I watched a video about the theoretical limits of lossless image compression and wondered whether the same ideas could help with the photos on my phone. I have thousands of images using about 137 GB, and my storage is 99% full. Is there a way to reduce their size substantially without noticeably lowering quality, while keeping them easy to access on my phone?
4 Answers
Most phone photos are already stored in highly optimized formats such as HEIC or JPEG, so additional lossless compression usually saves very little. The dramatic size reductions shown in compression demonstrations generally require either starting with uncompressed data or accepting some loss of quality. You can use the phone’s built-in image conversion tools or a reputable compression app to resize photos or lower their quality, but check the results before processing your whole library.
Before changing every file, make a backup and review the library for duplicates, blurry shots, screenshots, and multiple nearly identical pictures. Deleting unnecessary images can recover a surprising amount of space. For photos you want to keep, make a test batch, resize them or export them at a slightly lower quality, then compare the file size and visual results before doing the rest.
Cloud photo storage is probably the easiest solution. Upload the originals, confirm the backup completed, and then use the service’s option to remove local copies from the phone. You can still browse the library and download individual photos when needed. Some services also offer a space-saving mode that keeps smaller versions online or on the device while preserving the originals remotely.
A newer format such as JPEG XL could potentially reduce file sizes, but phone and app support is still limited. Converting thousands of existing photos is only worthwhile if all the devices and services you use can open the new format. In practice, HEIC, cloud storage, and careful resizing are more dependable options right now.
I was hoping to keep everything directly on my phone, but it sounds like offloading the originals may be the most practical option since my phone has no expandable storage.