With advanced applications, high-end cameras producing detailed photos and quality video, and console-grade games, your iPhone will be too easy to be filled up very quickly. Even those who have massive 64GB storage models can find things get out of hand fast, so it’s even worse if you’re on the entry-level 16GB, or if you’re using an older 8GB model such as the iPhone 5c.
Thankfully we’ve got some tips for freeing up space on your iPhone quickly and easily.
1) Delete Useless Apps
If you don’t use apps just delete them. It really is that simple, and even if some are paid-for you can still re-download them via iCloud. Ideally, you only want the apps you actually stored on your iPhone. Everything else is completely expendable.
While many apps are only 10MB to 50MB in size, games can be 500MB to 1GB in size. Also another genre of apps that are often quite large is reference apps, including any that have fancy 3D graphics (like science apps or history apps). So go through every app and game on your iOS device and if you don’t use it, get rid of it. To do so simply tap and hold its icon until it juggles and then tap the X in the corner.
2) Delete videos and books
Don’t forget to delete those movies or TV shows on your phone when you’re done with them because that’s a very BIG problem, considering a two hour HD movie can take up to 3.5GB of space. So go into your Videos app and tap the “Edit” button in the right hand corner. A little X will appear next to every video in the app. Tap it to delete any videos you don’t want.
Do the same for iBooks. Yes, most eBooks take up less than 1MB of space, but only if it’s a normal text eBook; many eBooks nowadays have fancy graphics or even videos embedded in them. Reference books are especially guilty of this. So go into iBooks and tap the “Select” button then tap any book you don’t want any longer and tap the “Delete” button.
And the great thing about deleting videos and books is you can quickly re-download them with just the tap of a button.
3) Only save HDR photos
Everyone knows that photos take up a lot of room on our devices, so it’s always good to go through and delete older photos in the Photos app. But what many people don’t realize is that a lot of the time any new photo they take is actually being saved as two images, not one, and this means your storage gets taken up twice as fast. The reasoning behind this is because the iPhone allows you to take HDR images (three images taken at three different exposures and then combined into one image to give you the best look). But when you take an HDR image the original non-HDR image is also saved by default. Hence, two images.
To disable saving the original image (and if you’re just someone who likes taking the best snaps there’s little reason you should save the non-HDR image), go to Settings>Photos & Cameras and toggle the “Keep Normal Photo” switch to off.
4) Watch out for Newsstand apps
Newsstand is Apple’s dedicated folder that contains all your digital magazine subscriptions. Some magazines only save the most recent two or three issues, so old issues don’t take up your iPhone’s storage. But there are a few magazines and newspapers I’ve found that save everything forever. One such Newsstand paper is the London Metro paper. It was saving over 6GB worth of old papers on my device. While I could have deleted individual papers, I instead went in and removed the entire app. Go through your Newsstand app and see if any are doing the same on your device.
5) Set Messages to auto-delete
Your Messages history can take up gigabytes of space, especially if you send or receive a lot of photos via text. In iOS 9 there’s a new setting where you can automatically delete older messages. To enable this go to Settings>Messages and then under “Keep Messages” set it to 30 days or 1 Year. Also be sure that you’ve set Audio and Video messages to expire after two minutes.
You can also delete entire threads individually by opening the Messages app and then swiping left on a thread and tapping Delete. Just be sure you’ve saved any photos you want to permanently hold on to before deleting the thread.
6) Delete voicemail messages
To delete individual Visual Voicemails go to the Phone app then tap on the Voicemail button. Find the voicemail you want to delete and then swipe left on it and tap the red Delete button.
7)Get an OTG flash drive
Compared to the above steps, this may be the easiest and the most convenient way to free up your storage. Just carry an OTG flash drive with you, you can transfer your files at any places and any time as well as free up space.
Thankfully we’ve got some tips for freeing up space on your iPhone quickly and easily.
1) Delete Useless Apps
If you don’t use apps just delete them. It really is that simple, and even if some are paid-for you can still re-download them via iCloud. Ideally, you only want the apps you actually stored on your iPhone. Everything else is completely expendable.
While many apps are only 10MB to 50MB in size, games can be 500MB to 1GB in size. Also another genre of apps that are often quite large is reference apps, including any that have fancy 3D graphics (like science apps or history apps). So go through every app and game on your iOS device and if you don’t use it, get rid of it. To do so simply tap and hold its icon until it juggles and then tap the X in the corner.
2) Delete videos and books
Don’t forget to delete those movies or TV shows on your phone when you’re done with them because that’s a very BIG problem, considering a two hour HD movie can take up to 3.5GB of space. So go into your Videos app and tap the “Edit” button in the right hand corner. A little X will appear next to every video in the app. Tap it to delete any videos you don’t want.
Do the same for iBooks. Yes, most eBooks take up less than 1MB of space, but only if it’s a normal text eBook; many eBooks nowadays have fancy graphics or even videos embedded in them. Reference books are especially guilty of this. So go into iBooks and tap the “Select” button then tap any book you don’t want any longer and tap the “Delete” button.
And the great thing about deleting videos and books is you can quickly re-download them with just the tap of a button.
3) Only save HDR photos
Everyone knows that photos take up a lot of room on our devices, so it’s always good to go through and delete older photos in the Photos app. But what many people don’t realize is that a lot of the time any new photo they take is actually being saved as two images, not one, and this means your storage gets taken up twice as fast. The reasoning behind this is because the iPhone allows you to take HDR images (three images taken at three different exposures and then combined into one image to give you the best look). But when you take an HDR image the original non-HDR image is also saved by default. Hence, two images.
To disable saving the original image (and if you’re just someone who likes taking the best snaps there’s little reason you should save the non-HDR image), go to Settings>Photos & Cameras and toggle the “Keep Normal Photo” switch to off.
4) Watch out for Newsstand apps
Newsstand is Apple’s dedicated folder that contains all your digital magazine subscriptions. Some magazines only save the most recent two or three issues, so old issues don’t take up your iPhone’s storage. But there are a few magazines and newspapers I’ve found that save everything forever. One such Newsstand paper is the London Metro paper. It was saving over 6GB worth of old papers on my device. While I could have deleted individual papers, I instead went in and removed the entire app. Go through your Newsstand app and see if any are doing the same on your device.
5) Set Messages to auto-delete
Your Messages history can take up gigabytes of space, especially if you send or receive a lot of photos via text. In iOS 9 there’s a new setting where you can automatically delete older messages. To enable this go to Settings>Messages and then under “Keep Messages” set it to 30 days or 1 Year. Also be sure that you’ve set Audio and Video messages to expire after two minutes.
You can also delete entire threads individually by opening the Messages app and then swiping left on a thread and tapping Delete. Just be sure you’ve saved any photos you want to permanently hold on to before deleting the thread.
6) Delete voicemail messages
To delete individual Visual Voicemails go to the Phone app then tap on the Voicemail button. Find the voicemail you want to delete and then swipe left on it and tap the red Delete button.
7)Get an OTG flash drive
Compared to the above steps, this may be the easiest and the most convenient way to free up your storage. Just carry an OTG flash drive with you, you can transfer your files at any places and any time as well as free up space.