This under-used iPhone feature that many users don't know about could free up gigabytes of space
If your iPhone is constantly flashing that dreaded 'Storage Full' notification, there's an easy way to clear up space without deleting your memories.
For those who own an iPhone with iOS 16 or later, there's an easy way around this issue.
Apple offers a little-known 'duplicate detection' feature in the Photos app that helps you free up gigabytes of storage in just a few taps.
The tool uses built-in AI to identify identical images and assigns them to one collective album in the Photos app.
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Here's how to utilise the feature.
First, open up the iPhone Photos app. Then, scroll almost all the way down to the bottom where it says 'Utilities' and tap it. After opening this, you should see a folder named ‘Duplicates’ that has an icon of two squares together.
If you’ve never checked it before, you might be surprised by how many duplicate images and videos are taking up much-needed space on your device.
Next to each image, you will see a button to merge them into one.
So, now to get rid of these duplicates.
If you select the duplicate photos and then press 'Merge,' your iPhone will automatically keep the highest-quality version of the image and delete the rest.
The duplicates will be moved to the Recently Deleted folder, where they will be stored for 30 days before being permanently erased.
The feature was introduced in 2022, but surprisingly so, many people still don’t know it exists.
The best part about this feature is the fact it can be done from anywhere - on your commute or in a waiting room.
Every unnecessary photo and video over the years adds up. Think about it, a single photo is about 1MB while videos can easily be 20MB or more and when you have so many copies of them it's bound to build up.
But, over time, this digital clutter can eat up gigabytes of space and possibly postpone important software updates.
In many cases, iPhone users opt for iCloud storage to handle the content overflow.
It’s easy to end up with duplicate files, especially if you get sent files from friends who might have the same images.
Doing this simple declutter might save you some money and help improve your device's performance.
However, this duplicate and merge option won't be available if you don't have any duplicate images.
The tech giant wrote on its official website: "If you don’t have any duplicate photos or videos in your library, the Duplicates collection doesn’t appear."