Is there any free iPhone cleaner app?

kobi_po · 2025-04-28T06:52:26+00:00

Hi everyone. What is the best free iPhone cleaner app out there, if there even is one?? I’ve tried a bunch from the App Store and they all either want a subs...

SocialImpactCoder

Honestly, you don’t need cleaner apps. iPhones manage their storage automatically. Just let the system handle it.

0neWire

SocialImpactCoder That’s true. iPhones do a decent job managing storage behind the scenes.
The system automatically clears out temporary files, offloads unused apps (if you have that enabled), and even compresses certain data types when space gets tight. Apple has a breakdown here on its official support page.
I’d recommend checking “iPhone Storage” under Settings > General. You’ll find cleanup suggestions like removing old messages, reviewing large videos, or offloading unused apps.
Your iPhone already has a lot of tools built in for managing space.

HopeInSleep

SocialImpactCoder The whole “iPhones clean themselves” argument is silly.
It’s still a machine.
It builds up junk like anything else.
Apple just likes to pretend their devices are smarter than they are.

kobi_po

0neWire I actually tried all the suggestions under iPhone Storage.
Offloaded two apps, cleared Safari data, even deleted old iMessage threads.
It helped a little, but honestly didn’t make a big difference. Still low on space.

Nonprofitech

I gave that “Phone Cleaner” app a shot a while back. Looked solid, decent reviews, figured why not. Turns out it’s “free” until you actually want to delete something. Then you gotta watch ads just to clean a few files. I’m not even kidding. It’s ridiculous. That’s some Black Mirror stuff in real life.
Tried a couple others too, same deal. Either pay up or waste time watching the same 30-second ad over and over. Feels like every cleaner on iOS is playing the same game.

DanyOrtega89

Nonprofitech I had a similar experience. Tried an app called something like “AI Cleaner.”
Looked good, but the free version only let me delete 10 files per day.
Here’s a tip: if you see “in-app purchases” on an app’s page (even when it’s listed as “free”) it usually means the useful features are locked behind a paywall.
These days it feels like every developer is doing the same bait-and-switch.
I’ve also seen some free apps without in-app purchases, but they’re usually no-name apps with zero reviews and 4-star ratings from five people. I’d never risk downloading something like that.
So yeah, it is what it is.

crimsonKing

Hi, just want to add that iPhone cleaners can’t really do much.
Like any third-party app that follows iOS restrictions, they can’t clean system junk, clear cached app data, or touch anything outside of things like the Photos app, Calendar, or things like that. On Android, it’s way easier to do this stuff, but… Apple being Apple, I guess.
Also OP, if you ever see any cleaner app that says it can clear system junk, run in the opposite direction. As I said, Apple sandboxes apps, so they can’t touch any system or app data at all.

kobi_po

DanyOrtega89 Yeah same here.
I didn’t even waste time on the ones with zero reviews.
And every popular app I tried had some sort of catch.
Just tired of it at this point.

SocialImpactCoder

HopeInSleep I wasn’t trying to say Apple devices are better, and there’s nothing “silly” about what I said.
I just meant that if you actually use your iPhone properly and follow the system’s built-in recommendations, it handles a lot on its own.
Doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

0neWire

kobi_po Got it. If you’ve already gone through the Storage suggestions, here are two spots I’d suggest you check next:

First, the Duplicates album in the Photos app (under Utilities). iOS will flag exact duplicate photos/videos there. Merging them rarely frees a lot of space, but it’s still worth a quick pass.
Second, make sure to clear out Recently Deleted. A lot of people skip it, but anything you delete from Photos goes there first. You could be sitting on gigabytes of files just waiting out the 30-day window before iOS removes it for good.

Naheri

I’ve only used one cleaner app on iPhone: Cleaner Kit. It’s worked well for me, but it’s not free, so probably not what you’re looking for.
Just figured I’d throw it out there in case anyone else open to paid options.

kobi_po

0neWire Yeah, I checked both of those.
I always clear out Recently Deleted as soon as I delete something.
Just out of habit at this point.

