How do I clean up storage on my phone?

Phone storage usually fills up in the same places every time: photos and videos, downloads, message attachments, and apps you forgot were there.

Start with the biggest files first. On iPhone, the storage screen shows recommendations and the apps using the most space, which makes it easier to remove the obvious offenders instead of hunting one file at a time.

The useful habit is not a one-time purge. It is deleting the same categories of clutter whenever the phone starts feeling full, so you never have to do a desperate 2 a.m. cleanup again.

If your phone is consistently tight on space because of a big photo and video library, a phone-friendly flash drive like this one lets you offload the largest files in a few minutes and clear them off the device.