Storage on iPhones: Tips to Optimize and Free Up Space

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If you're running low on storage space on your iPhone, it's time to get organized. You can free up to 2GB of space by deleting the iPhone Upgrade Program files, which take up around 1.5GB and another 500MB for the app.

To optimize your iPhone's storage, consider deleting unused apps, which can take up to 500MB of space each. I've seen it happen to friends who download a lot of games, only to forget about them later.

Photos and videos are often the biggest storage hogs on our iPhones, taking up an average of 5GB per 1,000 photos. If you're not backing them up to iCloud or Google Photos, it's a good idea to do so to free up space.

Optimize iPhone Storage

Your iPhone has a built-in feature to optimize storage when it's low on space. It automatically frees up space by removing items that can be redownloaded or aren't needed, like unused apps and temporary files.

Credit: youtube.com, How To Free Up TONS Of iPhone Storage [2023]

To optimize your storage, check the Storage section of Settings. Your device might offer recommendations for optimizing your storage, which you can enable by tapping Show All and then Enable.

Here are the content types that take up space on your iPhone, broken down by category:

  • Audio: Songs, audio podcasts, audiobooks, voice memos, and ringtones.
  • Video: Movies, music videos, and TV shows.
  • Photos: Content in your Photo Library, Camera Roll, and Photo Stream.
  • Apps: Installed apps, with content listed under Documents & Data.
  • Books: iBooks books, audio books, and PDF files.
  • Documents & Data: Safari Offline Reading List, files stored within installed apps, and app content like contacts, calendars, messages, and emails (and their attachments).
  • Other: Settings, Siri voices, system data, and cached files.
  • Synced content: Media content that is synchronized from your computer when you click Sync in the Finder window.

To free up space on your iPhone, consider enabling High Efficiency mode for your photos. This mode reduces the space taken up by each photo without affecting image quality.

Delete Unwanted Files

Your iPhone automatically removes cached and temporary files to free up space, so you don't have to worry about deleting them manually.

However, to optimize your iPhone's storage, it's a good idea to double-check that High Efficiency mode is enabled for your photos, especially if you take a lot of pictures with your camera.

Enabling High Efficiency mode for your photos can significantly reduce the space they take up on your iPhone without affecting the image quality.

Delete Cached Files

Two adults exchanging a smartphone into a plastic storage box in an indoor setting.
Credit: pexels.com, Two adults exchanging a smartphone into a plastic storage box in an indoor setting.

Your device automatically removes cached and temporary files to free up space, so you don't have to worry about it.

However, clearing your cache can be beneficial if you're running low on storage space. It can save you dozens of megabytes, which can add up quickly.

To clear your cache, you'll need to log out of any websites you're signed into, and all your cookies will be deleted. This might be a hassle, but it's a small price to pay for the extra storage space.

Messages generally won't take up a lot of space unless you have a lot of texts with images attached.

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Delete Excess Photos

You can recover a lot of space by pruning your photo library.

Find the Photos app in the list, and tap it.

Swipe left on a photo album you wish to remove from your phone and tap Delete.

Or you can tap the albums to delete specific photos or even multiple photos at once.

You can see how much space all of these photos take, making it easier to choose.

You can also tap Edit and remove multiple albums at once.

Delete Old Messages

Modern Smartphone Showing Diagram of Storage Use
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If every megabyte counts, you can manually delete messages or entire conversations on your iPhone.

You can change your iPhone's settings to automatically delete older texts after a month or a year.

Tap either 30 Days or 1 Year on the next screen to keep the messages for that specific time before they're deleted.

You'll see a pop-up asking if you want to delete messages that are older 30 days or one year, depending on what you chose.

Tap Delete to get rid of them or Cancel to keep them.

Manage iPhone Storage

Managing iPhone storage is crucial to ensure your device runs smoothly. You can check your storage by going to Settings > General > [Device] Storage, where you'll see recommendations and a list of apps with their storage usage.

Tap an app's name for more information about its storage. Cached data and temporary data might not be counted as usage. If your device shows a "Storage Almost Full" alert, check the storage recommendations or remove some unused content, such as videos and apps.

Credit: youtube.com, How to free up storage space on your iPhone or iPad | Apple Support

To optimize your storage, tap Show All to see the recommendations for your device, then read the description of each recommendation and tap Enable to turn it on. You can also clear Safari's cache to free up space – just be warned that you'll be logged out of any websites you're signed into and all your cookies will be deleted.

