Even the best iPhones come with a limited amount of non-expandable storage. While the iPhone 15 series opened the door for external storage for iPhones thanks to the USB Type-C port, you can't directly install apps on those drives. iCloud storage is another compelling solution, but before you jump to that idea, you're better off first manually taking steps to free up storage on the device. Here are some tips and tricks that can save you a lot of storage.
How to copy data from Android to an iPhone
Making a move to iOS from Android? This guide can help you transfer all your data from Android to iOS to ensure a smooth migration.
How to free up space on your iPhone
Find out what's taking up all your iPhone storage
Before you randomly begin removing apps, photos, or files, it's wise to first check what's actually hogging up all of your storage. To do this, go to Settings > General > iPhone storage. Depending on how much storage you're using, this page may take a few seconds to load. Once loaded, you’ll see a bar chart that breaks down what is taking up how much room, along with a line list for each section that you can review individually.
Start reviewing, offloading, and deleting
There are many things you can do within this iPhone Storage to free up some space on your iPhone. Here are some general recommendations that will be the most effective:
- Under Recommendations, select Offload Unused Apps (if available) to automatically offload apps you no longer use. This will remove the app from your device but retain the documents and data within it.
- Next, Review Videos (if any) and remove ones you no longer need.
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Similarly, Review Large Attachments (if any) and remove the ones you no longer need.
- Empty the "Recently Deleted" Album (if any) to remove items that you don't want anyway.
- Scroll down the list below to see how much storage each item is taking up and review each one individually from there.
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For example, if you tap the Messages app option in the Storage page list, you'll see how much space photos, conversations, and videos are taking up. If you tap Photos, you'll see a list of all the images you've sent and received in the Messages app. Browse and delete any you don't need. The same goes for videos, conversations, and stickers.
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If you want to manually offload apps, look at the Last Used date, and if it was more than a year ago, select the app and choose Offload App. This removes the app from your iPhone but keeps your data if you ever reinstall it. Or to permanently remove an app that you no longer want, select Delete App at the bottom.
- You might also find that apps like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts take up too much storage. This is mainly because of downloaded music, videos, or podcasts. It's worthwhile to go into each app and remove any multimedia that you don't watch or listen to frequently.
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While you're going through the apps themselves, don't forget the Photos app. Open the app, scroll down and tap Duplicates, tap Select > Select All, and tap Merge at the bottom. This merges the duplicate images, combining the highest quality and relevant data, to save you space by trimming unnecessary copies.
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Another great way of freeing up storage is to use iCloud for your photos. Go to Settings > Photos and enable iCloud Photos and Optimize iPhone Storage. The first setting automatically uploads your photos to iCloud, and Optimize iPhone Storage replaces original photos and videos with compressed versions. The originals are then stored in iCloud.
If you're still low on storage, consider iCloud+
While the above tips are great for freeing up a lot of storage space on your iPhone, there's a high chance you'll eventually end up filling it up again. This is something a lot of people run into, especially when they buy the base model iPhone without considering their storage needs. At the end of the day, you might want to get familiar with iCloud+ and go for the subscription. Apart from storing documents, files, and photos, it has a ton of other privacy and security perks worth exploring.
Apple iCloud+
iCloud+ is perfect for Apple users as it enables them to seamlessly back up and restore data from devices like iPhones, Macs, and more. The pricing is on par with Google Drive, and it's also integrated with Apple's iWork productivity suite.