Does your iPhone's storage keep filling up? Read on to learn how to clear storage on the iPhone and create more space.
An iPhone is a fantastic device that allows users to do almost whatever they want due to its enhanced efficiency. The iOS device allows storage of all kinds of files, but sometimes it can get a little crowded, especially if you have a 16GB model. If you're running out of storage space on your phone, or if you want to reduce the clutter and make your iPhone run faster, you can clear up some space by deleting items from your iPhone.
However, if this is your first time using the iPhone, you may run into some difficulties when attempting to clear its storage. However, you shouldn't be worried; there are several options available, depending on your needs and preferences.
How to Check the Storage on Your iPhone
It's nice to have a lot of storage space on your iPhone, but sometimes it can be frustrating when you're running low. If you're wondering how much space you have left, here's how you can do it:
Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap on [General].
Step 3: Tap on the [iPhone Storage] button
You'll see a horizontal bar at the top of the screen that shows your total device storage and how much is used up. It will show you how much space is being taken up by apps, music, photos, and more. You can tap each category for more information about the amount of data being used by that category.
How to Clear Storage on iPhone?
If you've ever tried to download an app or movie and been told, there was no room left on your phone. The good news is that clearing storage on your iPhone is easy — it just takes a few minutes of your time.
Here's how to do it:
1. Follow the Apple's Recommendations
Apple suggests various ways to make more room on your iPhone based on your most recent programs and activities. So, the recommendations will not be the same across all devices but will differ depending on the user.
To see these recommendations on your device:
Step 1: Navigate to the [Settings] app
Step 2: Tap on the [General] button and click on the [iPhone Storage] button.
Step 3: Swipe upwards and click on the [Enable] button under the recommendations section.
Step 4: To see all the recommendations, tap on the [Show All] button. Clicking on the [Enable] button beside each app's recommendation will automatically delete data on the iPhone based on certain parameters.
The apps' recommendations Having an arrow pointing to their right allows you to manually remove data from the device. So, once you click the arrow, you'll be able to delete the attachments you've chosen.
2. Delete or Offload Apps You Haven't Been Using
One way to clear storage on your iPhone is by deleting or offloading apps you haven't been using lately. So, if you don't really want to remove an app permanently, you may offload it instead. Offloading a program helps to maintain the documents and data linked with it, allowing you to reinstall it at any time and take up right where you left off.
To do so, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Open the [Settings] app
Step 2: Click on the [General] option and select [iPhone Storage]
Step 3: Touch any app on the recommended lists and select the [Offload App] button.
You can also program your iPhone to offload apps automatically by going to Settings, choosing the App Store option, and flipping on the Offload Unused Apps switch.
3. Clean Up Your Photo Library
Since Photos is one of the most space-intensive apps on your iPhone, it's usual to attempt to eliminate duplicate photos, screenshots you don't need, and huge video files. You can, however, use an iPhone software like Gemini Photos to remove the photos much more quickly and efficiently.
Here's how to clear your storage using Gemini Photos:
Step 1: Download and Open Gemini Photos.
Step 2: The app will immediately start scanning your Photo Library.
Step 3: When the scan is finished, Select [Screenshots], [Blurred], and [Notes] from the [Screenshots], [Blurred], and [Notes] tabs. Here, you'll find all the photographs and screenshots you don't need. Although the program will have picked all of them, you can still unselect those that you require.
Step 4: Click on the [Delete All] button.
Step 5: Scroll through to the [Similar] tab. Here you will find Sets of identical photos that will be grouped and pre-selected, with just the best shot remaining in each set.
Step 6: Go around opening each of the sets, pick other photos if necessary, and then hit Move to Trash to delete the photos you've chosen.
Step 7: Once you have opened and reviewed all sets having similar photos, click on the [Empty Trash] button.
Step 8: Sort through the remainder of your photo library by going through Duplicates, Videos, and Others.
Step 9: Lastly, navigate to your Photos app, and select Recently Deleted from the drop-down menu.
Step 10: Click to select then [Delete ALL].
4. Delete Downloaded Music
You might want to delete some music that you don’t listen to anymore, but it is not easy to find out which music files are taking up so much space.
To do this:
Step 1: Open Settings
Step 2: Click on the [General] button then touch on [iPhone Storage]
Step 3: Slide through the apps and select the Music app
Step 4: To delete any songs you don't listen to anymore, swipe left on an artist and hit the [Delete] option.
Step 5: If you want to delete the whole album of a particular artist available on your phone, tap on the artist's name, then you can delete the whole list of songs under the artist.
5. Clear Apps Data
If you are like most iPhone users, you have a lot of apps installed on your device that can take up a lot of storage space. If you need more space, you can clear some space by deleting apps' data and temporary files from your iPhone.
However, you should be aware that clearing an app's data will result in you being logged out of any apps that require logging in. As a result, you should have all of the relevant app passwords written down somewhere else.
To do this, follow these steps:
Step 1: Open the Settings app and go to General > iPhone Storage.
Step 2: Tap on an app name to see its usage statistics. You may have to scroll down to see all app names.
Step 3: Click on the [Delete App] button.
Step 4: Reinstall the deleted app from the App Store.
6. Clear Browser Cache
The cache of a browser is the collection of temporary files and folders that are used to store data from websites you visit. The cache helps load websites faster and stores some files for future use. However, it can become clogged with unwanted information and can occupy a lot of space on your device.
So, clearing the browser cache will clear some storage space and help improve browsing speed and performance on your iPhone.
