10 Essential Guides to Manage Your iPhone Photos and Videos
The average iPhone user has over 2,400 photos and hundreds of videos. For active photographers and families, those numbers balloon to 10,000-30,000 items consuming 40-120 GB of storage. Managing a library that large requires more than just deleting a few screenshots when the "Storage Full" warning appears.
These 10 techniques cover everything from immediate space recovery to long-term organization strategies. Each one stands alone, but together they form a complete media management system that keeps your library lean, organized, and backed up—without losing a single important memory.
1. Compress Videos with HEVC Encoding
Impact: High | Effort: Low
This is the single most effective action for storage management. Video compression using HEVC encoding shrinks file sizes by 40-70% without visible quality loss. For a library with 30 GB of video, that's 12-21 GB recovered in one session.
How to do it: Use HEVCut to scan your library, identify compressible videos (especially older H.264 files), and batch compress them overnight. The hardware encoder processes about 30 seconds per minute of 4K content.
Who benefits most: Anyone with more than 10 GB of video, especially if you've owned iPhones since before 2017 or receive videos via messaging apps.
2. Convert Live Photos to Stills
Impact: Medium | Effort: Low
Every Live Photo stores a 3-second video clip alongside the still image, roughly doubling its file size. If you have 3,000 Live Photos, that's several gigabytes of hidden video clips you probably never replay.
How to do it: Open a Live Photo in Photos, tap Edit, then tap the Live Photo button and select "Off" to convert it to a still. For bulk conversion, HEVCut can process your entire Live Photo collection at once.
Who benefits most: Anyone who has been shooting with Live Photos enabled for years (it's been the default since iPhone 6s).
Keep the Good Ones
Not all Live Photos should be converted. Some genuinely benefit from the motion—candid laughs, pets doing something funny, kids playing. Review before bulk-converting and mark your favorites to keep as Live Photos.
3. Compress Photos (Especially ProRAW and 48 MP)
Impact: Medium-High | Effort: Low
Photos consume less space individually than videos, but they add up. ProRAW photos (25 MB each), 48 MP full-resolution shots (10-15 MB), and standard JPEGs all compress significantly when converted to optimized HEIF format.
| Photo Type | Before | After | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProRAW 48 MP | 25 MB | 3-5 MB | ~85% |
| 48 MP HEIF | 10-15 MB | 3-5 MB | ~65% |
| Standard JPEG | 3-5 MB | 1.5-2.5 MB | ~50% |
How to do it: Use HEVCut's photo compression feature. It handles format conversion while preserving visual quality and all metadata.
4. Merge Duplicate Photos and Videos
Impact: Medium | Effort: Very Low
Duplicates accumulate silently. Saving the same photo from a group chat and AirDrop, downloading an image you already have, or importing photos from a camera that overlap with screenshots—it all adds up.
How to do it: Open Photos > Albums > scroll to Utilities > Duplicates. Apple's built-in detection finds exact and near-exact matches. Tap "Merge" to keep the highest quality version and delete the rest.
Who benefits most: Users who frequently share media through multiple channels (AirDrop + Messages + email) or import from external cameras.
5. Clean Up Burst Photos
Impact: Low-Medium | Effort: Low
Burst mode captures 10-50 photos per second. Each frame is stored as a separate full-resolution image. If you've triggered burst mode accidentally (common with volume button shots), you might have thousands of unwanted burst frames consuming gigabytes.
How to do it: Photos > Albums > Bursts. Open each burst, tap Select, choose the best shot(s), then tap Done and select "Keep Only [X] Favorites" to delete the rest.
Pro Tip
iOS suggests the sharpest, best-composed frames in each burst with gray dots beneath the filmstrip. Use these suggestions as a starting point—they're usually correct—then keep any additional frames that capture a moment the algorithm missed.
6. Delete Old Screenshots
Impact: Low-Medium | Effort: Very Low
Screenshots are small individually (1-3 MB) but accumulate rapidly. Receipts, directions, text conversations, app screens—most become irrelevant within days but stay in your library forever.
How to do it: Photos > Albums > Screenshots. Sort by date and bulk-delete anything older than a few months. If you need to keep certain screenshots, move them to a dedicated album first.
Ongoing prevention: Review and delete screenshots weekly. It takes 30 seconds and prevents buildup.
