How can I clear out phantom storage from Photos on my device?

Have you tried checking for any hidden albums? Sometimes duplicates or other files can get stored there and eat up space. You can check by going to Albums in the Photos app and see if anything looks suspicious. If you find anything, deleting them might help clear up that space!

It sounds like you might have a lot of cached data or some corrupted files in your Photos app. One option is to try optimizing storage settings in Photos. Go to Settings > Photos and look for "Optimize Storage". That can sometimes force the app to clear out unnecessary files. If that doesn’t work, you could also try deleting the app and reinstalling it, but make sure your photos are backed up first!