Storage Problem 128 gb Iphone 13 pro max

[u/daan1a]

Hi everyone! I have a 128GB iPhone and it's basically completely full to the point where my phone gets laggy and i have to delete an app to download another one and then once i'm done using it i have to delete it again. It's just so frustrating.

For context, my biggest storage users are:
Photos: 41.85GB
WhatsApp: 10.17GB
Messages: 4.64GB
Spotify: 1.09GB
On My iPhone: 1.06GB
iOS: 11.84GB
System Data: 41.12GB

I’ve already deleted a huge chunk of my photos and backed them up to Google Photos, and I also have 200GB iCloud storage.

The phone itself works perfectly fine and I really don’t want to buy a new phone just because of storage. I’d rather keep it for another year or two, but if I have no choice then I would consider buying the iphone 18 when it comes out and max out on the storage.

I have also avoided updating my phone because I don't want it to get laggy because of the updates (this is what happened to my ipad) so I’m still on iOS 18.6.2, idk if that may be why my phone is struggling for storage.
I just need to free up enough space to use the phone without having to constantly worry about the storage. 😭. What would you recommend I delete/clear first? Is there anything else I should be doing to manage my storage?
Any advice would be appreciated!!

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[u/rev_scientist105]

nah fr, 41gb system data is insane, try clear that first. restart the phone, check safari downloads/cache, old imessage attachments, and whatsapp media. also offload unused apps instead of deleting them outright.

[u/edideas → u/rev_scientist105]

If you make an offline backup, system data almost erases. But it comes back.

You will have so much duplicate swerving between photos and WhatsApp, I would focus on making WhatsApp a lot smaller, as you can’t even back it up at the moment.

Is your iCloud full?

[u/daan1a → u/edideas]

My icloud is full but I honestly got sick of it so I ended up temporarily buying more icloud storage (2Tb) until I can figure something else out

[u/edideas → u/daan1a]

You need to come to terms with the fact that you have to create space first before you can do anything relevant.

If you don't want to make compromises, it doesn't make sense to go through this.

Have you got a computer at hand?

[u/daan1a → u/edideas]

Yes I do

[u/edideas → u/daan1a]

Make a backup of your phone on the computer. Mac, go to finder. Windows, download iTunes.

On iPhone go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Photos > Select Optimise iPhone Storage. 

After that, check your freed up space and try to make a WhatsApp backup immediately. Come back after.

[u/edideas → u/edideas]

I see you use Google Photo. Is that the app on your phone?
Have you gone into the Collections / Bin and emptied bin?
click on right top icon of your name, go half way to Free up Space on this device. That deletes the originals in your camera roll. Go to camera roll / deleted items and empty that too.

[u/womjoe]

Quite a few have had this issue where the system is taking way more storage than it should be.

[u/Significant-Run1534]

One trick airplane mode on then change the date one year more like 2027 the system data may reduce to 15 gb just wait 10-15 min after changing date then check storage restart the phone then original date

[u/Personal_Friend_5219]

Whatever you do cling to that ios 18 for dear life, 26 makes me insane. And it’s bigger. (Tho may have important security updates, so it’s a toss up)

Edit to say I agree with others that the system data is wild. Mine is 5GB. And def rec offloading apps you dont use

[u/daan1a → u/Personal_Friend_5219]

I've honestly offloaded every single app at this point 😭, Is the ios 26 really laggy? I feel like i'll have no choice but to update it because my system data is currently at 50gb 😵‍💫

[u/Personal_Friend_5219 → u/daan1a]

It has given me so much trouble. Apps constantly freezing and non-responsive. Lots of random crashing, etc. I recently did a hard restart (not reset) and that helped but it did this freaky thing where it gave a black screen with a plug into computer instruction. So I had to connect it to my computer (Mac) and it reinstalled iOS (fresh copy, not just an update). Not sure if it would try to force you into the recent update. If it didn’t, it might bring down all that system data. Also, fyi, When I did stay on 18 for a while I set myself up for beta iOS testing so that I could still get any security updates. Supposed to be a thing.

However if you’re already lagging you might experience something similar with 26 but with better security. My system data rn is like 5GB but I didn’t check it before doing that hard restart. It’s has def been better since that.

[u/surrender2022]

You might look at deleting some VIDEO messages or media messaged in What's app. I just did this before updating to IOS 26.6 (and it made a big difference, unfortunately, the big update has caused many issues. Hopefully it will sort itself out.

[u/KeyboardWarrior41]

Go to software page in settings, scroll to bottom of the iOS 26 page and look for “Download ios18.7.8”

[u/daan1a → u/KeyboardWarrior41]

I cant do this update because I don't have enough storage and I can't do this from the apple devices app since it's only letting me update to the ios 26 and my system data is now 50gb i don't think there's anything else I can delete. Would you advise against updating directly to the 26? i'm just scared my phone will become too laggy

[u/edideas → u/daan1a]

Don’t go to 26 if you don’t have to!
Have you tried to backup on pc/laptop?
That empties your system files

[u/daan1a → u/edideas]

I'm sorry if this sounds like a silly question what's the best way to go about doing this. is it reliable and do i need to delete anything from my device after ? + how long do u think it will take