Storage Full? No Problem: 7 Easy Ways to Free Up Space

Louis Coronado Monday, August 5, 2024 Content Leave a comment

Memory on the iPhone is constantly needed. Any software updates, installing applications, recording video or taking photos is associated with internal memory. Therefore, if you do not increase iPhone storage available for rewriting, you will lose most of the device’s functions. But there is no reason to worry. Let’s figure out together how to get more space on the iPhone.

How to Free Up iPhone Storage?

1. Delete Attachments in Messages

Texting isn’t just about text anymore. From memes and GIFs to selfies and videos, all that content is stored on your iPhone, even if you don’t save it to Photos. If you’re an avid texter, these attachments can quickly fill up your storage.

Here’s a quick guide to deleting attachments in Messages and freeing up some memory:

Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
Scroll down and tap Messages.
You’ll see categories like Top Conversations, Photos, GIFs and Stickers, and Other. Tap the one that takes up the most space. Note that in Top Conversations, you’ll delete entire threads, not just attachments. To avoid this, stick to Photos and similar content.
Tap Edit in the upper-right corner.
Select the attachments you want to delete.
Tap the Trash icon.

2. Get Your Photo Library Organized

If you’ve checked your iPhone storage as suggested, you already know the main culprit (we’re looking at you, Photos). Deleting your entire photo library isn’t practical, but there’s likely some clutter you can clear out:

Duplicate photos, like those downloaded twice
Similar shots (such as multiple selfies to find the best one)
Old screenshots that you no longer need

You can manually go through your library to delete these, or use an app like CleanUp for a faster, more convenient solution. By the way, you can download for free the app from the App Store. The smart cleaning procedure involves searching for similar, identical photos and old screenshots and then deleting them. This will help boost your phone. If you need to clean up more memory on your device, you can compress videos in the app. This will free up a lot of memory automatically.

3. Transfer Photos and Videos to the Cloud

To free up space on your iPhone, you don’t need to delete your photos. Instead, store them in a third-party cloud storage service like Google Photos. This method clears up storage without losing your precious memories.

Before you remove any photos, ensure they are backed up to Google Photos or another service like Dropbox, Box, or OneDrive. If not, deleting them from your device will erase them for good. This guide will show you how to transfer your entire iCloud photo library to Google Photos. Note that Google Photos no longer offers unlimited free storage.

You might ask, “Why use a separate cloud service if iCloud already stores my photos?” Deleting photos from your iPhone also deletes them from iCloud. To keep your images safe while freeing up device storage, you’ll need another cloud service.

4. Delete Apps

Another effective way to free up space on your iPhone is by deleting unused apps. Not sure where to begin? Check which apps you haven’t opened in a while. Go to Settings, tap General, and select iPhone Storage. You’ll find a list of your apps along with their storage usage and the last time you used them. Scroll through and delete any apps you haven’t used for a long time.

5. Empty Your Browser’s Cache

To clear the cache on your iPhone or iPad, follow these steps:

For Safari:

Go to Settings > Safari
Tap Clear History and Website Data

For Chrome on iOS:

Open the Chrome app
Tap the three dots in the bottom-right corner and select History
Tap Clear Browsing Data to wipe everything out or Edit to erase specific sites

Alternatively, you can:

Go to Settings > Privacy > Clear Browsing Data
Choose what to delete, such as browsing history, cookies, cached images and files, saved passwords, and autofill data, or clear everything at once

6. Use Lower Video Resolution

iPhones can shoot stunning 4K videos, but these files can quickly fill up your storage. If you aren’t too fussy about video quality, the default 1080p HD at 60 fps should work just fine and save space.

Go to Settings > Camera.
Tap Record Video.
Select 1080p HD at 60 fps.

7. Remove Unwanted Music

Multimedia, like audio tracks and videos, can take up a lot of space on your device. Here are two ways to delete these files in Apple’s Music app/service.

From Settings

Open Settings: Go to `Settings > General > [Device] Storage > Music`.
Music Storage Screen: You’ll find a summary of all the music stored on your phone at the bottom. Swipe left to delete albums or tracks you don’t listen to.
Use the Edit button to delete multiple tracks and albums in one go.

From Within the Apple Music App:

Open the Music App: Go to `Library > Downloaded` to see music stored locally.
Delete Albums or Tracks: To delete an entire album, long-press on it and select Delete from Library from the pop-up menu. To delete specific songs within an album, tap the three-dot menu next to the song and select Remove.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to free up space on your iPhone, go ahead and try these methods. Combine all of them for maximum results, or pick a couple that work best for you. In any case, you’ll have more storage in no time! Happy cleaning!

Additional tips:

Use iCloud Photo Library to store your photos and videos in the cloud instead of locally on your device.
Turn off automatic app updates and update manually as needed. This will keep unnecessary apps from taking up space.
Clear out old podcasts, especially if they automatically download.
Turn off iCloud backups for apps you don’t care about or use rarely. Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud