If you go to take a photo using the Camera app on your Apple iPhone or iPad and find an error message that says “Cannot Take Photo – There is not enough available storage to take a photo. You can manage your storage in Settings.“, you might be confused about what to do. We can help you with this tutorial.
What this message is telling you is that all of the available storage on your iPhone or iPad is being used. Selecting “Settings” on this message will provide you with a list of apps and the amount of storage they are using. You can reach this screen at any time by going to “Settings” > “General” > “Usage“.
You could select an app that is taking up a large amount of space, then select “Delete app“. That would free enough storage to fit photos. You may not want to do this though if you value every single one of your apps.
Quick Fix
In most cases, iTunes is loading your device with music and regularly causing this message to appear when you use the Camera app.
You can free some space while you’re out and about by deleting unwanted music from the device. What I like to do is locate an entire album that I can live without and delete it using these steps.
- Open the “Music” app.
- Select an Artist that has songs stored on the device you would like to delete.
- Locate a music track that is stored on the device. If the track has a cloud icon, that means it is not stored on the device. You’ll have to find tracks that do not have this icon.
- Swipe left across the name of the song. A button should appear that says “Delete“.
- Tap “Delete” and the song is gone. Repeat steps 3 through 5 until you have freed enough space. Typically, I like to find about 10 songs.
- Return to the “Camera” app and attempt to take a photo. You should be able to without the “Cannot Take Photo” message appearing.
Permanent Fix
To prevent your iPhone or iPad storage from being consumed, follow these steps.
- Connect your Apple device to your PC and launch “iTunes“.
- Select your device, then select “Music“.
- Uncheck the “Automatically fill free space with songs” option.
- Select “Sync“.
If these steps don’t cure this error message from regularly appearing, you may need to remove some apps, photos, or videos from the device.
Katherine Reed says
I deleted all the music on my phone (thank you!), and I opened iTunes and looked for the “Automatically fill…” box to check, but didn’t find it anywhere. Having said that, it doesn’t seem that iTunes is automatically downloading anything.
Chris Christopherson says
Paul’s solution worked for me. Thanks, Paul!
MzArlie says
Thank you Paul. I kept deleting pics that I did not need and nothing was working. Didn’t know that “Recently Deleted” folder existed.
Pakiana says
PERFECT! Did the trick! Why do I need Christmas songs on my iPhone all year long anyway?? lol Thank you!!!
Paul says
Followed these steps, but they did do nearly enough to address my particular issue. My issue, it turns out, was this: Though I almost always upload my photos to the cloud, and then delete them from my phone within hours of taking them, I discovered that they were never actually deleted. Instead they were all in an album named “Recently Deleted”. By opening that album and deleting its contents, I fixed my issue.
Mary says
Mitch,
Thank you! I was out of the country recently and uploaded “Whatsapp”, never thinking about the space that it would take up. Deleted it and I can take pictures again. Wish I had looked you up before I deleted a lot of good pics and videos!
MC