Downloaded episodes and movies are some of the heaviest files on your phone — a few downloaded shows can quietly hold 5-15 GB. Each app stores them separately, so you clear them inside each app: Netflix under Downloads, Disney+ under your profile's Downloads, YouTube under You > Downloads, and Prime Video under Downloads. Deleting them is instant and they don't go to Recently Deleted.

TL;DR

  • Streaming downloads live inside each app, not in Photos.
  • Delete per app: Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, Prime each have their own Downloads area.
  • Deleting an app entirely wipes all its downloads at once.
  • Smart Downloads (Netflix) and auto-download settings refill space — turn them off.
  • These deletions are immediate and not recoverable from Recently Deleted.

How do I delete Netflix downloads?

Open Netflix, tap My Netflix (bottom right), then the Downloads section. Swipe or tap Edit (the pencil/checkmark) to select titles and delete them, or open a single download and tap the trash icon. To stop it refilling, go to My Netflix > menu (top right) > App Settings > Smart Downloads and turn off Download Next Episode and Downloads For You.

How do I clear Disney+, YouTube, and Prime Video downloads?

Each app keeps its own offline library:

  • Disney+: tap your profile icon > Downloads, then Edit to remove titles, or Remove All Downloads.
  • YouTube (Premium): tap You > Downloads, then the menu next to a video to delete it. Check Settings > Downloads to lower download quality and disable Smart downloads.
  • Prime Video: tap Downloads in the bottom bar, choose Edit, select titles, and delete. Lower default quality under the download settings to make future downloads smaller.

The principle holds across services: offline content is managed inside the app, and each has a quality setting that controls how big future downloads get.

What does iOS do natively, and where does it stop?

iOS shows you how much an app is holding under Settings > General > iPhone Storage. Tap a streaming app and you'll see two options: Offload App (removes the app but keeps its data/documents) and Delete App (removes everything). For streaming apps, Delete App is the nuclear option that clears all downloads at once — useful if you don't mind re-installing. But iOS stops there: it can't reach inside the app to delete one downloaded movie while keeping another. That granular control only exists in the app's own Downloads screen.

How do I stop downloads from refilling my storage?

The usual cause is auto-download or smart-download features:

  • Turn off Netflix Smart Downloads.
  • Turn off YouTube Smart downloads and set a lower Download quality (Standard instead of High).
  • In Prime and Disney+, set Download quality to standard/medium.
  • Delete finished episodes as you watch instead of letting a season sit offline.

Lower-quality downloads can cut file sizes by half or more, and for phone viewing the difference is minor.

What can't this do?

Clearing streaming downloads frees space immediately, but the videos are gone from the device — there's no Recently Deleted safety net for app downloads, so you'll re-download from the service when you want them again (data permitting). This also only addresses streaming apps; your own recorded videos are a separate problem. To tackle those, see how to find and delete large videos without deleting photos. If clearing downloads barely moves the needle, your storage is going somewhere else — find out what's actually using it, or run through the safe order to free 10GB in 10 minutes.

FAQ

Where do deleted streaming downloads go — can I get them back?

They're removed from the device immediately and do not go to Recently Deleted. You recover them only by downloading again from the streaming service, assuming your subscription and the title are still active.

Does deleting the app remove all its downloads?

Yes. Delete App in iPhone Storage removes the app and every download it held. Offload App keeps the app's data, so it's not a reliable way to clear download space.

Why do my downloads keep coming back?

Features like Netflix Smart Downloads and YouTube Smart downloads auto-fetch new episodes. Turn them off in each app's settings, and lower the default download quality to shrink anything you do download.

Want a single view of what's eating your storage — downloads, videos, and more? Try Cleanor for iPhone, and follow the full plan at free up iPhone space.