You thought 128 gigabytes sounded like enough when you first bought your phone, right?
However, a few years from now, many of you will have received the dreaded notification: storage full.
You can delete photos and videos to free up space (I mean, do you really need all six shots of your bagel, or all three blurry videos of your dog being cute?)
There is guides to remove duplicates quicklyAnd you may not know it, but you get free photo storage as part of your Amazon Prime membership.
And of course there are four other places to store cloud photos. But there’s a little-known setting that could be to blame if you’re running low on storage.
You thought 128 gigabytes sounded like enough when you first bought your phone, right? However, a few years from now, many of you will have received the dreaded notification: storage full.
But first things first, to see what’s taking up space, open Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
You’ll see a graph that represents how much free space you have and what apps, files, and photos are consuming your phone’s memory.
Do you notice that your videos and photos are using a good part? Makes sense.
Quality, length, resolution, bit rate, and format all have an impact on the file size.
One minute of 1080p footage takes up about 130MB. The same 60 seconds shot in 4K? 475MB. A 10-minute 4K video could consume almost 4 GB of space.
Photos can also consume quite a bit of space.
Again, it depends on factors like resolution, format, and compression. An optimized JPEG with decent quality is about 3-5MB. An uncompressed 12-megapixel photo could consume 36MB.
Just like videos, photos can also take up a lot of space on your smartphone. The size of an image file depends on several factors, such as its resolution, the format in which it is stored, and the amount of compression applied.
The space-filling stage like no other
You want your videos to look great, so turning on 4K is a no-brainer, right? If it’s good enough for your TV, it’s good enough for your phone!
It’s available on the iPhone 8 and later and is great if you want to display your videos on your TV or in a place larger than the standard phone screen.
The problem is that those files are much larger than standard resolution videos.
To check your video settings, go to Settings > Camera > Record Video and select from the list of options. Turn off 4K.
What about the photos?
When you take a photo with your phone or digital camera, it is saved as an image file, such as JPEG, TIFF, or RAW. A JPEG is a processed and compressed image ideal for everyday use.
RAW files are huge by comparison and can eat up a ton of storage space. RAW files are just that: raw photographic data. Your camera stores the photo as it was taken, without processing or compression.
RAW photos take up a ton of storage space, and Apple itself puts a warning in camera settings
RAW photos take up a ton of storage space, and Apple itself puts a warning in the camera settings, citing that each file is 25MB. Compare this to the standard JPEG photos on your phone that take up around 1MB of space.
The result is a much larger file but comes with more control. You can edit a photo’s white balance, color, and exposure more precisely with a RAW file.
It wasn’t that long ago that the RAW image format was reserved for digital cameras. Apple introduced its ProRAW format with iOS 14.3 for iPhone 12 Pro and later. If you turned it on and find yourself out of storage, it might be time to downgrade.
To turn it off: Go to Settings > Camera > Formats, then turn off Apple ProRAW. You can also switch between 12 MP or 48 MP resolution photos here.
Photo Settings 101
Your phone’s camera does much more than just point and click. These are the settings you’ll likely see and what they do.
Resolution – Adjusting the resolution allows you to control the quality and size of the file. The higher the resolution, the higher the quality and the larger the file.
HDR (High Dynamic Range): HDR combines multiple exposures of the same scene to create a vivid, high-contrast image.
Night Mode – Use this in low light. Advanced algorithms to illuminate and reduce noise in dark environments.
Portrait mode: Depth-sensing technology creates a shallow depth-of-field effect, so the background is smoothly blurred and the subject is in focus.
Pro/Manual Mode: Get full control over settings like ISO, shutter speed, and focus, similar to a DSLR camera.
Panoramic: Capture wide landscapes. Move your camera and it will automatically stitch the images into one photo.
Burst Mode: Hold down the shutter button to take a series of photos faster than you could manually. It is ideal for action shots, sports, children and animals.
