Why ProRAW and 4K Video Fill Your iPhone Storage (and What to Do)
ProRAW photos and 4K/ProRes video fill your iPhone storage because each capture is enormous compared with a normal photo: a single ProRAW shot is roughly 25-75MB and 4K video at 60fps runs to several hundred megabytes per minute. To control them, turn formats on or off in Settings › Camera › Formats, lower the resolution in Settings › Camera › Record Video, and find the heaviest existing files in Settings › General › iPhone Storage › Review Large Attachments and your Photos library. This guide is for anyone whose iPhone keeps filling up despite deleting apps, and who shoots photos or video on a Pro model.
TL;DR
- ProRAW is roughly 25-75MB per photo and 4K/60fps video can be several hundred MB per minute — these are usually your single biggest space hogs.
- ProRAW and ProRes toggles live in Settings › Camera › Formats; video resolution lives in Settings › Camera › Record Video.
- Lowering these settings only affects future captures — it does nothing to media you already shot.
- Keep ProRAW on only when you actually edit a shot; for everyday photos, HEIC is far smaller.
- To reclaim space now, you have to review and offload the heaviest existing videos, which Cleanor surfaces locally.
Why are ProRAW and ProRes files so much bigger?
ProRAW and ProRes are designed to preserve as much image data as possible for editing, which is exactly why they are heavy. A standard iPhone photo is compressed into HEIC at roughly 1-3MB; a ProRAW capture keeps the full sensor data plus computational adjustments, landing in the rough range of 25-75MB depending on the model and scene. Video is even more dramatic: where 1080p sips storage, 4K at 60fps records far more detail per frame and per second, so a few minutes of clips can outweigh hundreds of ordinary photos. ProRes video, available on Pro models, is heavier still because it is a near-lossless format meant for professional editing. The formats are not broken or wasteful — they are simply doing the high-fidelity job you asked for, and that job costs space.
Where do I turn ProRAW, ProRes, and 4K off?
All of these controls live in the Camera settings, and changing them takes under a minute:
- Open Settings › Camera › Formats.
- Turn off Apple ProRAW (or ProRAW & Resolution Control) if you do not edit your photos.
- On Pro models, turn off Apple ProRes in the same screen if you do not need pro-grade video.
- Go back, then open Settings › Camera › Record Video.
- Switch from 4K at 60 fps down to 4K at 30 fps, or to 1080p at 30 fps for the smallest files.
- While there, check Record Slo-mo and Record Cinematic, which also default to large formats.
The Camera app keeps a quick toggle too: when ProRAW or ProRes is enabled, you will see a RAW or ProRes badge at the top of the camera that you can tap off shot-by-shot, so you can leave the format available but only fire it when a photo is worth keeping in full quality.
How much space do these formats actually cost?
The gap between formats is large enough that it changes how fast your iPhone fills up. These are approximate figures — real sizes vary with scene detail, lighting, and clip length — but the relative scale is consistent:
| Format | Approx. size | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| HEIC photo | ~1-3 MB each | Everyday photos |
| ProRAW photo | ~25-75 MB each | Photos you will edit heavily |
| 1080p / 30fps video | ~60-90 MB per minute | Casual clips, max space saving |
| 4K / 30fps video | ~170 MB per minute | Sharp video, balanced size |
| 4K / 60fps video | ~400 MB per minute | Smooth, detailed footage |
| ProRes 4K video | several GB per minute | Professional editing only |
The takeaway: a single minute of ProRes can outweigh a thousand normal photos, and a handful of ProRAW shots can equal a whole day of casual snapshots. If you shoot these formats by default, they will quietly dominate your library.
How do I find and offload my biggest existing videos?
Lowering your settings stops new files from being huge, but the videos already on your phone are usually where the gigabytes are hiding. To find them:
- Open Settings › General › iPhone Storage and wait for the bar graph to render.
- Tap Review Large Attachments in the Recommendations to see big items from Messages, sorted largest-first.
- In the Photos app, open the Albums tab and check the Videos and Recents albums.
- Sort or scan for your longest clips — those are almost always the heaviest.
- Offload keepers to iCloud Photos, a computer, or another cloud before deleting the local copies.
If you would rather not hunt through albums by hand, this is exactly the kind of grouped, size-first review a cleaner is good for. Cleanor scans the device locally — nothing is uploaded — and surfaces your heaviest videos and duplicate clips so you can clear the biggest items first. For the format choice behind everyday photos, see HEIC vs JPEG: should you switch your iPhone camera format, and to keep memories without keeping the local files, read how to delete photos from your phone but keep them in the cloud.
Is it safe to turn off ProRAW and lower 4K?
Yes — changing these settings is completely safe and fully reversible. iOS does not delete or alter any existing photos or videos when you turn off a format or drop a resolution; it only changes how the next capture is recorded, and you can switch back at any time. What the native settings cannot do is shrink files you already shot — there is no built-in button that re-compresses your existing ProRAW or 4K library, so lowering the settings alone will not reclaim a single megabyte of current storage. That is the part that catches people out: the only way to recover space from existing media is to review it, then delete or offload the heaviest items. Cleanor adds the missing step by finding those heavy videos and duplicates locally and showing you exactly what will be removed before anything is deleted; deletions still go to Recently Deleted for about 30 days, so mistakes are recoverable.
FAQ
Does turning off ProRAW delete my existing RAW photos?
No. Turning off Apple ProRAW in Settings › Camera › Formats only changes how future photos are captured. Every ProRAW shot already in your library stays exactly as it is until you choose to delete it.
Is 4K at 30fps a good compromise to save space?
Yes, for most people it is the sweet spot. 4K at 30fps keeps sharp, high-resolution footage while using well under half the storage of 4K at 60fps. Drop to 1080p only if you need the absolute smallest files.
How can I tell if videos are what's filling my iPhone?
Open Settings › General › iPhone Storage and look at the color-coded bar and per-app list. If Photos is your largest category, videos are almost always the cause, since a few 4K clips can outweigh thousands of photos.
Should I keep ProRAW on at all?
Keep it on only if you regularly edit photos and need the extra latitude. A good habit is to leave the format available but tap the RAW badge off in the Camera app for everyday shots, so you only spend the space when a photo is genuinely worth it.
Where to start
If your iPhone is full because of heavy formats, the fastest win is to cap future captures and then clear the biggest existing files. Cleanor scans your device locally to surface the heaviest videos and duplicate photos — nothing leaves your phone — so you can reclaim space without combing through albums by hand. Explore the clean up phone storage solution or get Cleanor for iOS. To go deeper on which media to remove, see are Live Photos taking up too much storage on iPhone.