Low on Data Storage? Tips to Free Up Space on Your iPhone

From apps to videos, photos and messages, it’s easy for your iPhone’s storage to fill up fast. If you're tired of the dreaded ‘Storage Almost Full’ notification popping up, then there are actions you can take.

In this week’s Newsletter we share some tips to help you free up space on your iPhone and ensure you have enough room for all your important business and personal data.

View Your Storage Usage

Before you start deleting, it's essential to understand what's taking up space on your iPhone. Go to: Settings–General–iPhone Storage. Here is where you will see a breakdown of your storage usage by category (Photos, Media, Apps etc.). This will give you a clear picture of where most of your storage is being used.

Delete Unused Apps

Apps can take up a significant amount of space, especially social media platforms and games that store large caches of data.  In the iPhone Storage section, you'll see a list of apps sorted by the amount of space they use. Start by deleting apps you haven’t used in a while. If you don’t want to delete an app completely, you can offload it. This deletes the app itself but keeps its data, so you can reinstall it later without losing anything.

You can enable automatic offloading by going to: Settings–General–iPhone Storage–Offload Unused Apps.

Review Photos and Videos

Photos and videos are often the biggest culprits when it comes to storage usage.

·         Use iCloud: if you have iCloud storage, enable iCloud Photos to automatically upload and store your entire library in iCloud, and keep only lightweight versions of your photos on your device. Go to: Settings–Photos and switch on iCloud Photos.

·         Optimise: under Settings–Photos, select ‘Optimise iPhone Storage’. This will replace full-resolution photos with smaller versions on your iPhone while keeping the originals in iCloud.

·         Remove Duplicate photos: with last year's iOS 16 update, your iPhone gained the ability to detect duplicate photos, making it easier to keep your image library organised. 

Manage Messages and Attachments

Messages, especially those with attachments like photos, videos, and GIFs, can consume a lot of storage.

·         Auto-delete old messages: you can set your iPhone to automatically delete messages after a certain time. Go to: Settings–Messages–Keep Messages and select the timeframe you want.

·         Delete large attachments: in your iPhone storage menu, go to the messages section. This is where you can review and delete large attachments.

Manage Mail Storage

By reviewing old emails and deleting attachments you no longer need will free up a considerable amount of space. Don’t forget to clear the Trash folder too!

Clear Browser Cache

Safari and other browsers store data to help websites load faster. This data can then build up over time. To clear the cache on Safari, go to: Settings–Safari and select ‘Clear History and Website Data’. For other browsers such as Chrome, go to the app’s settings and clear the cache from there.

Review Files and Downloads

Files you’ve downloaded from the internet or received via apps like WhatsApp can soon add up. Open the ‘Files’ app and go through the Downloads folder, deleting files you no longer need. Some apps store a lot of temporary data too. You can often clear this by going to the app’s settings or by deleting and reinstalling the app.

Help via Cleaning Apps

Apps such as CleanMyPhone, can scan your device and help identify and remove unnecessary files and large items.

Use Streaming Services

As an alternative to storing podcasts, music and videos on your device, you can opt to use streaming services such as Apple Music and YouTube which let you stream content without needing to download it. If you’ve downloaded songs or episodes for offline use, consider deleting them when you’ve finished.

Final Thoughts

By following these tips regularly, you can avoid running out of space and keep your devices functioning optimally. A little maintenance goes a long way!

For more information about the latest smartphones available, please get in touch, email info@piblu.co.uk or call us on 0161 388 8188. We have some great monthly deals available too.