Here's how:
For Safari Browser
Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Step 2: Scroll down until you see Safari
Step 3: Under the [General] tab under the [Advanced] section, hit the [Clear History and Website Data] button.
For Chrome Browser
Step 1: On your iPhone, launch the Google Chrome browser.
Step 2: Tap the three dots in the upper-right corner of your screen, then tap Settings.
Step 3: Scroll to the bottom of the page and touch the [Privacy] option
Step 4: Select the [Clear Browsing Data] option
Step 5: Select the browsing data you want to delete from the browsing history, cookies, files cached images, and press Clear Browsing Data.
7. Clear Attachments from Messages
With the Messages app, you can send and receive a variety of media, including photos, videos, and audio messages. However, if you have a lot of attachments in your conversations, it can take up a lot of storage.
If you're short on storage space on your iPhone, clearing attachments from messages can help free up some space. Here's how:
Step 1: Open the Settings App
Step 2: Tap on the [General] tab
Step 3: Click on the [iPhone Storage] option
Step 4: Scroll through and click on the [Messages] app
Step 5: Top Conversations, GIFs and Stickers, Photos, and Others will appear in a list. Select the category that takes up the most room. Remember that you'll be deleting whole threads, not just attachments, under Top Conversations. So stick to Photos and other stuff if you don't want to do that.
Step 6: Touch the [Edit]button in the upper-right corner
Step 7: Select all attachments you need to delete
Step 8: Click on the [Trash] icon
8. Clear Offline Content
Offline content is all the content that has been downloaded on your phone but isn’t available in the cloud. It may include apps, music, or podcasts that have not been updated recently or podcasts that have been listened to already.
Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify are just a few of the iPhone apps that take up a lot of space. As a result, you'll have to erase the offline content in each of them separately.
Here's how:
For YouTube
Step 1: Open the Youtube app
Step 2: Navigate to Library. Click the [Downloads] button.
Step 3: Touch the menu icon on a downloaded video
Step 4: Select the [Delete from Downloads] option
Step 5: Redo the same step for each video.
For Netflix
Step 1: Open the Netflix app on your device.
Step 2: Go to the Downloads section.
Step 3: In the top right corner, touch the pencil icon.
Step 4: To delete the video, tap the red X.
9. Restore Factory Defaults
If your iPhone is running slow or you're getting an error message like “Storage Almost Full,” it might be time to clear up some space. You can do this by restoring factory settings on your iPhone.
Restoring factory settings will erase everything on your iPhone and return it to its state when you first bought it. It's a good idea to make a backup before you do this. During the backup, ensure you create a restore point for passwords in the backup cloud.
To restore factory settings on your iPhone:
Step 1: Open the Settings app. Select General > Reset > Reset All Content and Settings.
Step 2: Tap Reset iPhone (or Reset All Content and Settings if you have an older phone). You'll need to enter your passcode if you have one set up.
Step 3: Wait for your iPhone to reset itself, then continue with setup afterward — this will restore all of your apps, data, and settings from iCloud or iTunes backups.
The factory reset option should only be used as a last resort if none of the other data and cache clearing procedures are successful in eliminating all trash from the device. You don't want to have to reset the iPhone every time it runs out of storage. This should not be a hasty decision; it may result in the loss of important files.
How to Prevent iPhone Storage from Filling Up Again?
With the iPhone, you can do almost anything. But with the storage space being limited, it is possible for your iPhone to start running out of space. This can be really frustrating, especially when there are lots of important files stored on your phone.
Fortunately, there are a few ways you can prevent this from happening again:
1. Backup Your Photos and Videos on a Computer or on the Cloud
If you have a large photo library (more than 2GB), it’s good to back up your photos on your computer or in the cloud. This way, if something happens to your phone or iPad, you can just restore everything from your backup. You can use Dropbox or iCloud Photo Library to do this.
2. Disable Duplicate Photos in HDR Shots
The iPhone automatically creates JPEG files with “HDR” in their names when it takes multiple shots at once with both cameras of an iPhone 8/X or later.
These duplicate files take up precious storage space and can be safely disabled from saving new copies of HDR shots by going into Settings > Camera > Formats and disabling the [Keep Normal Photo] toggle
3. Delete Messages Occasionally
You may be surprised to find out that this is one of the biggest culprits behind low storage space on iPhones! Most people don't realize how many text messages they have piled.
To set an automatic message deletion:
Step 1: Navigate to Settings> Messages >Message History >Keep Messages
Step 2: In this tab adjust the forever option to 1 year or 30 days.
Step 3: Confirm the delete when you receive a prompt to delete older messages.
4. Shoot in High Efficiency
If you shoot in high-efficiency mode when taking photos with an iOS 11 iPhone 7 or newer model, this will compress the image size so that it uses less space on your phone’s storage capacity. This applies to both photos taken with the rear camera and selfie shots taken with the front-facing camera as well as video recordings made using the main camera.
These latter iPhones have the High-Efficiency setting as their default format. To turn it off,
Step 1: Open Settings
Step 1: Scroll through to the Camera
Step 1: Click on the Formats option, and If your phone is in the most compatible option touch the [High Efficiency] option.
Conclusion
Not only is it true that a clean and tidy desktop makes for a productive computer user, but more importantly, a clean and tidy phone can free up space for more useful data. With a clear and uncluttered device, you don't have to worry about cluttering your mind with junk either.
Just like the desktop analogy, almost anything can be moved to the Cloud to be accessed later on. It is better not to put anything on your iPhone that you are not going to use or need very soon. Just think of this process as spring cleaning, but instead of doing it physically at home, you are doing it virtually on your phone.
