How to find and delete large videos on your phone
A minute of 4K video takes hundreds of megabytes — as much as hundreds of photos. That is why deleting a few large videos frees space faster than cleaning up photos.
How big are videos?
Size depends on resolution, frame rate and format. The higher the quality and the longer the clip, the bigger it gets: 4K at 60 fps takes several times more than 1080p at 30 fps. Long recordings of concerts, school events and screen recordings are the first candidates.
On iPhone
- Open Photos → Media Types → Videos. Thumbnails show the duration — long videos are almost always the heaviest.
- Check Settings → General → iPhone Storage → Messages → Review Large Attachments: videos from conversations, sorted by size.
- Look in the Files app → Downloads: downloaded videos often sit there for years.
- After deleting, empty Recently Deleted — otherwise the space only comes back after 30 days.
On Android
- Files by Google: Clean → Large files — sorted by size.
- File manager: open DCIM/Camera and sort by size.
- Google Photos: if videos are already backed up, remove local copies with “Free up space”.
Videos in messengers
Telegram and WhatsApp keep every video you have watched. Telegram: Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Usage; WhatsApp: Settings → Storage and Data → Manage Storage — the heaviest chats and files are listed there.
How to compress a video on iPhone
If you want to keep a clip but make it smaller, there is no built-in “compress” button — but these three approaches work:
- Trim it. Open the video → Edit, drag the ends of the timeline, then tap Done → Save Video as New Clip. The new file is smaller; delete the original afterwards.
- Record smaller files. Settings → Camera → Record Video: 1080p at 30 fps takes several times less space than 4K at 60 fps, and the High Efficiency (HEVC) format roughly halves it again.
- Use a compressor app to re-encode the clip at a lower resolution. Pick one that processes video on the device, and check the result before deleting the original.
To send a big video you rarely need to compress it yourself: messaging apps shrink videos automatically, and you can share the full-quality original as an iCloud Drive or Google Drive link.
Sort videos quickly with swipes
Temfy cleaner has a dedicated Videos filter: videos appear one at a time, swipe left to delete, right to keep. After you confirm, the app shows how many megabytes you freed.
Tip. Before deleting precious videos, copy them to a computer or the cloud — you cannot reshoot them.
Free up space in a couple of minutes
Temfy cleaner shows your library one photo at a time: swipe left to delete, right to keep. Videos and screenshots have their own filters, and everything is processed on your phone.