CleanMyPhone: The Smart Way to Declutter Your iOS Device

Your iPhone or iPad fills up quickly with photos, videos, and other files, especially if you’re a heavy user of the Photos app. Over time, this digital clutter takes up valuable storage space, leaving you with no room for new apps or media.

That’s where CleanMy®Phone comes in. This AI-powered tool is designed to free up storage space quickly and safely. It helps you reclaim precious space, restoring your device’s optimal performance—no hassle required.

About CleanMy®Phone

As long-time fans of MacPaw’s CleanMyMac, we’re excited to explore their new app, CleanMyPhone. While CleanMyMac keeps our Mac running smoothly, CleanMyPhone tackles the clutter that accumulates on iPhones and iPads!

Originally starting as a duplicate photo finder (similar to their amazing Gemini Photos app), MacPaw envisions CleanMyPhone as the ultimate all-in-one cleaning and optimization tool for your iPhone and iPad.

The app is already packed with features. It can find and remove duplicate photos, blurry images, and even those forgotten screenshots that seem to multiply overnight. Plus, it helps clean up other clutter that steals your storage space.

Features highlight

• This app optimizes iPhone/iPad performance by intelligently cleaning unnecessary files (photos, duplicates, downloads). However, some advanced features require a paid subscription.
• Uninstall unwanted apps and clean up associated data to maximize storage efficiency.
• Goes beyond basic cleaning with AI-powered photo organization by category, date, or location.
• Lets you decide what to delete, ensuring careful iphone cleanup.
• Clear browsing history, cookies, and sensitive data from various apps to safeguard your privacy.
• Built-in Wi-Fi speed test ensures your internet connection is strong enough for smooth online tasks.

From the product manager

“CleanMyPhone goes beyond cleaning; we created it to enhance the way people manage and organize storage on their iOS and iPadOS devices. Emerged from the legacy of Gemini Photos, it’s an advanced tool backed by our own AI algorithm helping to clean and organize digital space efficiently with a vision to become an ultimate all-in-one iOS/iPadOS care app in the future.”

CleanMy®Phone’s key capabilities

CleanMyPhone stands out in the crowded space of digital cleaning tools with its array of features designed to simplify the management of your digital clutter.

The core functionality of the app revolves around three main pillars: Declutter, Organize, and Network Speed Test.

Declutter your device

The app’s AI system offers a hands-on yet automated decluttering experience. Once you grant permissions, it automatically scans your photo library, identifying duplicates, blurry photos, screenshots, and other irrelevant content. Even subtle issues, such as blurry photos from portrait mode, are flagged for deletion, ensuring your library stays pristine.

As it scans the library, the app intelligently suggests files for deletion, but gives you full control over what gets removed. You can visually compare items side by side, making it easier to decide whether to delete a duplicate or blurry photo.

Organize your photos

Beyond just decluttering, CleanMyPhone helps you organize photos and files into categorized albums based on content, date, or location. Whether it’s travel photos, holiday moments, family events, or food shots, everything is neatly arranged for easy access.

The AI learns your habits and suggests ways to organize your content into albums, like “Pets”, “Documents”, “Travel”, and more.

Check your Network

This unexpected but useful feature allows you to test your internet connection speed directly from the app. The app provides clear details on upload and download speeds, helping you troubleshoot performance issues and ensuring smooth cloud backups or media uploads.

Before uploading large batches of photos or syncing data to the cloud, you may check your network speed to ensure optimal performance.

Our experience (CleanMyPhone review)

We had the chance to use a pre-release version of CleanMyPhone for several weeks and were impressed by its capabilities. Even though we were diligent about cleaning up our iPhones, the app uncovered a significant amount of overlooked content.

For example, after using CleanMyPhone, we discovered blurry photos, duplicate files, and forgotten screenshots that had slipped through the cracks. It even flagged images that had been missed by other cleaning tools, proving its remarkable proficiency in detecting digital clutter.

• The app’s setup process is intuitive, and it requires minimal permissions, making it a seamless addition to our daily routine.
• The app helped us reclaim several gigabytes of space—something we hadn’t anticipated, even after regularly managing our storage.

• The visual comparison tool is particularly helpful. It displayed duplicates side by side, with details like file size and creation date, making it easier to decide which versions to keep.
• The organization feature transformed our photo access, with categories like ‘Travel’, ‘Family Events’, and ‘Documents’ automatically populated, making navigation effortless. CleanMyPhone’s commitment to privacy is evident, as it does not access hidden albums and respects user privacy settings on their devices.

