How to free up storage space on your iPhone

• 

If you’ve been the owner of an iPhone since they first hit the market in 2007, then, unfortunately, it’s likely you will at some point have received the notification that the phone no longer has the storage capacity for any additional photos or apps. Indeed, this problem has been so notorious to iPhones that the advert for the Google Pixel 2 a woman asks if she’ll ever see a ‘storage full’ notification when taking photos. The notification which pops up is a copy of an iOS-style alert.

So, what can you do if you get this dreaded alert? This blog will give you a few options.

Delete your photos/apps

It’s not ideal, but if you need the storage fast, you’ll probably be best deleting apps. This is a temporary measure before you find a more permanent solution, mentioned below. Deleting your apps also saves you from deleting your photos.

Also, check if you have any movies downloaded as deleting these from Netflix or the Video app will also free up space quickly, this is also the same for downloaded Spotify playlists.

Apple has also helpfully introduced a feature that tells you how long ago you last used an app, so you can accurately see and get rid of the non-essentials. To view this, go to ‘Settings’ à ‘General’ à ‘iPhone Storage’. Here, you will also be able to see a complete breakdown of what is taking up the most space.

Pay a monthly subscription to Apple

Probably the easiest way to manage your storage is to upgrade the iCloud capacity with Apple. This cost starts around £1 per month and you can choose from a total of 50GB, 200GB, or 2TB. This will allow you to keep more of your photos saved in the cloud rather than directly on the memory of your phone. Of course, this depends on if you’re willing to pay, especially as free options exist.

Use the Google Photos App

Downloading Google Photos is a great way to free up memory on your iPhone. This is because you can upload the photos to a Google cloud server and delete the photos from your Photos app – increasing capacity on the physical device. Google photos now also allows you to back up all your Facebook snaps, should you decide to ever leave the social media network. The app is also free and has unlimited storage.

Set your messages to automatically expire

If you have iOS 8 or after installed, you can use a setting where older messages that take up unnecessary room on your phone are automatically deleted. To use this feature, go to ‘Settings’ à ‘Messages’ – you’ll then see the option ‘Message History’ where you can decide how long you want to keep your messages.

You can also adjust how long audio messages are stored and can set them to expire after two minutes – useful if you have that one friend who only uses audio messages on WhatsApp.

Clear your Safari’s cache

Cached data encompasses all the files and images that your phone has hidden away in its memory and, as such, your web browser’s cache could be taking up a lot of space.

1. Before you delete any data, make sure you know your essential passwords as this process will log you out of the websites you frequent.

• In “Settings,” find the “Passwords & Accounts” sections and tap “Safari.”

• Past the toggles, you’ll see “Clear History and Website Data.” Click that.

If you would still like more storage space, consider upgrading the megabyte capacity size when you get your next phone.

Got any questions? Write a comment in the section below.