
8. On the pop-up, tap Delete From This iPhone to confirm your decision.

If you're hesitant to delete some photos forever, you can leave them in the folder, and the Photos app will hold onto them until the 30-day limit is up.

Sometimes, we can get so carried away with taking photos that we miss the moments we're capturing themselves. Thankfully, Apple's Live Photos is designed to help us relive that moment with a short recorded video and sound that plays when you tap and hold on the photo. There's a tradeoff though, in that the extra video and audio attached to the photos can clog up your iPhone. Here's how to keep your favorite Live Photo shot, while getting rid of the audio and video that don't pass the vibe check:

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1. On your iPhone, open the Photos app.

2. In the lower portion of the screen, tap Albums.

3. Under Media Types, tap Live Photos.

4. Select what Live Photo you'd like to delete photos from.

5. In the upper-right corner, tap the more or three dots icon.

6. Tap Duplicate.

7. In the pop-up provided, tap Duplicate as Still Photo.

8. Once the duplicate of the Still Photo appears in your album, you can delete the original Live Photos.

Because Live Photos is on by default, you might want to consider turning the Live Photo feature off to prevent your iPhone from racking up more storage space in the future. 

In the pre-smartphone era, many of us treated every camera click as sacred. But these days, you can be as trigger-happy as you like, and just delete photos afterward. Except, it can still be a problem when you forget to delete them. Thankfully, Apple introduced the Merge feature, which can assist in deleting duplicate photos directly from its native Photos app.

To be considered a duplicate, Apple indicates that a photo can either be an exact copy that does not share the same metadata information, or photos it deems are similar in appearance, but could have a different resolution or format. Here's how to use it.

1. On your iPhone, launch the Photos app.
2. In the lower portion of the screen, tap Albums.
3. Under Utilities, tap Duplicates.
4. Review the similar-looking photos that the Photos app has presented to you.
5. If you want to select the particular photo you want to delete, tap the photo and tap the trash icon in the lower-right corner of the screen.
6. If you don't really mind which photo remains after the merge, tap Merge next to the date of the photo.
7. In the pop-up, confirm your decision by tapping Merge X Exact Copies.

Afterward, the Photos app will keep one copy and the other photo will be sent to the Recently Deleted folder. However, if the Merge feature doesn't cut it for you, you can download a third-party app to give you more control over the processing of deleting your duplicate photos.

High dynamic range (HDR) is a feature that's designed to help you take more detailed photos. According to Apple, HDR works by taking several succeeding photos with varying exposures and combining them to optimize the final photo. In addition, Apple turns HDR on automatically when the iPhone cameras detect the feature will be "most effective." Unfortunately, HDR can't be disabled for newer iPhone models. However, for older iPhone models, such as the iPhone 12, 11, XS, and XR, here's how you can turn off the automatic HDR:

1. On your iPhone, go to your Settings app.

2. Scroll down and tap Camera.

3. Turn off Smart HDR.

For iPhone models 12 and onwards, you can also turn off HDR video recording, which can save you a few GB of storage if you're not big on video quality. To do this, here's how:

1. On your iPhone, go to the Settings app.

2. Tap Camera > Record Video.

3. Next to HDR Video, toggle off the button.

Once you do this, you can effectively reduce the video file size by approximately 5 MB to 40 MB per minute of video, depending on the resolution. With HDR off, a minute of 4K at 60 fps is an estimated 400 MB. On the other hand, a minute of 720 HD at 30 fps is 10% of that (40 MB). Alternatively, there are ways you can compress videos on your iPhone that also help reduce your overall storage issues.