“Storage Almost Full.”

We’ve all seen it.

Your first instinct is to delete apps or offload to the cloud. But those aren’t the real problem.

Your photo library is the real problem.

The Hidden Storage Hogs

I scanned my iPhone photo library and found:

  • 847 duplicate photos (same photo saved multiple times)
  • 312 nearly-identical photos (15 shots of the same thing)
  • 1,243 screenshots (most from 2+ years ago)
  • 167 blurry photos (should have been deleted immediately)

Total wasted space: 12.3 GB

That’s 12GB of photos I’ll never look at again, taking up space and slowing my phone down.

Where the Waste Comes From

Duplicates

Forward a photo via message? Sometimes it saves a copy. AirDrop something? Copy. Download from an app? Copy.

Your library silently fills with identical images.

Burst mode accidents

Held the shutter too long. Now you have 47 photos of the same thing.

You meant to keep one. You kept all of them.

Screenshots

That meme from 2019. That address you screenshotted once. That flight confirmation from three years ago.

Screenshots pile up invisibly.

Blurry photos

Your finger slipped. The camera moved. The photo is unusable.

But you never deleted it.

Old videos

That 3-minute video from a concert you’ll never watch? Probably 500MB.

You’ve been carrying it around for years.

How to Clean Up

The manual way (slow, painful)

Go to Photos. Scroll through everything. Delete junk one at a time.

Nobody actually does this. It takes hours.

The smart way (fast, effective)

Use an app that scans your library and groups:

  • Duplicates (identical matches)
  • Similar photos (pick the best one)
  • Screenshots (bulk delete old ones)
  • Blurry photos (easy elimination)

Review by category. Delete in bulk. Done.

My Results

CategoryPhotos FoundSize
Exact duplicates8473.2GB
Similar photos3122.1GB
Screenshots1,2431.8GB
Blurry photos1670.9GB
Old videos234.3GB
Total2,59212.3GB

Time to clean: about 10 minutes.

Most of it was selecting “delete all” on categories I didn’t need.

The Monthly Habit

I now do a quick cleanup once a month.

Takes 5 minutes. Never hit “storage full” again.

The best time to delete that useless photo is immediately after taking it. The second best time is whenever you remember.

The App

I built Shotkeeper for exactly this.

AI scans your library. Groups duplicates, similar photos, screenshots, and blurry shots. Shows you exactly how much storage you’ll save.

One tap to delete entire categories. Reclaim gigabytes in minutes.

Your phone wasn’t too small. Your library was too messy.

— Dolce