How I got 25GB back on my iPhone
You go to take a photo of an important moment, and up pops a “Storage Almost Full” notification.
That happened to me this past Lebaran (Eid al-Fitr), with my nieces and nephews at their cutest. The moment was gone because my phone was full.
So I finally cleaned it up. And I got back more than 25GB without deleting a single memory.
Move, don’t delete
If you use a 128GB iPhone (like me) or a 64GB one, you’ve surely felt this: phone full → apps can’t update → the camera lags → WhatsApp can’t download files.
When I checked, what took up the most space was old photos and videos. Tens of GB. Rarely opened, but way too precious to delete.
The fix isn’t deleting everything. It’s moving it.
I use Google Photos to back up all my photos and videos to the cloud. Once I’m sure they’re safe there, I delete them from the iPhone.
My simple rule: anything more than two years old → delete it from the phone. The backup stays safe in the cloud.
The result: 25–35GB back.
The phone isn’t slow anymore. The camera runs smoothly. Apps can update again. And if I need an old photo, I just open Google Photos and it’s all still there.
It feels like I bought a new phone, when all I did was tidy up.
Why Google Photos and not iCloud
- You can get to it from any device: Android, iPhone, laptop. You’re not locked into one brand.
- The search is smart. Type “beach” or “Lebaran” and it finds them right away.
- And if one day you switch to an Android phone, your photos stay safe. No messy migration.
How to do it
It’s easy:
- Install Google Photos on your iPhone.
- Back up all your photos and videos (make sure you’re on WiFi).
- Wait until everything is uploaded.
- Delete them from your iPhone.
- Empty “Recently Deleted” so you actually get the storage back.
Five steps. But you really feel the difference.
Keeping it from filling up again
I now have Google Photos back up automatically, so new photos go straight to the cloud.
Every 2–3 months I go through them, and whatever’s already backed up, I delete from the phone’s storage.
The phone always stays light. The memories stay safe.
One thing to remember: Google Photos is only free up to 15GB (it shares your Google Drive quota).
If you have a lot of photos and videos, 15GB isn’t enough. I use Google One so I have room to spare. But if you’re just starting, the free 15GB is enough for the important photos you open often.
I didn’t need a new iPhone, or to delete my memories. Moving old photos to the cloud and deleting them from the phone was enough.
If you keep getting the “Storage Almost Full” notification too, try this. I regret not doing it sooner.