Our iPhones are far more than simply phones. They house our photos, books, music, and movies, but they also house the apps we use every day for work, socialising, ordering groceries, commuting, managing finances, and even our health. Because it’s used for so many various activities. It’s easy to fast consume all of the phone’s storage space – which may quickly become a nightmare.
But don’t be alarmed. If you’re nearing the end of your storage space, you’re not doomed, and you don’t have to erase every photo or replace your phone. We’ll walk you through nine ways to make space, many of which are free, quick, and simple.
FIRST, FIGURE OUT WHAT’S EATING UP YOUR STORAGE
Go to Settings, then General, and then iPhone Storage to see what’s using up the most space on your iPhone. There, you’ll see a useful overview of the files, media, and apps that are taking up your space, so you can get to work on eliminating them. At the very least, attempt to eliminate at least 2GB of storage space so you may install more apps and shoot photos.
BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS AND VIDEOS WITH A CLOUD STORAGE SERVICE
In all likelihood, you’ll quickly discover that photos and videos are taking up a significant portion of your storage space. If you don’t want to erase things forever, back them up to a cloud storage provider, such as Apple’s iCloud (you can learn exactly how to do that here). That way, you’ll still have backups of your memories before erasing them from your iPhone.
However, keep in mind that while the first 5GB of iCloud storage is free, you’ll have to pay 99 cents per month for each additional 50GB. If you require more space, there are alternative, more expensive plans available, which you can learn more about here.
After you delete the photographs, keep in mind that the Apple Store photos you removed in the last 30 days are still in the Recently Deleted folder in your Photos app — and will continue to take up space, so make sure you delete them there as well. You may find it by going to the Albums page and searching for Recently Deleted. In the upper right corner, tap the Select button and then select Delete All.
You may also configure your iPhone to save smaller photos while storing the original, higher-resolution images on iCloud to save space. To enable that option, go to Photos in Settings and make sure there’s a checkbox next to Optimize iPhone Storage.
Also: 6 iPhone Data Usage Tips To Help You Save Money
DELETE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS YOU SENT OR RECEIVED FROM OTHERS
If you don’t have time to select what to delete or back up to iCloud and just want to start clearing up some space, go back to Settings, touch on General, and then click iPhone Storage. When you get there, click on Review Large Attachments, which is found beneath the color-coded bar that indicates how much storage apps, photographs, the system, and other settings are using. You’ll see a list of photographs and videos you’ve sent or received in messages here, which you can remove by pressing your thumb on one, swiping left, and hitting the red Delete button.
Prioritize getting rid of the first two at the top, which will most likely be films because they take up the most storage space. In my experience, deleting them offers me just the extra capacity I need when I’m on the move and don’t have a lot of time to think about which apps, images, or videos I don’t need anymore.
GET RID OF OLD TEXT MESSAGES
On the subject of text messages, open your Messages app and erase any conversations you no longer require. If you like, your iPhone can also erase messages automatically. Simply go to Settings, scroll down to Messages, and then touch the Keep Messages option under Message History. You’ll be able to select whether you want your phone to save texts for 30 days, a year, or forever.
DELETE OR OFFLOAD APPS YOU’VE NOT USED FOR AWHILE
When you have the time, you should delete or uninstall any programmes that you no longer desire or use. When you go to Settings, General, and iPhone Storage, Apple neatly tells you the last time you used particular apps, which might help make this process faster and easier.
If you don’t want to lose the app’s data, you can offload it instead. Your papers and data will still be accessible when you reinstall it as a result. To offload, simply return to Settings, select General, and then tap on iPhone Storage once more. Select Offload App after clicking on the app.
While you’re at it, prevent your iPhone from running out of space in the future by heading to the App Store option under Settings and toggling on the Offload Unused Apps switch.
Check Out: Apple Reportedly To Sell iPhone As A Subscription Service
ADD SITE LINKS TO YOUR HOME SCREEN INSTEAD OF KEEPING APPS
When I had an old 32GB iPhone and was continually running out of storage space, I had no choice but to uninstall almost all of my apps. It made me realise that there were a few that I only used because they housed specific files I required, such as Google Drive.
It occurred to me that I could simply add links to the files I required to my home screen, allowing me to access them as if they were apps. In fact, accessing those files this way was much easier and faster than opening up and searching through Google Drive. I started applying this strategy to other programmes as well, such as adding links to news sites instead of utilising news apps, which saved me some space.
So, if you have information that you can readily check up on the internet or with a Google search, you might want to consider using this method. Simply navigate to the site using your Safari app, then scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on the square icon with an arrow inside, followed by the Add to Home Screen option near the bottom of the list. Tap on Add, and it should be shown anywhere on your screen.
REMOVE VIDEOS, BOOKS, AND MUSIC STORED ON YOUR PHONE
Data and documents kept within an app on your phone might sometimes take up the most storage space. You may check to see if this is the case by going back to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and then selecting on an app. A page will emerge informing you of the amount of space used up by both Documents & Data and the App Size itself. That’s information you can use to delete ebooks you’ve done reading, dismiss browser tabs, or remove certain podcast episodes you no longer require, rather than deleting the entire programme.
CLEAR YOUR CACHE
Deleting apps, photos, and videos will free up a significant amount of storage, but cleaning your web browser cache might also provide some extra space if you’re in a pinch. Just keep in mind that if you choose this method, you will be signed out of websites.
If you’re a Safari user, head over to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data clear your cache
If you’re using Google Chrome, you’ll need to do a few extra steps. To begin, launch the browser and select the three dots at the bottom. Tap History > Clear Browsing Data to see a list of items you can delete. You will have the choice to remove browsing history, cached pictures and files, cookies and site data, saved passwords, and autofill data, or to wipe everything. You can also remove your browsing history from the previous hour, the previous 24 hours, a week, the last four weeks, or all time by selecting the relevant option under Time Range. After you’ve made your selections, scroll down and click Clear Browsing Data.
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USE SNAPCHAT TO TAKE PHOTOS
I solely use Snapchat as a second camera and private storage place. I downloaded it once while travelling since I was going to run out of local storage space for photos. Fortunately, despite the fact that my iPhone storage was technically full, I was still able to use Snapchat to take and store both films and photographs because the software saves its Memories in the cloud. So, if you’re on the run and need to shoot pictures but don’t have time to clear up space, this could be a nice hack.
