Storage full? How to adjust your photos to save space

April 19, 2024

By Kim Komando

Fun fact: Whenever I’m watching a show with Barry that I’m not very into (ahem, “Franklin,” so boring), I open up my photo app and start deleting. It’s my time for a little digital cleanup. 

It’s not just junk filling up storage. High-res photos look stunning, but they eat up so much space on your phone. If you want to scale it back a bit, I’ve got the lowdown for you. You can thank me later because you’ll likely never see that annoying “Storage full” notification again.

There isn’t a direct setting within the Camera app for iPhones to lower the resolution. But you’ve got a couple of workarounds:

• Use a different app: You can download third-party camera apps from the App Store to set the photo resolution manually. The Camera+ or ProCamera apps are both good options.
• Post-capture editing: After taking the photo, reduce its resolution using editing tools. Simply open the picture, select Edit and crop the image slightly. This will reduce the file size. There are also apps for batch-resizing photos, like Image Size or Resize.
• Email it to yourself: I know it sounds archaic, but it works. When you attach a photo in the Mail app and try to send it, you’ll be prompted to select a smaller file size.

For Android, the steps vary by device and camera app. Here’s the general idea:

• Camera settings: Open the Camera app, go to Settings (usually a gear icon), and look for an option related to picture size, resolution or aspect ratio. Here, you can select a lower resolution.
• Third-party apps: Similar to iPhones, third-party camera apps like Open Camera let you choose the resolution before taking a picture.
• Post-capture: Use photo editing apps to manually lower the resolution after you’ve snapped your pic. Android usually has built-in options for this, but apps like Pixlr can also help.

Whether you’re Team iPhone or Team Android, lowering your photo resolution is totally doable. Your storage will thank you!

🎞️ I used to shoot pics on a film camera, then switched to a DSLR and now my phone. I’m trying to think of the downsides, but there are just no negatives.