How to Optimize iPhone Storage to Keep Your Work Running Smoothly

by Daniel Raymond · April 7, 2025

Project managers are true multitaskers – they control what needs to get done, when it needs to happen, who’s doing it, stay in touch with clients, manage deadlines, budgets, quality – you name it. And more often than not, all of that occurs right on their iPhones. So when iPhone storage fills up, and the device starts lagging, slowing down, or limiting what you can do, it’s not just annoying, it can seriously mess with your workflow and the whole team.

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But how do you fix it fast without wasting time deleting random files between emails and meetings? Here’s a quick guide to help you free up space and keep your work moving smoothly.

It’s clear that if you want your iPhone to run at its best, you should ideally optimize every type of file – photos, downloads, messages, and more. But when you’re racing against deadlines, that’s just not realistic. So, in this guide, we’re keeping it simple and focusing on two categories that usually take up the most space and are the easiest to manage: photos/videos and apps. We won’t cover how to clean up other iPhone storage categories for now – this article is about quick ways that make a big difference.

How to Clean Up iPhone Memory Occupied by Apps

Given the nature of a project manager’s job (keeping tabs on everything and everyone), it’s no surprise your iPhone is packed with apps like messengers, planners, trackers, browsers, and more. That’s why starting your storage optimization with apps is actually a smart move.

1. Clear the Application Cache

Applications on your iPhone not only consume storage space through their initial installation but also continuously accumulate cache. These are temporary files meant to make apps load faster, but if you don’t clear them out every so often, they can pile up and take over a huge chunk of your storage (sometimes even tens of gigabytes). This is especially true for browsers and messaging apps that deal with constant streams of data.

To show you how to handle this, let’s start by clearing your browser cache – specifically, Safari, since it’s Apple’s default browser and often used for team collaborations on platforms like Asana or Notion.

Start by opening the ‘Settings’ app on your iPhone.
In the settings menu, scroll down and select ‘Apps,’ where you need to find Safari.

In Safari’s settings, tap Clear History and Website Data.
You’ll see a pop-up letting you know this will remove your history, cookies, and other browsing data. Tap to confirm and clear the cache.

If you use other browsers like Chrome, Edge, or Firefox, the idea’s the same, but you’ll clear the cache from the browser app’s own settings rather than through your iPhone’s settings.

Most messengers also include a built-in option to clear their cache. We’ll demonstrate this with Telegram, but in other apps, you’ll usually find a similar setting with a similar name. (And by the way, if you rely heavily on one Messages app, removing old conversations can also help free up some space.)

Launch the Telegram app on your iPhone.
Tap on the ‘Settings’ icon at the bottom right of the screen.
Within the settings menu, select ‘Data and Storage’.
Find and select the ‘Storage Usage’ option.

You can view how much space the cache is taking up and clear it by tapping ‘Clear Entire Cache.’
Confirm your choice to clear the cache. This will remove temporary files, such as images and videos, that are stored to speed up the app.

If you’re using a messenger that doesn’t offer a built-in cache-clearing option, don’t worry – we’ll cover the alternative way to manage those apps in the next section.

2. Uninstall Applications Completely

If you’ve got apps on your iPhone that you don’t use anymore, you should delete them. It not only clears storage but also helps clean up your home screen, which makes your phone feel a bit faster.

Go through your home screen or app library to find the app you want to delete. If you keep your apps in folders, make sure to check those, too, so you don’t miss anything.
Press and hold the app icon until a quick action menu shows up, then tap Remove App. Confirm the deletion, and the app will be uninstalled.
If you’re doing this to clear the cache for an app that doesn’t have a built-in option, just reinstall it after deleting.

How to Optimize iPhone Photo and Video Storage

Although project management is not a profession directly associated with content creation, like social media management, your iPhone’s storage may still overflow with photos and videos, especially if it serves as both your personal and work device. Fortunately, there are several strategies to quickly optimize your photo and video storage, even if it contains thousands of items, without the need to delete each one individually.

1. Clear iPhone Photo Storage

Instead of manually going through your Photos app and figuring out what to keep and delete, it’s way easier to use an iPhone cleaner app that does the heavy lifting for you.

We recommend using Clever Cleaner: AI CleanUp App. It’s totally free (no upfront payments or hidden subscriptions), and it helps you clean up your photo and video storage without losing anything important.

With this app, you can quickly remove similar photos (for example, if you accidentally took or downloaded duplicates), delete old screenshots, clear out large videos (like recordings from team or client meetings), and even compress Live Photos to save space. You can find more details on how each feature works on the app’s website – but using all of them together, you can easily free up dozens of gigabytes.

Open the App Store, search for Clever Cleaner, and tap Get to install it on your iPhone.
Once installed, open the app. A pop-up will ask for access to your Photos. Grant permission so it can scan your library.
After scanning, choose the feature you want to use: Similars, Screenshots, Lives, or Heavies. The names make it easy to tell which type of files each one targets.
If you choose Similars or Screenshots, you can delete everything in one go by tapping the large colored button at the bottom. Alternatively, you can tap individual items, check the boxes for the ones you want to delete, uncheck what you want to keep, and then tap Move to Trash.

If you choose Lives or Heavies, tap on any item, select the photos or videos you want to delete or tap Select All at the top. Then hit Move to Trash.

A message will pop up at the bottom, letting you know the files are in the app’s trash. If you want to double-check, tap the message to review your selection. If you’re sure, tap Empty Trash.
After that, the app will let you know the files were moved to your Recently Deleted album and give you instructions on how to clear it. Make sure to follow through. Otherwise, the files will still take up space for the next 30 days.

2. Optimize iPhone Storage with iCloud

If you’re not ready to delete anything in the Photos app, try the Optimize iPhone Storage feature. It works with iCloud and moves your full-resolution photos and videos to Apple’s servers, leaving smaller, space-saving versions on your device. Whenever you need the original, you can download it – just make sure you’re connected to the internet.

Tap the Settings app on your iPhone.
At the top of the screen, tap your name to open your Apple ID settings.
Tap iCloud to access your iCloud options.
Select Photos from the list of iCloud-connected apps.

Tap Optimize iPhone Storage. This will replace full-resolution photos and videos on your device with smaller versions, while storing the originals in iCloud.

Keep in mind that iCloud only gives you 5 GB of free storage. If your photo and video library is larger than that, you’ll need to upgrade to an iCloud+ plan. These start at $0.99/month for 50 GB. It’s a small cost, but definitely something to consider if you want to store a lot of media in iCloud while freeing up space on your iPhone.

Conclusion

As you can see, optimizing your iPhone’s storage isn’t all that complicated. The methods in this guide are quick to implement, so you can tidy up your device even on a short lunch break or between tasks.

Here, we’ve concentrated on the basics – photos, videos, and apps, which tend to hog the most space. But for the best results, consider managing all the files on your iPhone, like downloads, offline content from streaming apps, text messages, emails, notes, and more.

Taking this all-in approach keeps your iPhone running smoothly, so you can handle your job as a project manager without storage limits or workflow disruptions.