Storage full? This might be why

July 15, 2023

By Kim Komando

When you always have a pro-quality camera in hand, you know what happens: You take a ton of pictures and videos. Do you need all six shots of your bagel or the three blurry videos of your dog being cute? Uh, no.

There’s a setting that might be to blame if you’re running low on storage.

What’s taking up all your storage?

On iPhone: Open Settings > General > iPhone Storage. 

On Android: Steps vary depending on your model. On most phones, go to Settings > Storage.

Notice your videos and photos are using up a good chunk? Keep reading.

This setting fills space like no other

You want your videos to look great, so switching on 4K is a no-brainer, right? The problem is those files are a lot larger than the standard-resolution videos. 

• On an iPhone: Go to Settings > Camera > Record Video and select from the list of options. Choose an option that doesn’t use 4K.
• On Android: Go into your camera and look for settings. Under video, disable 4K.

Pictures eat up storage, too

You know JPEGs. They’re processed, compressed images ideal for everyday use. RAW files are huge by comparison. RAW files are just that — the raw photo data. Your camera stores the photo as it was taken, without processing or compression.

Apple puts a warning in the camera settings: Each file is 25MB. A JPEG? It takes up about 1MB of space. Whoa, baby.

• On an iPhone: Go to Settings > Camera > Formats, then toggle off Apple ProRAW. 
• On Android: Again, head to your camera settings and look for photo resolution options. If your phone shoots RAW photos, you should see an option to switch it off.