How to get more out of your iPhone storage without spending a dime

For many people, the iPhone it has become a storage hub for everything from photo libraries to music collections, books, games and more. But that also means it can be easy to run out of space. Although Apple increased it Your iPhone’s default storage from 64 GB to 128 GB with the iPhone 13this may not be enough for everyone.

The best way to save local storage space is to invest a cloud storage service such as Apple’s iCloud, Google Drive, Box or Dropbox to offload some of your files. But there are also some settings you can change to make sure you’re making the most of your iPhone’s storage capacity. Never iOS 16 if launched, your iPhone will also be able to detect duplicate photos, making it easier to keep your picture library lean and organized.

See below to learn more about how to free up storage on your iPhone.

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First, see what’s taking up the most space on your iPhone

To maximize of the iPhone storage, you need to know what it takes up your device Firstly. Take a look at what’s eating up your storage so you know where to start. Launch Settingspress General and scroll down to iPhone storage. Select this option to see a breakdown of the types of files and media that are taking up space on your iPhone. apple it can also make some recommendations on how to free up space, such as checking the videos stored on your device, as shown below.

Make sure your iPhone optimizes photo storage

Photos are among the biggest offenders when it comes to eating up space on your iPhone. But the iPhone settings The menu has an option that allows your device to store smaller photo files locally if your device is low on space instead of the original versions. These full resolution photos and videos are saved iCloud, and you can download them as needed. To make sure this feature is enabled, start by opening it Settings application. Then scroll down to Photos and make sure there is a blue checkmark next to the Optimize your iPhone storage selection.

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Save photos and videos to a cloud service instead of your device

The best way to free up space your iPhone is to remove files you don’t need to store on your device. But that doesn’t mean you have to downsize your photo library. Instead, try saving them a third party cloud storage service like Google Photos and not on your device. It’s a quick way to free up a lot of storage space without having to part with old memories.

However, before you delete anything, make sure the photos you want to keep are backed up or transferred Google Photos. If your photos and videos aren’t backed up to another service like Google Photos, Dropbox, Box, or OneDrive before they’re deleted, they’ll be permanently deleted. This guide guides you on how to copy your entire iCloud photo library to Google Photos, but just note that The unlimited free storage option is no longer available.

You might 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 also deletes them from iCloud, so you’ll want to use another service if you plan to delete images from your device.

Delete apps you no longer use

Another great way to clean your iPhone is to get rid of it applications you no longer use. If you don’t know where to start, take a look at which apps you haven’t used in a while. Open yours of the iPhone Settings menu, press General and go to iPhone storage. You’ll see a list of your apps along with how much space each app takes up and the last time you used it. Scroll through the list and try deleting apps you haven’t used in a long time.

Offload apps you don’t use all the time

If you don’t want to completely delete an app, you can unload it. Unloading it allows you to keep the documents and data associated with that app so you can reinstall it at any time and quickly pick up where you left off. Go to the list mentioned above by opening Settingspress General and choosing iPhone storage. Tap any app in the list and select Download application. You can also set up your own iPhone to do this automatically on opening Settingspressing it App Store option and make sure that the Unload unused apps the switch is on.

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Automatic deletion of old messages

It’s not only photos, videos and apps that may be clogging up your iPhone’s storage space. Let’s get rid of the old written messages may also be useful. You can set your iPhone to automatically erase yours message story with the opening Settingschoosing Messages and pressing it Message retention option under Message history. From there, choose whether you want your iPhone to keep text messages for 30 days, a year, or forever.

Delete videos and music from apps

You probably have videos too MUSIC are stored offline in many apps on your phone, and luckily there’s an easy way to find these files and delete them. Launch Settingschoose General and select iPhone storage. Look for an app that you’ve downloaded offline content from, like Netflix. You will then see storage information about the app, such as its size and buttons to delete or load it.

If you have downloaded offline Video, you’ll also see a section for that content under the Delete App button. Place your finger on a downloaded video and drag it to the left side of the screen to delete it.

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Clear your browser cache

You can always try cleaning your own browser cache if you’re really looking for space, although deleting apps and media will make a much bigger difference. But something like this could give you iPhone a small speed boost when browsing the web, so it’s worth a try if you’re low on storage and experiencing sluggish browser performance. But just remember that you’ll be logged out of the sites you’re logged into.

Open Settingschoose Safari and press Clear history and website data.

If you are using google chrome, tap the three dots at the bottom of the screen and select History and press Clear browsing data. You should see a check mark next to three categories: Browsing history, Cookies, Website Data and Saved images and files. If you want to delete only browsing data for a certain period of time, tap it Time range option near the top of the screen before tapping Clear browsing data at the bottom.

Looking for more iPhone tips? Check out our guide to it the best new features coming to iOS 16. Plus, Here’s how to clear your iPhone’s cache.