Large attachments can occupy significant space on your iPhone and slow its performance. Fortunately, you can remove them to free up valuable space. This article will explain three methods to delete large attachments on iPhone.
How To Find Large Attachments on iPhone
The first step to remove large attachments on iPhone is to identify them. Many message attachments could be on your device, e.g., pictures and images, but you don’t know where to find them. Fortunately, we’ll teach you how.
You can locate message attachments using the Review Large Attachments menu or via your iPhone’s Messages settings.
Follow these steps to access Review Large Attachments:
- Launch the Settings app.
- Go to General.
- Go to iPhone Storage. You’ll see a Review Large Attachments option under the Recommendations tab if you have large attachments on your iPhone. If this option is unavailable, it implies you don’t have sizeable attachments on your phone.
- Tap the Review Large Attachments option to see a list of all the attachments on your iPhone.
Follow these steps to delete large attachments via Messages:
- Launch the Settings app.
- Go to General.
- Go to iPhone Storage.
- Scroll down the list of apps, and tap Messages. Under Documents & Data, you’ll see a breakdown of the attachments on your iPhone, including pictures and videos.
How to Remove Large Attachments from iPhone
You can clear large attachments on iPhone via three main methods:
- 🗑️ Deleting them from the Messages storage settings
- ❌ Removing them from individual chats
- 🖥️ Using third-party data management apps
Some of these methods are more convenient and easier to use than others, which we will explain below.
Method 1: Delete Large Attachments from Message App Settings
This method involves clearing the attachments from where your Messages app has grouped them under the Settings menu.
- Launch Settings.
- Go to General.
- Go to iPhone Storage.
- Tap Messages. You’ll see a breakdown of the attachments in your Messages app into five categories: Conversations, Photos, Videos, GIFs & Stickers, and Other.
- Tap any category and select the attachments you want to remove.
- Tap the trash icon and confirm the deletion.
Method 2: Remove Attachments from Individual Chats
Another option to remove large attachments from iPhone is via individual chats. This method involves browsing through individual chats to find and delete attachments.
- Launch the Messages/iMessage app on your iPhone.
- Click any message thread you want to delete attachments from.
- Tap the person or group’s name at the top of the screen.
- Scroll down to the Photos section.
- Tap See All Photos to see all the photos and videos you have shared with the contact.
- Tap Select at the top-right corner and choose the images and videos you want to eliminate.
- Tap Delete at the bottom-right corner and Delete [Number Of] Attachments.
You can repeat the above process for as many individual chats as possible. It’s advisable to start with the contacts you frequently message, as you’re more likely to find attachments on their profile. For instance, you can start with your family and close friends before moving on to other contacts.
Method 3: Clear Large Attachments Using Third-Party Tools
Third-party apps solve many problems for iPhone users, including deleting large attachments to get more storage. One of the best things about the Apple ecosystem is the large amount of developers building third-party tools with different functionalities.
You can find third-party apps on the App Store to manage your iPhone’s data and clear unnecessary attachments such as old videos. These apps let you filter and sort your photos or videos according to date, size, and other qualities. They can also help you identify and delete duplicated photos.
Examples of such apps include:
- Cleaner: This app can scan your gallery to identify and delete large photos and videos.
- Cleanup – Phone Storage Cleaner: This app lets you sort files according to size and delete the large ones in one go.
- Remo Duplicate Photos Remover: This photo duplicate cleaner app provides a scanning algorithm to detect large photos on your iPhone and eliminate them.
- Gemini Photos – Gallery Cleaner: This app helps you clean out the clutter from your iPhone. It can identify screenshots, duplicated pictures, images containing excessive text, and other types of clutter. After identifying unnecessary photos, you can swipe up to keep the ones you want and swipe down to delete them; it is that simple.
Be careful about any third-party app you download to manage files. These apps can upload your files to external servers for processing, so ensure you choose an app from a trusted developer like the ones we listed above. After downloading a third-party app, you must grant it access to your Photos and Files apps to allow it to scan and sort them out.
How to Delete Message Attachments on iPhone Automatically
“Prevention is better than cure” is a popular proverb that applies to many cases, including your iPhone usage. It’s better to prevent large attachments from clogging your iPhone storage in the first place than racing to delete them after they have occupied sizeable space.
You can configure your Messages app to delete messages after a set period automatically.
Follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll down to the list of apps and tap Messages.
- Find and tap Keep Messages.
- You’ll have three options: 30 Days, 1 Year, or Forever. Change it to 30 Days or 1 Year. You’ll see a notification that your iPhone will permanently delete all messages older than the specified period.
- Tap Delete. At this point, you have configured your device to automatically clear messages after the specified period.
Deleting messages automatically after 30 days or 1 year helps you clear your iPhone storage. It prevents large attachments from occupying unnecessary space on your iPhone.
FAQ
Why does the review large attachments feature not delete them?
This feature is designed to collate the large attachments across all apps on your iPhone and show them to you in one place. It’s not designed to delete them. However, you can still remove the attachments by clicking the Edit button, selecting the attachments you want to remove, and pressing the Trash button to confirm the deletion.
If you’re unable to delete large attachments by following the above steps, restart your iPhone, and it should work afterward.
Is there a way to delete all large attachments on iPhone?
The Review Large Attachments option lets you delete all large attachments on iPhone at once. Head to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Review Large Attachments. Select all the attachments and tap the trash icon to remove them from your iPhone.
Does deleting large attachments on an iPhone delete them from Photos?
Yes, it does. Deleting large attachments on your iPhone automatically deletes them from Photos. However, you can save an attachment to your Photos gallery before deleting it. This option means the attachment would be on your Photos app despite removing it from iMessage attachments.
Conclusion
We have described the three best approaches to delete large attachments on iPhone at once or individually. You can use the Review Large Attachments option, delete them from the Messages settings, remove them from individual chats, or use third-party apps to find and eliminate the attachments. We provided step-by-step guides for each approach, which you can easily follow.
iPhone users often complain of limited storage space, especially those using the 64 GB models. It’s a constant struggle to manage and prevent storage space from filling up. We have explained how to delete large attachments on iPhone to avoid this issue.
If you have important attachments on your iPhone, you can store them on iCloud and delete them from your local device. You can log into iCloud to retrieve the important attachments anytime.
This article was written by Stefan Ionescu, a Contributing Writer at Handy Recovery Advisor.
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