KindnessCatalyst

Just wanted to say, Clever Cleaner is the only iPhone cleaner I’ve found that’s actually free.
No ads, no “watch this to unlock”.
I’ve been using it for a couple weeks and it’s been great. It might be the best free iPhone cleaner app out there right now.
Not sure how long it’ll stay free, but for now it definitely is. Give it a shot.

kobi_po

KindnessCatalyst Just downloaded Clever Cleaner. Looks promising.
It showed me 850 duplicate photos right away.
So far don’t see any paywalls.

HopeInSleep

KindnessCatalyst
Okay yeah, this is exactly the kind of thing I’ve been looking for.
If I could give you a gold medal through the screen, I would.
Can’t believe I finally found what might actually be the best free clean up app for iPhone, not the usual “now pay” routine.

roman-demian

Great discussion here. Glad to see the community helped you find what you were looking for!
By the way, we’ve got Clever Cleaner in our list of the best iPhone cleaner apps. While there aren’t many truly free options on the list, two apps: Clever Cleaner and Easy Cleaner are both 100% free and definitely deserve some praise.
Quick note: Easy Cleaner focuses only on cleaning up your contacts, but if anyone’s looking to tidy up duplicates or old numbers, it’s worth checking out.
KindnessCatalyst to follow up on Clever Cleaner, according to the developer’s claim on the official page, “Early users will never be asked to pay for upgrades or new features.” That might mean they’ll add paid options later, but if you’ve already got it installed, it should stay free for you. If I remember correctly, CleverFiles (the developer) rolled out other software this way too in the past, so it’s probably the same deal here.
Marking this thread as Solved. Great job, everyone.

KindnessCatalyst

kobi_po Yeah, that’s what I liked too.
By the way, it’s not just duplicates you’re seeing, the app groups photos that look alike (same people, same scene) and then picks what it thinks is the “Best Shot” to keep.
Pretty decent, honestly. I swapped couple manually because I liked a different angle better, but most of the time it gets it right.
I haven’t seen it group random photos together, and it didn’t do that weird thing some apps do where it picks the back of your head as the best shot. So yeah, quite happy with it.
Also try the Lives tab if you use Live Photos. It converts them to stills and removes the short video behind each one. Saved me a ton of space.

kobi_po

KindnessCatalyst I don’t use Live Photos, so nothing really showed up in that tab.
But I did check out the “Heavies” section, found a bunch of ridiculously massive videos.
Deleted a few and cleared out 8 GB more. I never seem to find how to sort stuff by size in Photos. This made it stupid easy.
Appreciate the tip.

0neWire

kobi_po You couldn’t find how to sort by size because it’s not there.
Apple just hasn’t added that option to the Photos app, even in the latest iOS.
I’ve been hearing people complain about this since the days of iPhone X, maybe even earlier. At this rate, we’ll get it around the same time iPhones start folding themselves.

crimsonKing

Sorry, one question if I may, how does the app handle personal data?
I mean, since it’s going through photos and videos, does it upload anything to somewhere outside the phone?
I just prefer to be careful with privacy.
Does the app ask for any special permissions?

kobi_po

crimsonKing Yeah, it did ask for access to Photos when I first opened it, but every other cleaner app I tried did the same.
I didn’t see it ask for anything else, but I’m not really sure beyond that.

0neWire

crimsonKing I looked into it a bit. On the official page, it says “Clever Cleaner does all the processing locally on your device” and “no photos or personal data get uploaded to the cloud.”
So it looks like nothing gets sent anywhere.
Seems like you’ve got nothing to worry about in terms of privacy.

Nonprofitech

Alright so, random update.
I just tried Remo Duplicate Photos Remover.
Seems completely free, and the reviews are solid.
Only downside is it’s just for similar photos, nothing else.
Still, might want to check it out.