You’re at a music festival, and as the sun sets on a perfect summer’s day, your favorite musician begins to play the first notes of your favorite song. Instinctively, your hand reaches for your phone so that you can capture this unforgettable moment and relive it for years to come.
Yet, your iPhone is unable to comply and offers you an error message informing you that your storage is almost full.
Thankfully, you don’t need to go out and buy the latest iPhone just because you’re running low on storage space. Continue reading for seven ways to free up space if you’re suffering from low storage.
Assess The Situation
Before you address the problem, it’s a good idea to understand why you have so little storage space available. Apple makes it easier to save space by showing you a full breakdown of what types of files and media are eating up your storage.
To do this, go to the home screen, launch Settings, choose General, and scroll down until you reach iPhone Storage.
At this stage, your iPhone will give recommendations on how to save space, kindly informing you how much space you’ll be able to save. For example, Apple may encourage you to offload unused apps or review downloaded videos.
Ensure Your Phone is Optimizing Photo Storage
Photos can use up many gigabytes of space if you don’t take advantage of Apple’s option to optimize photo storage. This allows users to save their full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud while space-saving versions of the originals are kept on your device. As long as you’re connected to the internet, you can download the full-resolution versions as needed.
Optimizing your photos is a great way to save space on your iPhone, and it’s straightforward to boot.
To turn this feature on, start by launching Settings. Next, scroll down to Photos and ensure there’s a blue tick next to the Optimize iPhone Storage option.
Delete Apps You Don’t Use
Some people’s phones are full of apps they haven’t used for years, and lots of us have more apps than we want or need. That’s no problem if you’re not struggling for storage space, but unused apps are a great place to begin if you want to save storage.
To delete apps and save space, open the Settings menu, tap General, and scroll down to iPhone Storage. Here, Apple shows you all your apps and how much data each occupies. It also tells you when you last used the app, so scroll through and select apps you rarely use before tapping Delete App.
Offload Apps You Use Occasionally
You may not want to delete an app off your iPhone, but you can offload certain apps to free up storage space while keeping the app’s documents and data. You can reinstall the app whenever you’re connected to the internet and pick up exactly where you left off. Meanwhile, your phone storage space will be increased.
To offload apps, launch Settings, tap General, and scroll down to iPhone Storage once more. Select any app in the list and tap Offload App instead of Delete App. You can also let your iPhone offload apps automatically by launching Settings, scrolling down to the App Store option, and toggling the Offload Unused Apps switch to on.
Choose Files to Delete
Most of us have many videos, photos, and music stored in various apps across our iPhones. You may have downloaded offline content from apps such as Netflix, and you can save loads of space by going through your phone and deleting these files.
To do this, open Settings, choose General, and scroll down to iPhone Storage. Apple gives you the option to delete downloaded offline videos directly underneath the Delete App button. Alternatively, you can open your video and podcast apps separately and delete downloads you no longer want.
Back Up Your Files
Understandably, you may be hesitant to delete certain files, whether they’re videos, music, or photos. It’s easier to delete them when you know there’s a backup safely stored away.
There are many ways to do it, but if you’re looking to increase storage space, it’s an excellent idea to backup iphone to an external hard drive. Follow that step-by-step guide to ensure you do everything correctly.
Delete and Reinstall Facebook
If you’re looking to clear storage space, you may have noticed that Facebook is eating up a considerable amount of storage. Scrolling the homepage adds temporary and cached files to your iPhone, consuming valuable space.
A simple way to clear this up is to delete and reinstall the app on your iPhone. This clears the Facebook cache, allowing the app to run faster, while saving iPhone memory and storage.
To do this, launch Settings, tap General, and scroll down to iPhone Storage. Find Facebook and tap Delete App. Next, restart your iPhone and visit the App Store to reinstall it.
Clear Your Web Browser Cache
Another great way to save space on your iPhone is by clearing the cache. When surfing the internet, we collect a lot of junk that can build up over time. Your iPhone’s cache can preserve a lot of data, but it can also eat into what little storage space you have left.
Follow these steps to clear your browser cache, but be aware that this will sign you out of any websites that you’re logged into. Open Settings, select Safari, and scroll down to Clear History and Website Data. If you prefer using Google Chrome to Safari, tap the three dots at the bottom and select History before tapping Clear Browsing Data.
Contact Apple support in the unlikely event that you’ve tried all seven of these tips, and you’re still struggling for storage space.
You’ll Soon Forget About Your Low Storage Issues
It can be frustrating when you’re running out of phone storage. But heed our advice and try out all seven of these methods, and you’ll soon find you have heaps of storage space on your iPhone.
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