If you’re like many Apple users, you’re always looking for storage space tips and tricks. That’s especially true now that iOS 13 is right around the corner
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If you’re out of storage space and determined to download iOS 11, you’ll need to start making data sacrifices. Fortunately, there are many painless ways to free up storage space on your iPhone.
Decide What Storage Space Matters to You
It’s nice to have storage space on your phone. To be more accurate, it’s awful to need storage space on your iPhone and not have it.
However, the fact of the matter is that something needs to take up that space. Whether it be photos, videos, apps, or texts, your storage space is there to be used by something.
Before you start deleting data, decide what that something is. Like your photos to be at the ready? Keep as many as you can. Like to have a downloaded Netflix library at the ready? Don’t get rid of videos until you have to.
Clearing up storage space is important, but don’t start deleting things just because you have to. It’s surprisingly easy to maximize free space when you need to. The point is that managing iPhone data is about maximizing your storage space and not just deleting things. Having said that…
Start Deleting Apps
The easiest way to clear up space is simply to delete your largest – and preferably least used – apps. Luckily, checking that is quite easy.
1. Open Settings and go to “General”
2. From here, choose “Storage & iCloud Usage” and then “Manage Storage”
3. You should be looking at an overview of the storage space on your device. Alongside storage hogs, keep an eye out for any redundant apps you have (two apps that have the same purpose) as well as apps you don’t use. These are your primary targets
4. When you’ve found them, simply choose the app in question from this screen and select “Delete App”
While that’s the most efficient way to free up space, it’s not always the most practical. If you simply must keep all the apps on your phone and still need extra space, consider the following options.
Delete Messaging Photos
If you’re someone that loves sending and receiving pictures, you probably have acquired quite the library of text message images over the years.These pictures are a stealth contributor to your lack of space. Fortunately, they can be deleted.
1. Open up the conversation you want to delete images from. Choose the “Details” option on the top right.
2. Tap and hold an attached photo and select the “More” option that appears. You should now be able to select multiple images
3. Feel free to select the images you want to delete and then tap the trash can icon below. Anything you happen to have backed up elsewhere is a prime target for removal.
Bulk Delete Your Outdated Text Messages
While they don’t take up as much space as photos, text messages themselves can sometimes add up and really put a dent in your storage space. Here’s a couple of ways to deal with those.
1. The easiest way to delete a message is to tap and hold the individual message, choose the “More” option that appears, and then select the circle that appears to the left of the message. From here, you can choose to delete that message using the trash can icon or delete all messages in that conversation.
If you’re looking for a more efficient method, there is another option.
1. Go to your Settings app and open Messages.
2. Under Message history, you’ll see “Keep Messages.” This allows you to choose how long messages stay on your phone. The default setting is “Forever.”
3. If you’re feeling brave, choose “Keep Messages” and select either 1 Year or 30 Days. When you tap to confirm, you’ll delete any messages older than your selected option.
4. This is a great way to free up space – and keep messages from clogging up your phone moving forward – but make sure that you know what you’re deleting.
Remove Unnecessary Photo Saving Options
As much as we hate to say it, there’s a good chance that your photos are taking up much of the space on your phone. If you just can’t bear the thought of deleting them – or transferring them elsewhere – there are other options.
1. The easiest way to manage photos is to disable “Normal Photos” and just keep the HDR versions. To do this, go to “Settings” and then select “Photos and Camera.”
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2. Here, you should see an option for “Keep Normal Photos” unless you aren’t using HDR. If you just want to keep HDR photos, de-select this option.
3. While you’re on this screen, consider disabling Photo Stream via the “My Photo Stream” option. Photo Stream allows you to sync photos automatically between iPhone and iPad. Unless this is something that you desperately need to regularly do, disabling this option can easily clear 1GB or more of space.
Delete Those Cumbersome Voicemails
Do you have someone in your life who always leaves a voicemail? Have the robocallers filled your inbox? There are many reasons why you might have too many voicemails, and they all result in an excess of wasted storage space.
Voicemails don’t take up much space, which is usually why many people don’t think about them when cleaning out there phone. However, enough voicemails can add up over time. Fortunately, they’re quite easy to get rid of. Just swipe left on the voicemail you want to delete and choose to do so.
You can also choose the “Edit” button in order to bulk delete voicemails. Let’s face it, how many do you really need to keep?
Delete Netflix Downloads
The ability to download videos on Netflix and other streaming services has been a great innovation. Being able to stream is nice, but this feature ensures you can access these libraries when streaming isn’t an option.
The problem is that downloaded videos take up as much space as anything else. What’s worse is that Netflix and other services don’t always do a great job of telling you how big these downloads are. For that matter, they’re not great at reminding you when you have some downloaded.
You can remedy these problems yourself by opening your favorite streaming service, choosing your downloads, and deleting them yourself. You’d be amazed at how much space you can save this way. The same goes for songs downloaded via subscription and streaming services.
Cut Down on Gaming Apps
We love gaming apps as much as anyone. We’ve even recommended quite a few of them on this site. The sad fact of the matter, though, is that they are notorious space hogs.
Until Apple makes it easier to add expandable storage to an iPhone, users are going to have to realize that there are only so many games you can have installed at a time.
Of course, this all comes back to prioritizing what you want to use your storage space for. If you care more about games than photos and videos, then load your iPhone up with them with our blessings.
Get Rid of Those Old Notes and Documents
While it’s great to get rid of big files clogging up your device, it’s sometimes the little things you’ve got to look out for.
That’s especially true of notes and other documents. It’s easy enough to keep these around long after the point that they’re useful, but that’s kind of the point. Why keep anything on your phone that you’re not using or planning to use?
So, go into your favorite notes app (we’ve got quite a few recommendations on that front), and get rid of those bits of data that you’re not using anymore. The same should be done with those excess documents in your favorite office apps.
Download a Cleaner App
If you want to get rid of excess data without hunting it all down, a cleaner app is your best option.
Just as it sounds, a cleaner app allows you to clean out excess items on your iPhone. This encompasses everything from duplicate contacts to unused photos. This not only lets you clear some space but it helps cut down on general clutter.
There are quite a few good cleaner apps out there, but it’s hard to go wrong with Cleaner Pro. It’s free, well-reviewed, and a generally well-trusted app.
Subscribe to a Cloud Storage Service
This isn’t necessarily a quick way to free up space on your device, but the best long-term option is to start relying on cloud storage. From major players like iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox to smaller – but efficient – services like Sync, there are tons of cloud storage options out there that help you keep your phone free of clutter.
If you’re looking for a recommendation, hubiC offers 25 free GB upon signup and offers incredibly affordable additional storage if you’re in need.
You can read more about the best cloud storages services right here.
Remember that you almost always have options beyond just deleting everything on your phone when trying to free up storage space. Know of some of these options that can help your fellow users? Sound off in the comments section below.
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