This story is part of 12 days of advicehelping you get the most out of your technology, home, and health during the holiday season.
Now that April is here, it’s time to do some spring cleaning. One place you might not think to clean is yours iPhone storage. These apps, photos, playlists, and videos can quickly accumulate, and our phones can only hold so much. From offloading apps to moving essential items to the cloud, there are a few steps you can take to maximize your phone’s capacity.
The best way to save local storage is to invest in it Cloud storage service Like iCloud from Apple, Google DriveOr Box or Dropbox to offload some of your files. But there are also certain settings that you can change to make sure you’re using your iPhone’s storage to the fullest. with iOS 16Your iPhone will also be able to detect duplicate photos, making it easy to keep your photo library slim and organized.
See below for more on how to free up storage space on your iPhone.
First, find out what takes up the most space on your iPhone
for your maximization iPhone storage, then you need to know what is running your device in the first place. Take a look at what’s taking up your storage so you know where to start. launch settingshandle general and scroll down to iPhone storage. Choose this option to see the details of file and media types taking up space on your iPhone. apple It may also provide some recommendations on how to free up some space, such as reviewing the videos stored on your device as described below.
Take a look at what’s taking up your iPhone’s storage in the Settings menu.
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Make sure your iPhone is optimizing photo storage
the pictures Among the biggest offenders when it comes to taking up space on your iPhone. But the iPhone settings The menu contains an option that enables your device to save smaller image files locally if your device is low on space instead of the original versions. Instead, these full-resolution photos and videos are stored in the iCloudYou can download them as needed. To make sure this feature is turned on, start by opening a file settings program. Then scroll down to the pictures And make sure there is a blue checkmark next to it Optimize iPhone storage option.
Make sure your iPhone is running as efficiently as possible when it comes to saving media files.
Screenshot by Lisa Idesicco/CNET
Save your photos and videos to a cloud service instead of on your device
The best way to free up space on your iPhone It removes files that you do not need to store on your device. But that doesn’t mean you should shrink your photo library. Instead, try storing it in Third party cloud storage service Like Google Photos and not on your device. It’s a quick way to free up a ton of storage without requiring you to part with old memories.
But before deleting anything, make sure to back up or move the photos you want to save Google Images. If your photos and videos weren’t backed up to another service like Google Photos, Dropbox, Box, or OneDrive before they were deleted, they will be permanently erased. this Guide It walks you through how to copy your entire iCloud Photo Library to Google Photos, but just note that the The unlimited free storage option is no longer available.
You may be wondering why you need to use a separate cloud service if your photos are already stored in iCloud. This is because deleting your photos from your iPhone erases them from iCloud as well, so you’ll need to use another service if you plan to delete photos from your device.
You can try to save the photos to a cloud storage app like Google Photos.
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Delete apps that you no longer use
Another great way to erase your iPhone is to get rid of it apps no longer used. If you don’t know where to start, take a look at the apps you haven’t used in a long time. Open iPhone settings menu, click general and go to iPhone storage. You will see a list of your apps with the amount of space each app takes up and the last time you used them. Scroll through the list and try to delete apps that you haven’t used in a long time.
Get rid of apps you haven’t used in a long time. You can see when you last used a certain app in the iPhone Settings menu.
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Offload apps that you don’t use all the time
If you don’t quite want it Delete the appInstead, you can empty it. Offloading it allows you to keep the documents and data associated with this app so that you can reinstall it at any time and quickly pick up where you left off. Navigate back to the above menu by opening settingsurgent general and choose iPhone storage. Click on any application in the list and select Offload the application. You can also set a file iPhone To do this automatically by opening settingstapping on app store option and check Offload unused apps The switch is on.
You can offload apps that you don’t use often instead of deleting them.
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Delete old messages automatically
It’s not just the picturesand videos and apps that may clog up your iPhone storage. Get rid of the old text messages It can also come in handy. You can set your iPhone to delete files message History through opening settingsand choice Messages and tapping on a file Keep the messages option under Message date. From there, select if you want your iPhone to keep text messages for 30 days, 1 year, or forever.
Stop text messages from being saved indefinitely by changing this setting on your iPhone.
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Delete videos and music from apps
Maybe you have videos and music They are stored offline in multiple apps on your phone, and fortunately, there is an easy way to find and delete these files. launch settingsHe chooses general and choose iPhone storage. Find an app you downloaded offline content from, like Netflix. You will then see storage information about the app, such as its size and buttons to delete or offload it.
If you download offline videosYou will also see a section for this content below the Delete App button. Place your finger on a downloaded video and swipe it all the way to the left side of the screen to delete it.
More 12 days of advice:
There is an easy way to delete videos and music that you have saved inside an app to free up space on your iPhone.
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Clear your web browser cache
You can always try to clean a file Internet browser Cache if you’re really looking for space, although deleting apps and media will make a much bigger difference. But doing so can give you iPhone It does speed up a bit when browsing the web, so it’s worth a try if you’re low on storage space and experiencing slow browser performance. But just remember that it will log you out of the websites you are logged into.
Opens settingsHe chooses Safari and press Clear history and website data.
Clear Safari cache to see improved performance and save a little space.
Screenshot by Lisa Idesicco/CNET
If you use Google Chrome, Tap on the three dots at the bottom of the screen, select date and press Clear browsing data. You should see a check mark next to three categories: Browsing historyAnd Cookies and site data And Cached images and files. If you want to delete browsing data only for a certain period of time, tap date range option near the top of the screen before swiping Clear browsing data At the bottom.
You can also clear cache for Google Chrome easily within the app.
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Looking for more iPhone tips? Verify Guide to iOS 16. Plus, Here’s how to delete your iPhone’s cache.