Every iPhone or iPad comes with a fixed storage capacity, which you don’t have the option to increase over time.
When you’re in an Apple Store buying your device, you may think that 16GB sounds like more than enough to get the job done.
But after a year spent downloading songs and movies to your iPhone, along with taking hundreds of high-quality pictures, space can quickly run dry before you know it.
You’d have a hard time finding an iPhone owner out there who has NOT gotten the dreaded “Not Enough Storage” message at some point or another.
But thankfully, all hope is not lost. You can use several tips to get back as much of your device’s storage space as possible. All you have to do is keep a few key things in mind.
Reviewing Your Storage Space
You may not realize that your iPhone has a built-in utility that can shed more light on what is taking up so much space on your device.
Accessing the utility will allow you to make more informed decisions regarding which files you want to keep and which you’d like to delete to save space.
To review this information…
1. Open the “Settings” application on your iPhone.
2. Scroll through the list until you find the option labeled “General.” Tap it one time.
3. Find the option labeled “iPhone Storage.” Tap on it to select it. Note that if you’re browsing on an iPad, this menu item will be called “iPad Storage.”
4. Use the utility to find out more about what the storage space on your device is being used for.
Storage Recommendations
The “Recommendations” section will show you all of the videos that you’ve downloaded in the past, for example. You can review that downloaded content and consider removing them based on the videos you know you’ll want to watch again in the future and the ones you don’t think you’ll need.
You can also select the “Review Large Attachments” option to see the photos, videos, and other attachments taking up space in the “Messages” app.
Both sections will also show you exactly how much space you’ll save if you were to remove everything as per the “Recommendations” feature.
The section at the bottom of the screen will show you all of the apps that have been downloaded to your iPhone. The ones at the top of the list are the ones that are taking up the most space.
Obviously, you’re not going to want to remove all of these. But this can also be a great way to find some of those older apps that you’ve forgotten about that are actually taking up much more space than you realize.
When you find an app you no longer need, all you have to do is find the app icon, hold your finger over it until it starts to wiggle, and tap the “X” to uninstall it.
Note that the app data – and any information you’ve entered into it – will be removed when you delete an application. This is an excellent idea if you know that you don’t plan on using the app again in the future.
If you think you might use the app again in the future, you can select the “Offload App” option. This will remove the application in question, but it will leave any user-generated data in place.
This option won’t free up as much space as it would had you deleted the app altogether, but the next time you download and install the app again it will allow you to pick right back up like nothing ever happened.
Beyond that, you could always invest in a larger iCloud account to store more personal information in the cloud, as opposed to on your device.
Reclaiming Photo Storage Space
For many people, photos are a large part of the content that takes up a significant amount of space on their iPhone and iPads.
If you have a lot of photos on your iPhone, it’s worth looking into the “Optimize Photos” option, which works with iCloud Photos.
Go to Settings > Photos > Optimize Photos
This feature replaces full-resolution photos on your iPhone with smaller, device-sized versions that take up a lot less storage space.
You won’t lose out on those precious memories, so don’t worry. It’s just that the original, high-quality versions of the photos will be stored remotely in the cloud and they’ll be downloaded to your device only when you choose to look at them.
The added benefit of this is that they will also be available on all of your other devices, too. So if you also own an iMac or a MacBook Pro, choosing to store your photos in the cloud will make them instantly available everywhere!
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Wish you could address the I watch storage. My will not load updates because it says it is at max capacity and I don’t know how to see what is hogging space.
Very helpful!
Sharing with family
On a trip to Isreal, my iPhone ran out of storage space and it automatically deleted some of my photos. Would those have been sent to iCloud? I really hated losing them.
Great tips! Thank you ~ super helpful!
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