iOS 18.1 will fix a bug that made it harder to free up iPhone storage

With many-megapixel cameras and the ability to shoot video at up to 4K, an iPhone’s storage fills up quickly. Sure, ballooning apps and digital downloads like audiobooks and movies also take up space, but they are easy to offload and reload as needed. Apple’s iOS even provides a handy listing of all apps—starting with the biggest ones holding the most data or media—to help make those calls.

But in the iOS 18 software update, released last month, Apple seems to have inadvertently zapped “Review Personal Videos,” arguably the best tool for managing the flicks that you shoot. Long available under Settings > General > iPhone Storage, it provided a simple listing of clips, ordered by file size. While some memories are precious, others—like multiple takes of the same thing or long-running misfires—are easy to part with.

However, it now appears that a bug fix will restore the “Review Personal Videos” feature (under a slightly different name) in the big iOS 18.1 upgrade, which also rolls out a suite of new AI features. Apple says that iOS 18.1 will be available next week, with Apple watchers expecting it to drop on Monday. The videos fix has already been made in the iOS 18.1 beta, available to anyone who wants to hazard running in-development software. (It is not, however, listed in the beta software’s release notes, and Apple declined to discuss the matter on the record.)

You’ll have to take extra steps to get to it. After navigating to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, scroll down to and click on “Photos.” On the next screen, click “Review Your Videos” to see the list, sorted by size.

Assuming it works reliably in the official release, the restored tool will save people from the pricier options for managing storage that they would have needed for the past five weeks.

The App Store is packed with similar-sounding cleaning utilities, such as Cleaner Guru, Cleanup Pro, and Cleaner – Smart Cleanup, that can list videos by size (and sometimes also photos, which iOS still doesn’t do). These apps have other handy tools, such as compressing videos, or finding similar videos or similar, duplicate, or blurry photos. (iOS can also natively flag duplicate pics and videos.) The apps typically also help find and merge duplicate contacts. But after a seven-day or shorter free trial, prices get steep: from about $4.99 to $9.99 per week. (Some apps offer longer subscriptions, such as $41.99 per year and, in one case, a $29.99 lifetime option.)

One other space-saving iOS tool that never went away is to enable iCloud Photos. It moves full-resolution pictures and videos to the cloud and retains lower-res copies on your phone. You can still download individual full-resolution versions to an iPhone, assuming you have an internet connection. After the free 5GB of storage, iCloud’s next tiers are 50GB for $0.99 and 200GB for $2.99 per month. With the return of the large-video reviewing feature in iOS 18.1, freeing up iPhone storage will once again be free.