7. Manage Message Attachments
Impact: Medium-High | Effort: Low
Every photo, video, GIF, and file sent through iMessage and SMS is stored locally. Group chats with active media sharing can consume 1-5 GB individually.
How to do it:
- Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Messages > Review Large Attachments
- Delete videos and large files you don't need
- Set auto-delete: Settings > Messages > Keep Messages > 1 Year
Videos in Messages Are Often Duplicates
If someone sends you a video via iMessage and you also save it to Photos, you now have two copies—one in Messages and one in Photos. Delete the Messages copy to avoid the duplication. The Photos version is your primary copy.
8. Optimize iCloud Photo Library Settings
Impact: High | Effort: Very Low
If you use iCloud Photos, enable "Optimize iPhone Storage" (Settings > Photos > Optimize iPhone Storage). This keeps full-resolution originals in iCloud and stores smaller thumbnails on your phone. When you open a photo or video, the full version downloads on demand.
Key benefit: Your phone stores only what it needs for browsing, while full-quality originals are always available in the cloud. This can free up 30-70% of your local media storage.
Important: Compress your videos before enabling this feature. iCloud stores whatever version you have locally—if your videos are uncompressed H.264, iCloud stores (and charges you for) the full uncompressed size.
9. Set Your Camera to High Efficiency
Impact: Ongoing | Effort: One-time
Settings > Camera > Formats > High Efficiency. This ensures all new recordings use HEVC (video) and HEIF (photos), which are roughly 50% smaller than their H.264/JPEG equivalents.
This should already be the default, but if you or someone else switched it to "Most Compatible" at some point, every video and photo you've recorded since then is double the size it needs to be.
Check now: It takes 10 seconds and prevents future storage waste.
10. Build a Monthly Maintenance Routine
Impact: Prevention | Effort: 15 minutes/month
All the techniques above work best as a system, not one-time fixes. A simple monthly routine prevents storage from creeping back:
Monthly Media Maintenance
Open HEVCut and compress any new H.264 videos from messaging apps and downloads (5 minutes)
Check Photos > Duplicates and merge any new matches (2 minutes)
Review and delete old screenshots from the past month (2 minutes)
Clear large message attachments in Settings > iPhone Storage > Messages (3 minutes)
Empty Recently Deleted in Photos to reclaim space immediately (30 seconds)
Putting It All Together: Priority Order
If you're starting from scratch, here's the optimal order for maximum impact:
Do First (Biggest Impact)
- 1. Compress all videos (40-70% savings)
- 2. Set camera to High Efficiency
- 3. Enable Optimize iPhone Storage
- 4. Clear message attachments
- 5. Empty Recently Deleted
Do Next (Incremental Gains)
- 6. Compress photos (ProRAW, 48 MP)
- 7. Convert Live Photos to stills
- 8. Merge duplicates
- 9. Clean up bursts
- 10. Delete old screenshots
FAQ
Which technique saves the most space?
Video compression, by far. It typically accounts for 60-80% of total reclaimable space. If you only do one thing from this list, compress your videos.
How long does it take to do everything?
Active time: about 30-45 minutes for the initial cleanup. Video compression runs unattended for 2-6 hours (overnight). After that, monthly maintenance takes 15 minutes.
Will I lose quality on any of my photos or videos?
Not with proper HEVC/HEIF compression. The quality difference is imperceptible on phone, tablet, and TV screens. The only techniques that remove content are deleting duplicates, screenshots, and burst frames—all of which you review before confirming.
Do I need multiple apps for all this?
No. HEVCut handles video compression, photo compression, and Live Photo conversion. Everything else uses built-in iOS features (Photos app, Settings). Two tools cover all 10 techniques.
The 10 Essential Techniques
- Compress videos with HEVC for the single largest storage win (40-70% savings)
- Convert Live Photos to stills to eliminate hidden video clips
- Compress ProRAW and 48 MP photos for significant per-image savings
- Merge duplicates using Apple's built-in Duplicates album
- Clean up burst photos—keep the best, delete the rest
- Delete old screenshots that are no longer relevant
- Clear message attachments in Settings
- Enable Optimize iPhone Storage for iCloud Photos
- Set camera to High Efficiency for all future recordings
- Build a 15-minute monthly maintenance routine to prevent buildup