Disabling this iPhone feature could free up 21GB of storage space
People online have discovered a new way to free up extra storage on your iPhone, and all you need to do is delete one feature.
Users have taken to social media to share this little-known hack to get some more space on their phones when storage starts to look a bit tight.
This comes as some people have reported disabling Apple Intelligence from their iPhones, finding that it helps them to gain an extra 21 GB of storage space.
The AI feature is integrated directly into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, which the tech giant describes as a ‘truly helpful AI that’s centered around you and your needs. Integrated into your apps, grounded in your context, and private at every step’.
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However, it appears that some people would rather use the space that the AI feature takes up for other things.
Taking to Reddit to share their own experience, one user wrote: “Disabling Apple Intelligence somehow freed up 21GB?! Today I disabled Apple Intelligence expecting better performance and battery life. Instead, I noticed I suddenly had much more storage available!!
“My iPhone 16 Pro 128GB was always around 124GB used, with Photos taking ~60GB. Now Photos is down to just 39GB, without iCloud Photos optimization or a paid iCloud subscription.
“Did disabling Apple Intelligence actually free up this storage, or is something else happening?
WHAT IS APPLE INTELLIGENCE DOING WITH MY PHOTOS APP???”
The user added: “To everyone saying Apple Intelligence takes up storage, I agree, but my concern is that Photos alone dropped from ~60GB to 39GB after disabling it. That’s a huge 21GB difference. I’m honestly worried that some of my photos might have been deleted or removed somehow.”
Another said: “A similar thing happened to me. I am severely running out of storage, so I turned off Apple Intelligence. I saw an immediate drop of about 23gb, from the photos app (I did not check the iOS page). I went and updated all the apps I had put off due to the lack of storage. Once all the apps were updated (~30 min), I went back to check and the photos app was back to its original capacity. I’m not fully sure if any space actually freed up from disabling the AI.”
And a third commented: “Using AI to manipulate your photos but also for training. I'd say "I have this issue too" but I do not. Because at no point have I enabled "AI" on any phone - and whenever a new 'Feature' shows up, I make sure that's turned all the way off.”
How to disable Apple Intelligence on the iPhone
If you want to disable Apple Intelligence on your iPhone then all you need to do is head to the Settings app on your device and select Apple Intelligence & Siri.
From there, click on the toggle next to Apple Intelligence to turn it off. Tap Turn Off Apple Intelligence in the pop-up confirmation message