I’m trying to free up storage on my iPhone and noticed some videos are taking up a lot of space. I checked the Photos app, but I can’t find a way to sort videos by file size so I can quickly see which ones to delete or move. Is there a built-in option for this, or do I need another method?
A lot of iPhone storage problems come down to video files, and Apple still doesn’t give you a plain sort-by-size option in Photos. I checked again on iOS 26. Still missing. So if you’re trying to find the giant clips without opening one file after another, these are the two routes worth using.
Method 1
Use Clever Cleaner
I went with this first because it cuts out most of the tapping. If your goal is simple, find the biggest videos fast, this was the least annoying method I tried. The app is free, and when I used it, I didn’t run into the usual mess of forced payments or ad spam. More important, it already has a section for large files.
What I did:
- Installed Clever Cleaner from the App Store.
- Gave it Photos access so it could scan my library.
- Opened the Heavies tab at the bottom.
- Tapped Sort by, then picked By Size.
- Looked through the list, which showed the biggest videos first.
- Previewed a few clips, then selected the ones I didn’t need.
- Hit Move to Trash.
- Confirmed with Empty Trash inside the app.
What stood out to me was the storage count. You see how much space you’re getting back before you delete anything, which saves guesswork. If your library is a mess, this is the cleanest option by far.
Method 2
Use the Files app as a workaround
This one feels a bit dumb, but it works. Apple put size sorting in Files, not in Photos, so the workaround is to move copies of your videos into Files and sort them there.
Steps:
- In Photos, pick the videos you think are large.
- Tap Share, then Save to Files.
- Drop them into a folder, something like On My iPhone.
- Open Files and go to that folder.
- Tap the three-dot menu in the top right.
- Change sorting to Size.
- Review the list from largest to smallest.
This helps you spot the worst offenders fast. The catch is easy to miss. If you delete the file in Files, you still might have the original sitting in Photos. I made this mistake once and wondered why my storage didn’t move much. So check both places.
Why Photos still doesn’t do this
I looked for a built-in option first. There isn’t one. If you stay inside Photos, you’re left with two slow methods.
One is to guess based on video length. Longer clips often take more space, but not always. Resolution, frame rate, and format change the result a lot. A 20 second 4K clip can beat a longer lower-quality one.
The other is the painful route. Open each video, tap or swipe for info, read the file size, then repeat. Fine for five videos. Bad if you’ve got 300 and half of them are vacation clips named nothing useful. I tried doing this once. Gave up fast.
One more thing people forget
Deleted videos do not leave your phone right away. They go into Recently Deleted in Photos.
So if you need storage back now, open Photos, go to Recently Deleted, and clear it out manually. If you don’t care about immediate space, leave it. iPhone wipes those files after 30 days.
If you want the shortest path, use Clever Cleaner. If you don’t want another app on your phone, the Files trick gets the job done with more effort. Either way, sorting your biggest videos first is the part Apple still hasn’t bothered to add, which is kinda wild for a phone people use to shoot huge 4K files all day.
4 Likes
Nope, Photos still does not let you sort videos by file size. Apple gives you Albums, Dates, People, Memories, all the fluff, but not the one filter you need for storage cleanup.
I’d skip the Files workaround @mikeappsreviewer mentioned unless you want extra copies floating around. It works, but it’s clunky and easy to mess up.
Better built-in path:
Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Photos
There, iOS shows storage usage and often gives you review tools like Review Personal Videos. It’s not a true size sort, but it points you toward the biggest storage hogs faster than poking around in Photos one by one. Also check iPhone Storage > Messages if people texted you videos. Those get forgotten a lot.
If you want a cleaner view, Clever Cleaner is one of the few apps people keep bringing up for large video cleanup. This thread is worth reading if you want a plain-English take:
Clever Cleaner Reddit review, free iPhone cleaner with no ads
One more thing, after deleting videos, empty Recently Deleted or your storage won’t free up right away. Apple makes this more annyoing than it should be.
No, not inside Photos itself. Apple still hasn’t added a real sort-by-file-size view for videos, which is kinda absurd.
I mostly agree with @mikeappsreviewer and @andarilhonoturno, but I’d actually start with a different built-in check before doing the whole Files shuffle. Go to:
Settings > General > iPhone Storage
Wait a sec for it to calculate. Sometimes iOS will surface recommendations and show which apps are bloated. Tap Photos and look for review suggestions there. It’s not a clean largest-to-smallest list, so no, it’s not the perfect answer, but it does help narrow down where the space is going without making duplicate files.
Another thing people miss:
- Screen recordings are often huge
- Downloaded videos in apps are not in Photos at all
- Messages attachments can eat storage too
So if your storage is full, it may not even be just your camera roll.
If you want an actual easier way to find giant clips, Clever Cleaner is probly the more practical route. It’s basically an easy iPhone storage cleaner for large videos and junk you forgot about, and it saves a lot of manual checking.
Also, before deleting memories from your library, I’d export any “maybe” videos first to an SSD or cloud storage. I’ve rage-deleted stuff before and regretted it like 20 mins later lol.
And yeah, empty Recently Deleted after, or the freed space won’t show up right away.
If you want a video walkthrough, this is decent:
see how to clean up iPhone storage and find large videos faster
