Free up storage space on iPhone and iPad

When your iPhone or iPad is full, there are several things you can do to reclaim storage space. In this guide, we will discuss various options and methods available to free up storage space on iOS devices. Keep reading to find out what they are.

Each iPhone and iPad comes with a fixed storage capacity ranging from 16 GB to 512 GB for iPhone and 16 GB to 1 TB for iPad. While it’s always a good idea to buy a model with the largest storage space you can afford, even the highest storage devices can fill up after a while, and this often happens when you least expect it.

From the music you buy and the apps you download, to the photos you take and the messages you receive, all that content has to be somewhere on your device. And if your iPhone or iPad storage is full, you cannot increase it. However, what you can do is free up your existing storage space. Here’s how.

Basic tips to save storage

Apple is aware that many people struggle to manage storage on their devices, which is why it has introduced more and more tools with successive versions of iOS to help users keep track of the types of apps and media that often consume precious megabytes .

Launch it Settings app and select General -> iPhone / iPad storage, and the amount of storage space you have used is shown in the color-coded bar at the top. Below that you may see a list of recommendations for optimizing storage, such as viewing and deleting large attachments.

These recommendations are followed by a list of installed apps and the amount of storage each is using. The list also indicates when you last used each app, so you can easily find and remove the apps you haven’t used in a while or haven’t used at all.

When you delete an app, its icon, app data, and all user generated data are deleted. That’s fine if you don’t plan on using the app again, but Apple also lets you download apps, which frees up storage space, but the app’s icon and user data remain. If an app you use a lot is taking up a lot of space, it’s worth checking if you can clear its cache.

Another option that Apple added to iOS not long ago is the ability to prevent your iPhone or iPad from automatically installing software updates. In the past, new software updates were downloaded automatically in the background and then installed through an automatic update feature. However, in iOS 13.6 and later, the Settings app includes switches that let you choose whether updates are downloaded automatically.

Reclaim space occupied by photos

The photos you keep on your iPhone or iPad naturally take up storage space on your device, which can fill up quickly depending on the available storage capacity and how much content you have.

If you see a message that your device’s storage is full, it’s worth checking out the Optimize Storage system option, which is designed to work with iCloud Photos. This feature replaces full-resolution photos on your iOS device with smaller device-sized versions that take up much less storage space, while the full-resolution images remain outside the device in iCloud.

Another way to prune your photo library is to check for unnecessary photos taken in burst mode. Burst mode refers to the moment when the camera on your iOS device captures a series of photos in quick succession, at a rate of ten frames per second.

It’s a great way to capture an action scene or an unexpected event, as you are always more likely to get the photo you were looking for. But it also generates a lot of unwanted images, so it’s good practice to choose the best image to keep it safe and delete the rest to save storage space.

If you have an older iPhone, you can also save space when shooting in HDR. When the camera on iPhone X and earlier models takes an automatic HDR photo, it can optionally also keep the default shot in your photo library, which is useful for comparison or if the HDR photo doesn’t come out as expected. However, you can disable this feature if you want to save some storage space.

In some cases, you may find that your photo library is growing even if you haven’t taken any photos on your device. For example, the media that people share with you via WhatsApp can be automatically saved to your iPhone camera roll. Fortunately, you can easily prevent this default behavior by turning it off Save to camera roll in WhatsApp’s in-app settings.

Of course, if your photo library feels like it’s getting out of hand, one solution is to start over and delete all photos on your iPhone. Make sure you’ve already backed up a backup that you want to keep, and keep in mind that if you delete your photos with iCloud Photo Library turned on, your photos will be deleted from ALL your devices.

Reclaim the space occupied by videos

Some of the photo tips above apply to videos stored in your device’s photo library. However, there are other ways to prevent video content from taking up storage space. For example, you can adjust the resolution and frame rate of recorded video to match the file size Settings -> Camera -> Record video

If you regularly download Apple Fitness + videos to your iPhone or iPad, check out the recommendations in Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage and you should see them listed below View downloaded videos, where you can delete them individually or in bulk.

If you have an Apple TV + subscription or have rented or purchased movies from iTunes, you can download videos using Apple’s TV app to watch them offline. However, if you want to save space, make sure you’ve selected Fast downloads (lower quality, uses less storage) Settings -> TV -> Mobile data – it means lower quality videos, but they use less storage space.

WhatsApp has a built-in media management tool that allows you to identify, select and bulk delete GIFs, photos and videos that can fill your phone.

The tool groups large files and media that have been forwarded frequently, sorts files by size in descending order, and provides a way to preview files before deletion. You can also preview the media before selecting one or more files to delete. To access the storage management tool, launch the app and go to Settings -> Storage & Data -> Manage Storage

If you are an Apple Music subscriber, you can download songs, playlists and albums from the ‌Apple Music‌ catalog to your iPhone or iPad for offline listening, but this may take up your device’s storage space over time.

Fortunately, the Music app includes a handy feature that can spring into action when your device’s storage space is running low, and automatically download songs you haven’t played in a while to make room for newer ones.

To check Settings -> Music -> Optimize Storage, and make sure it is Optimize storage switch is turned on. Here you can also choose a minimum storage space that you want to keep for music before deleted songs from your device. You can also check the storage space by turning automatic downloads off Settings -> Music and manually downloading new songs as needed.

Apple Music also allows users to delete individual tracks in the Music app. Simply press and hold an item and select Remove… in the pop-up menu, then tap Remove Download when requested.

There are several ways to trim fat through the Messages app. For example, iOS can be automated to delete old messages that have been on your device for more than a specified amount of time.

In addition, if you tap the contact bubble (s) and then tap the info I) button at the top of a Messages conversation, you can also see every file sent to you in the chat thread in one easy-to-access location, where you can delete them all in one fell swoop.

Messages in iCloud, as the name suggests, stores your iMessages on Apple’s cloud servers rather than each of your individual devices. One of the advantages is that your messages, photos and other message attachments are stored in ‌iCloud‌, freeing up space on your devices. You can enable it in the Settings app by tapping and selecting your Apple ID banner iCloud -> Messages

Other Apple apps worth checking out include the Books app and the Voice Memo app. If you listen to a lot of audiobooks, try to ignore your old catalog and check out any old voice memo recordings to see if you still need them.

Shut down

We’ve gone through the top tips for saving iPhone and iPad storage, but depending on your situation, there may be other ways to free up space on your device. For example, if you do a lot of file management on the device in the Files app, consider compressing large files and folders by selecting Compress from the contextual popup menu.

If you’re still short on space and you’ve exhausted all of the above options, it may be worth resorting to the “nuke” option – a clean install – by wiping your device and starting over. If that doesn’t help, it may be time to upgrade your device.

Do you have any more tips that we haven’t mentioned here? Let us know in the comments, or send us an email.