My iPhone Says I Have No Storage But I Deleted Everything

You might love to keep photos, videos, and many important memories on your devices, but iPhone storage is limited, and the capacity can't keep up. In this case, deleting something is one way to free up space. However, you may find no storage space even after deleting everything. It's annoying and frustrating, especially if you've done everything possible to fix the problem. Today, this post will tackle a series of questions like ”My iPhone says I have no storage but I deleted everything”.

Why Is My iPhone Storage Full After Deleting Everything?

In fact, on an iPhone, even if you have 64 GB of internal storage, not all of it is available. The internal space of the iPhone is partitioned by default to store firmware, system files, and personal data files (internal data + app data). Why is my iPhone storage full after deleting everything? Here are some possible reasons behind this:

Cache data: The applications you’ve already downloaded on your phone will typically not use a lot of storage, but the app data does! Cached data is the culprit of low storage issues.
Old iCloud backup: If you have iCloud backup turned on and iCloud storage is full, you will see the iPhone storage full message on your phone, even if there is nothing on your local iPhone or you deleted some large files just now.
Update: System updates increase storage consumption, which is one reason you have a limited number of apps installed on your phone.
Some glitches or bugs: There may be a bug or an error that causes the “no storage on iPhone but deleted everything” issue.

How to Fix "My iPhone Says I Have No Storage But I Deleted Everything"

Some iPhone users have reported that “I deleted all my apps and still have no storage iPhone”. Luckily, this part will list the solutions you can try to find an answer to this problem.

Solution 1. Delete Old iPhone Backup

One of the basic fixes you can try is to delete old iPhone backups. iCloud has 5 GB of free backup storage, and if you are connected to a stable internet connection and have enough iCloud backup storage, iCloud will automatically back up your files for you.

This means that if your iCloud doesn't have enough storage, you'll get an error message or notification saying "Not enough storage on your iPhone." The best way to do is to avoid getting such notifications by deleting your iPhone backup.

>> Go to Settings on your iPhone > tap [Your Name] > iCloud > click Manage Storage > tap Backups > choose your iPhone > tap Delete Backup.

Solution 2. Disable the Photo Library Service

In fact, deleting photos is the one way to release your iPhone storage. But you may find iPhone storage full after deleting photos. If you have multiple iOS devices, you may have saved photos to iCloud on other devices, such as an iPad. To stop receiving photos from other devices, you need to disable the Photo Library service to stop syncing photos between iPhone and iPad to fix this problem.

>> Go to iPhone Settings > [your profile] > iCloud > click Photos to turn off iCloud Photos and then photos would be completely removed from your device and also kept on your other devices.

Note: If you choose to use this method, and you have iOS 14 on your device, keep in mind that even if you delete photos on your device, it doesn't mean they are gone on your device. This could explain why you're still getting a notification that your device doesn't have enough space, even though you've deleted all photos from your iPhone.
You must manually delete the files to ensure cleanup. You need to go to Photos > Albums > Recently Deleted to make it.

Solution 3. Clear Cache Data on iPhone

It may be that your iPhone has accumulated cache files over a period of time, and these caches are now too large for your iPhone to handle. In this case, what you can do is clear the cache files on the iPhone to free up memory space.

1. Clear out the Safari cache

Note: Clearing the cache on Safari will log you out of all websites you are currently logged into.

Open the Settings app > scroll down to Safari > tap Clear History and Website Data.

2. Clear out useless app data on iPhone

Like Safari, your app can grab a lot of useless data that you don't need. Here's how to get rid of useless files stored in apps:

Step 1. Go to Settings > General > tap iPhone Storage.

Step 2. The screen will show the apps that take up the most storage at the top. Tap on one of the apps, and tap Delete App.

If the application's Documents and Data entry show that the application occupies more than 500 MB, we recommend uninstalling and reinstalling the application.

Solution 4. Erase All Content and Settings 

If the above solutions don't work for you, you may need to try resetting all settings on your iPhone. Doing so will restore all settings to their factory state, and you can start over.

>> Open the Settings app > head to General > Reset > tap on Erase All Content and Settings.

Follow the instructions displayed on the screen, and you will successfully reset all settings to their default values.

Solution 5. Restart Your iPhone

If after all these changes, your iPhone storage is still out of space, it's time to restart your device. Sometimes, if the iPhone is overloaded, it can't perform new tasks or apply new settings. To fix this, you need to uninstall the device through the restart process.

>> Press and hold the power button for a few seconds, then slide the logo to power off. Wait a few seconds, restart your iPhone and to check the iPhone storage.

Bonus Tip: How to Backup Data Before Deleting Everything on iPhone

After trying all the solutions to "iPhone storage keeps filling up after deleting", hope you can fix this problem. In addition, if you want to free up iPhone storage but don't want to lose everything, you’d better make a backup and then delete your data. The purpose of backing up an iPhone to a Windows computer is to protect data from direct deletion.

In this case, you can use AOMEI FoneBackup, the top one, and free iOS data transfer software that allows you to back up iPhone data to a PC, transfer data from iPhone to iPhone and manage iOS data on the computer.

Step 1. Click the button below to download the installation package. Install it on your computer.

Step 2. Open this tool and click Phone Backup on the home screen. Choose Selective Backup.

Note: If you want to back up all data, you can click Full Backup icon to make it, which includes apps (data files, preference), and Safari (history, bookmarks). system settings, as well as some common data like photos, contacts, text messages, music, video, etc.)

Step 3. Click the icon to choose the items you want to back up, and click OK.

Step 4. Choose a storage to save the data, then click Start Backup.

Conclusion

Deleting everything from the iPhone will give you more free space, but sometimes it doesn't solve your problem. If you're still having the "My iPhone says I have no storage but I deleted everything" issue, you can use the solutions in this guide to fix it. Also, you can use the best way to free up iPhone storage space - try AOMEI FoneBackup to transfer iPhone data to computer and then delete them safely from iPhone.