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How to Make Videos Smaller on iPhone Without Losing Them

Updated October 26, 2026 · Written for iOS 26

If your iPhone is full, videos are the first place to look. A photo is a few megabytes. A few minutes of 4K video can be a gigabyte or more. The good part is that you can often keep the video and still get most of that space back.

Check how big your videos are

Open Photos, go to Collections > Media Types > Videos. Open a video and swipe up to see its details, including the file size and resolution.

To get a feel for it, your iPhone lists how much space a minute of video takes at each setting. Go to Settings > Camera > Record Video. It's roughly 60 MB a minute at 1080p and 30 fps, and roughly 400 MB a minute at 4K and 60 fps.

Record smaller videos from now on

These two settings make the biggest difference.

1. Settings > Camera > Formats: choose High Efficiency. This uses the HEVC format, which takes about half the space of the older "Most Compatible" format for the same quality.
2. Settings > Camera > Record Video: choose 1080p HD at 30 fps for everyday clips. Save 4K for things you'll want to watch on a big screen.

Neither change affects videos you've already recorded.

Shrink videos you already have

Trim the parts you don't need

Open the video in Photos, tap Edit, drag the ends of the timeline to cut the boring parts, then tap Done and choose Save Video as New Clip. Delete the original afterward. A 3-minute clip you trim to 40 seconds takes about a quarter of the space.

Make a compressed copy

iOS doesn't have a built-in "compress" button in Photos. An app can re-encode a video into a smaller HEVC copy at a lower resolution, which often cuts the size by half or more while looking the same on a phone screen.

When choosing an app for this, check that it:

• Does the work on your iPhone instead of uploading the video
• Keeps the original date and location on the new copy, so it stays in the right place in your library
• Only removes the original after the smaller copy is saved

Spareroll does this from its Large videos screen: it lists your videos biggest first and makes the smaller copy on the phone.

Move long videos off the phone

For videos you want to keep at full quality, like a wedding or a newborn's first days, copy them to a computer or an external drive. Connect the iPhone to a Mac and use the Photos app or Image Capture, or plug a USB-C drive into an iPhone 15 or later and copy them with the Files app.

Don't forget Recently Deleted

When you delete an original video, it stays in Recently Deleted for 30 days. The space doesn't come back until you empty it: Collections > Utilities > Recently Deleted > Select > Delete All.