In one month, CleanMyPhone helped recover nearly 15GB of storage space by identifying and removing redundant files. This quantifiable result highlighted the app’s value. We appreciated the app’s suggestion to create a ‘Work Documents’ folder after noticing recurring patterns in our downloads during business hours. The network speed test feature was handy for checking connectivity before uploading large batches of photos to the cloud, ensuring our internet speed was sufficient for heavy data tasks.

Careful cleanup

CleanMy®Phone gives you complete control over your iPhone’s storage. While the app identifies photos and files that could be taking up unnecessary space, you decide what to delete. Whether it’s blurry pictures, duplicates, or old screenshots, you can review each suggestion before confirming any action.

And if you happen to delete something by accident, don’t stress! All deleted items are safely stored in the Recently Deleted folder, where you can easily recover them within 30 days.

Though CleanMy®Phone does a fantastic job at suggesting deletions, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on what’s being removed—just to be extra careful. You remain in full control, ensuring nothing important is lost in the process.

Comparative analysis

Compared to other popular cleaning apps like Google’s Files Go and CCleaner, CleanMyPhone holds its ground with its unique combination of features.

Unlike Files Go, which primarily focuses on temporary and junk files, CleanMyPhone offers comprehensive cleaning, including photo management.

CCleaner, while powerful, does not provide the same level of photo organization and lacks the AI-driven categorization that makes CleanMyPhone stand out.

One standout feature is its handling of sensitive photos, allowing users to mark specific images as ‘sensitive,’ ensuring they are excluded from future scans—providing peace of mind and personalized control over privacy.

Additionally, the inclusion of a network speed test within the app cleverly complements its core functionality, allowing users to ensure their connection is robust enough for efficient data management and cloud interactions.

These features distinguish CleanMyPhone in a market where most competitors focus solely on basic cleaning without these nuanced capabilities.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Efficient Decluttering: CleanMyPhone excels in accurately identifying and removing unnecessary files, significantly freeing up storage space.
• Advanced Organization: Automatically categorizes files into intuitive albums, making photo and document management a breeze.
• User-Friendly Interface: The app is straightforward to navigate, with clear options and visual guides enhancing the user experience.
• Privacy-Focused: Requires minimal permissions, focusing only on essential data, a significant plus for privacy-conscious users.

Cons

• Limited Free Features: While the app offers a robust set of tools, some of the more advanced features are locked behind a paywall, which might deter some users.
• May require user review for some deletion suggestion: In some cases, the AI might suggest deleting files that the user prefers to keep, requiring careful review.

Pricing and availability

CleanMyPhone is available for download on the App Store, but to unlock its full potential, you’ll need a subscription. The good news is that the app offers a free 3-day trial to test the limited decluttering and organizing function.

After the trial, a yearly subscription unlocks all features for $24.99.

Download options:

• App Store: This is the most straightforward way to get CleanMyPhone. Simply head to the App Store and search for it.
• Setapp (Optional): If you’re a Mac user and already subscribe to Setapp, MacPaw’s service offering access to various Mac and iPhone utilities, you can also access CleanMyPhone through your Setapp membership for $12.99 per month.

FAQs

Is CleanMy®Phone safe?
Yes, CleanMy®Phone prioritizes your privacy by managing photos and videos locally on your device. It does not require an internet connection for analysis and does not send or collect personal data.

Can CleanMy®Phone manage files other than photos?
Currently, CleanMy®Phone focuses on photos, helping you find and remove clutter from various apps like TikTok and Instagram. Future updates may include document management.

Does CleanMy®Phone access hidden photos and videos?
No, CleanMy®Phone does not retrieve or manipulate hidden photos and videos in any way.

Does CleanMy®Phone collect personal data?
No, CleanMy®Phone does not collect or transfer personal data. It processes your photo library directly on your device without needing an internet connection, ensuring your data remains confidential.

How does CleanMy®Phone ensure important files aren’t deleted?
CleanMy®Phone does not automatically delete anything. It categorizes your photos and suggests items for deletion, allowing you to maintain control over what stays or goes. If you accidentally delete something, it can be recovered from the Recently Deleted album for 30 days.

Can I recover deleted photos and videos?
Yes, deleted items are moved to the Recently Deleted album in the Photos app, where they remain for 30 days before permanent deletion, giving you time to recover them if needed.

Final notes

If you want to extend the lifespan of your iOS device and maintain optimal performance, CleanMy®Phone is worth trying. To install and use it, your device must run iOS 16 or later or iPadOS 16 or later, have approximately 120 MB of free space, and be compatible with all iPhones and iPads where you are signed in with your Apple ID.