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TidyByte

Screen recordings

Screen recording cleaner for iPhone.

Screen recordings are the largest files nobody remembers making. Find every one, see its size, and clear them in a single pass.

Free forever No ads, no subscription Core cleanup runs on-device

TidyByte cleanup tools screen showing the Screen Recordings tool alongside the other cleanup options.
Screen recordings, separated from the screenshots.

The files nobody remembers making

Screen recordings are created in a hurry and forgotten immediately: a bug you wanted to show someone, a video call you needed to check, a level you were stuck on, a scrolling list you sent to a friend. Each one is a full video file at your device's resolution, and each one lands in the same library as your photos, where it disappears into the grid.

Because they are video, they are expensive. Two minutes commonly weighs 50 to 200 MB, and long recordings can pass a gigabyte. A dozen forgotten recordings is a gigabyte and a half sitting in a library that is complaining about storage.

They also hide in plain sight. iOS groups them with screenshots in the Photos app, so a quick look at that album shows a wall of thumbnails where the recordings look like just another tile — until you notice the size.

How they are detected, and why size comes first

Screen recordings carry their own media subtype in the photo library, separate from screenshots and from ordinary video. TidyByte reads that flag, and falls back to the RPReplay_Final filename pattern that iOS writes for recordings, so nothing is guessed from resolution, aspect ratio or duration.

  1. Sort by size, largest first. The top few files are usually the whole win; a single long recording can outweigh everything else in the list.
  2. Check the total before you delete. The selection bar shows the combined size, so you know what the confirmation is worth.
  3. Deselect the one you still need. Tapping a selected recording takes it out of the deletion, so anything worth keeping stays exactly where it is.
  4. Delete in one pass. One iOS confirmation, and everything removed stays in Recently Deleted for 30 days.

Where recordings come from

  • Screen recording from Control Centre
  • Recordings of video calls, games and tutorials
  • Bug reports and support videos you sent once
  • Recordings made by other apps on your behalf

Recordings and screenshots are different problems

Screenshots are numerous and small; recordings are few and enormous. Treating them as one pile is why the Screenshots album in Photos feels unmanageable: you scroll past hundreds of tiny images to reach the handful of files that actually matter.

TidyByte keeps them apart. Start with Screen Recordings, where a few decisions return most of the space, then work through Screenshots at your leisure. If a recording is worth keeping but not worth its size, video compression can shrink it instead of deleting it.

For libraries where video is the dominant category, this ordering is the fastest route to a meaningful number: recordings first, then long videos, then everything else.

How it compares

Clearing screen recordings compared
  TidyByte Apple Photos Typical paid cleaner
Finds screen recordings specifically Yes, by media subtype and filename Mixed into a Screenshots album Rarely separated
Shows each file's real size Yes, sortable by size No Sometimes
Bulk delete after review Yes, one confirmation Manual selection Yes
Total space in the selection Shown before deleting No Rarely
Uploads anything No, on-device No Often yes
Cost Free Free Subscription
  • Free forever

    No subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads.

  • Private by design

    No TidyByte account, backend, analytics SDK, ads, or tracking.

  • On-device only

    iPhone-library cleanup runs locally; optional Google Photos connects directly to Google.

  • Open source

    MIT licensed on GitHub, so every claim is auditable.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find screen recordings on my iPhone?

Open TidyByte's Screen Recordings tool. Recordings are found by their media subtype in the photo library, with a fallback to the RPReplay_Final filename pattern iOS writes, so nothing is guessed from dimensions or dates. Each entry shows its real size and duration, and sorting by size puts the biggest offenders first.

How much space do screen recordings take up?

More than most people expect. A screen recording is a full video file at the device's resolution, so two minutes commonly lands between 50 and 200 MB, and long recordings of games or video calls can pass a gigabyte. Clearing a handful of them often returns more space than deleting thousands of photos.

Can I delete all screen recordings at once?

Yes. Select all, check the total size the app reports for your selection, and confirm once. The deletion goes through the standard iOS confirmation and the files sit in Recently Deleted for 30 days, so a recording you still need can be restored from the Photos app.

Are screen recordings different from screenshots?

They are both flagged by iOS in the photo library, but recordings are video and far larger. TidyByte keeps them in separate tools so you can clear the recordings first, which is where the space is, and then review the screenshots with a lighter touch.

Does deleting a screen recording affect anything else?

No. The file is removed from your photo library like any other video; nothing else in the system depends on it. If the recording was shared or saved elsewhere, that copy is unaffected.

Every cleanup tool, in one free app

Clear the recordings you forgot.

Download TidyByte Free, sort screen recordings by size, and take back the largest easy win in your library.