How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone (6 Easy Methods)

how to free up space on your iphone storage” style=”aspect-ratio: 1.5003750937734″/> Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends Your iPhone has limited storage space. When it’s full, you have two options: free up space or buy a new phone. The former is cheaper, but it takes some effort to figure out which files to delete from […]

How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone (6 Easy Methods)

how to free up space on your iphone storage” style=”aspect-ratio: 1.5003750937734″/>

Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

Your iPhone has limited storage space. When it’s full, you have two options: free up space or buy a new phone. The former is cheaper, but it takes some effort to figure out which files to delete from your phone.

Luckily, Apple offers a variety of solutions that make the process a little less painful, whether you’re using the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, or an older model. Running out of space on your iPhone can be annoying, but there are plenty of ways to fix it.

So, without further ado, here’s how to free up space on your iPhone.

Person holding iPhone showing current storage.

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how to See Storage on Your iPhone

It’s always a good idea to check your iPhone’s storage status from time to time, even if you’re not completely out of space. Follow these steps to find that information.

Step 1: First, press the Settings application on your iPhone.

2nd step: Choose Generalfollowed by iPhone Storage.

Screenshots showing <a href=how to find storage information on your iPhone.” style=”aspect-ratio: 1.6079295154185″/>

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Step 3: On this page, you’ll see a summary of how much storage you’re using on your iPhone compared to the maximum allowed. By scrolling down the page, you can also see which items are using the most storage. By default, the list is organized by Sizealthough this can be changed to Name And Date of last use.

Apple iPhone 15 Plus and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max seen from the back.
Apple iPhone 15 Plus (left) and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

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how to Free Up Storage Space on iPhone

There are different methods to free up storage space on your iPhone, some of which are easier than others. Here are the methods listed from easiest to most difficult.

Step 1: How many apps do you have installed on your iPhone? If they’re too many to count, there are probably more than a few that are best deleted. Remember, you can always reinstall apps from the App Store if you want to use them again. In addition to uninstalling apps, you can also “offload” them. This allows you to remove apps that you don’t use frequently while keeping the documents and data for reinstalling them. To delete or offload an app, go to the Settings applicationSo choose General. From there, choose iPhone Storage. Then search, then tap the app that you want to delete. On the next page, choose DELETE Or Unloadthen confirm.

Unloading an app on an iPhone.

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2nd step: Another way to free up storage space on your iPhone is to clear the Safari app cache. When you first visit a website, your browser downloads all the files needed to display the page. These files are then stored in a cache so that the next time you visit the same site, the content can be loaded from your device’s storage instead of being downloaded again. While this can speed up page load times, it also consumes storage space on your device. To clear the cache, open the Safari app. Settings application and choose SafariThen scroll down the page and tap Clear History and Website Data. You will have the option to delete the cache of the Breaking news, today, today and yesterdayOr All the story. Once you have made your selection, press Clear story.

Clear Safari Cache on iPhone.

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Step 3: Another way to free up space on your iPhone is to delete old iMessages. To get started, go to the Settings applicationScroll down and select messages. Then press Keep messages under Message History. Choose how long you want to keep messages: 30 days, 1 year, Or ForeverIf you choose one of the first two options, messages will start deleting immediately after you make your selection.

Screenshots showing <a href=how to delete messages on iPhone.” style=”aspect-ratio: 1.6167400881057″/>

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Step 4: Photos and videos are a great way to remember important events and people, but they also take up a lot of storage space on devices, such as iPhones. That’s why it’s important to regularly delete unwanted photos and videos to free up storage space. To do this, go to Photo appthen choose an image or video you want to delete. Then, tap the Delete icon at the bottom right of the app. Choose Delete photo (Or Delete video) to remove it from your library. Note: Deleting a file from your Photos library doesn’t actually delete it, and therefore doesn’t restore storage space. Instead, it’s sent to the app’s Recently Deleted folder, where it’ll stay for about 30 days before being automatically deleted. To delete files immediately, you’ll also need to go to that folder and delete them.

Delete photos on an iPhone.

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Step 5: Do you have your Apple Music content downloaded to your device? If so, you can delete that content to save storage space. However, this means that to access the songs again, you’ll need to be online to stream them. To delete stored Apple Music content, go to Music app on your iPhone. Tap Library at the bottom of the app. Select Downloaded. Choose the Playlists, Artists, AlbumsOr Songsyou want to delete. Press the three dots icon at the top of the page, then choose Remove from library. Confirm by pressing DELETEYou can perform similar steps to delete content on the Podcasts app on iPhone.

Screenshots showing <a href=how to delete content from the Music app on iPhone.” style=”aspect-ratio: 1.5″/>

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Step 6: Another method to free up storage space on your iPhone is to delete files. To do this, go to the Files app and find the content you want to delete. To get started, tap the Files Application on iPhone. From the Browse menu, choose On my iPhonePress firmly on the file or folder you want to delete, then press DELETE in the menu. Confirm your selection.

Screenshots showing <a href=how to delete files from your iPhone.” style=”aspect-ratio: 1.5484581497797″/>

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Other Ways to Free Up Space on Your iPhone with Photos

When it comes to the Photos app, there are a few additional steps you can take to clear up space on your iPhone.

Step 1: First, you can subscribe to iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage device.

2nd step: Once you’ve done that, you can sync your photos to iCloud. To do this, go to Settings applicationAnd press your name at the top. Scroll down, then choose iCloud. Select Pictures under Apps using iCloud. Enable Sync this iPhone so that your photos and videos are synchronized and stored in the cloud.

Screenshots showing <a href=how to sync photos on iPhoto with iCloud.” style=”aspect-ratio: 1.5870967741935″/>

Bryan M. Wolfe / Digital Trends

Step 3: These steps alone will not improve your storage situation on your device. To do so, on this same page, select Optimize iPhone Storage. When this option is selected, full-resolution images and videos are replaced with smaller, device-friendly versions. But don’t worry, full versions can be downloaded from iCloud at any time.

Screenshots showing <a href=how to optimize photos on iPhone.” style=”aspect-ratio: 1.4955947136564″/>

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