If you’ve owned your iPhone for a long time, you know the frustration when you’re about to snap a photo, download an app, or update your phone, and suddenly a notification pops up warning you that your iPhone storage is almost full. Maybe you’ve frantically tried to figure out how to free up as much space as possible without just nuking everything.
But don’t panic. There are several ways to regain storage space from your iPhone that don’t involve starting from scratch. From offloading apps to using the cloud, we’ve compiled a helpful list of ways to help you make more room on your iPhone and manage your storage in a smarter, more efficient way.
How to Check What’s Taking Up the Most Storage
Before you do any serious iPhone excavation, it’s best to find out just what is taking up so much space on your device. To do so, go to Settings, then General, and select iPhone Storage. You’ll see a colored bar chart breaking down the types of files and media on your phone. This is a great starting point because it tells you which type of storage is taking up the most space, allowing you to tackle that first.
Additionally, Apple makes recommendations in this section to help you free up more space, such as reviewing downloaded media or removing automatic downloads in podcast apps.
Deleting or Offloading Apps You Don’t Use Much
The iPhone Storage page will also list apps according to how much space they take up and when you last used them. Scroll through this list to see if there are any apps you haven’t used in a while. You can delete them manually and redownload them later if you change your mind.
An easier way to manage this is to have your iPhone automatically remove unused apps. On the iPhone Storage page, tap Enable next to Offload Unused Apps. Those unused apps live on iCloud Drive (find them in the Files app). If you want to use them again, simply tap them (they’ll be marked with a cloud symbol), and they’ll be redownloaded.
Optimize Photo Storage by Using the Cloud
If the bulk of your storage issues lies in your photo library, you’re certainly not alone. Fortunately, you can mitigate this by using iCloud to automatically upload and store your photos and videos. You can choose to store the full-resolution versions in iCloud while keeping smaller versions locally. To enable this, go to Settings, scroll down and tap Apps, then Photos. Make sure that iCloud Photos is enabled and select Optimize iPhone Storage.
Consider also using a third-party cloud storage service like Google Photos as a backup solution. Remember that deleting photos from your iPhone also removes them from iCloud, so it’s wise to backup any important images elsewhere.
Transfer Files Off Your Phone and Onto an External Drive
Another effective way to free up space on your device is to transfer files to external storage solutions like a USB drive or SD card. Simply connect the external storage to your iPhone via a cable, then use a supported app like Files or Pages to copy files directly to it. You may then transfer the files from your external drive to wherever you’d like, such as your laptop or computer. For added safety, consider backing up important files on cloud services like Box or Dropbox as well.
Clear Out Data from Within Apps
Sometimes the biggest data hog lies within other apps. If you’ve downloaded media to consume offline, for example, it might still be taking up valuable space. Access the iPhone Storage page as described earlier to identify apps holding large amounts of data.
Tap on any app noted for high storage consumption, like Netflix, and you’ll see a list of downloaded content, which you may delete as needed. You might also encounter a “Review Downloaded Media” recommendation, which helps you quickly remove unnecessary files across multiple apps.
Bear in mind that this method does not work with all media apps. YouTube content won’t appear on the iPhone Storage page, but if you check directly within the app, you may find significant stored data. Similarly, for offline maps, go to Maps on your iPhone, select your profile photo, and then choose Offline Maps to manage stored details.
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