Here's a breakdown of what takes up space on your iPhone:

  • Audio: Songs, audio podcasts, audiobooks, voice memos, and ringtones.
  • Video: Movies, music videos, and TV shows.
  • Photos: Content in your Photo Library, Camera Roll, and Photo Stream.
  • Apps: Installed apps. The content of the apps is listed under Documents & Data.
  • Books: iBooks books, audio books, and PDF files.
  • Documents & Data: Safari Offline Reading List, files stored within installed apps, and app content like contacts, calendars, messages, and emails (and their attachments).
  • Other: Settings, Siri voices, system data, and cached files.
  • Synced content: Media content that is synchronized from your computer when you click Sync in the Finder window.

Optimize with Recommendations

Your iPhone comes with built-in recommendations to help you optimize your storage. Tap Show All to see the recommendations for your device.

These recommendations will give you an idea of what's taking up the most space on your iPhone and suggest ways to free up some space. You can then tap Enable to turn on the recommendation or tap the recommendation to review the contents that you can delete.

To optimize your storage, you can also use the Storage section of Settings, where your device might offer recommendations for optimizing your storage. Read the description of each recommendation, then tap Enable to turn it on or tap the recommendation to review the contents that you can delete.

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Credit: youtube.com, Do iPhone Storage Recommendations Really Help Manage Photos?

You can also use the Finder on your Mac or the Apple Devices app on your PC to optimize your storage. Connect your device to your computer, select your device in the sidebar of the Finder window or Apple Devices app, and move your mouse over the bar to see how much storage each content type is using.

Here's a breakdown of the different content types and how much storage they can take up:

  • Audio: Songs, audio podcasts, audiobooks, voice memos, and ringtones
  • Video: Movies, music videos, and TV shows
  • Photos: Content in your Photo Library, Camera Roll, and Photo Stream
  • Apps: Installed apps, with the content of the apps listed under Documents & Data
  • Books: iBooks books, audio books, and PDF files
  • Documents & Data: Safari Offline Reading List, files stored within installed apps, and app content like contacts, calendars, messages, and emails (and their attachments)
  • Other: Settings, Siri voices, system data, and cached files
  • Synced content: Media content that is synchronized from your computer when you click Sync in the Finder window.

Clear Safari's Cache

Your web browser's cache could be taking up a lot of space - all those temporary internet files add up.

Clearing your cache can save you dozens of megabytes.

But be warned, if you clear your cache, you'll be logged out of any websites you are signed into, and all your cookies will be deleted.

To clear Safari's cache, tap Clear History and Website Data.

Then, tap Clear History and Data in the pop-up.

This will help you free up space on your device.

iPhone Sizes

Credit: youtube.com, How To Free Up TONS Of iPhone Storage [2023]

iPhone sizes can vary depending on the model you choose. There are five different storage sizes to consider.

The iPhone SE (2nd generation) offers 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB storage options. The iPhone 12 also comes in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB sizes. On the other hand, the iPhone 14 Pro Max offers 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options.

You can fill one gigabyte of storage space with about 500 photos, assuming each photo is around 2MB in size. A typical photo taken with the iPhone's main camera is indeed about 2MB large.

Here's a comparison of the storage sizes and prices for the different iPhone models:

One terabyte is about twice as much storage space as the 512GB option.

Free Up Space

Now that you've seen how much storage space you have left and what's taking up the most space on your iPhone, it's time to take the necessary action to free some of it.

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Credit: youtube.com, How To Free Up a TON of iPhone Storage - Just One Simple Trick!

First, you need to delete unused apps that are taking up space. Seeing how much storage space apps are taking up on your iPhone can be a real eye-opener.

To free up space, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and look for the "Large Files" section. This will show you which files are taking up the most space on your iPhone.

You can also free up space by deleting old messages, photos, and videos. Seeing how much storage space messages are taking up on your iPhone can be a real surprise.

To free up space quickly, consider deleting items from your camera roll and deleting unused photos and videos.

Mona Renner

Senior Copy Editor

Mona Renner is a meticulous and detail-driven Copy Editor with a passion for refining complex concepts into clear and concise language. With a keen eye for grammar and syntax, she has honed her skills in editing articles across a range of technical topics, including Google Drive APIs. Her expertise lies in distilling technical jargon into accessible and engaging content that resonates with diverse audiences.

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