No matter if you’ve filled your iPhone with pictures of happy memories throughout the years or just downloaded too many movies, full iPhone storage is a major inconvenience. You can’t install the latest iOS software updates, download more apps, or even take a single photo or video. Not to mention, your phone likely crashes more often.
If you don’t plan to upgrade to the iPhone 15 wit more storage — which is expected to be unveiled at Apple’s 2023 Wonderlust event — if you’re coming close to your storage limit, this year you’re gonna want to free up some space on your phone to give yourself a bit of breathing room. You do have a few obvious options to clear up your storage, but they require you to either delete things or spend money.
You can remove large files, like movies, TV shows and music albums, but maybe you’re not ready to give those up. There are also various cloud alternatives to beef up your existing storage, but that requires shifting files around, and you may have to pay for it. You could also just buy a new phone with more storage — but that’s an expensive option.
That’s why, if these options aren’t appealing to you, you can and should take advantage of certain iOS features to free up storage on your iPhone without having to delete anything or spend any money.
There are two built-in iOS settings that can help you clean up a significant amount of storage on your iPhone — one permanent and the other temporary — so that you can install the latest software updates, take more photos and videos and download more apps. Here’s what you need to know.
If you want more tips on getting more iPhone storage, check out how to free up space on your iPhone with these easy tricks and the best cloud storage options in 2023.
Optimize your iPhone photos and videos
It’s not always easy to just delete what’s in your camera roll, so if you want to keep your precious memories, or even just your meme screenshots, but still want to free up device storage, the easiest way to do that is by optimizing the photos and videos already stored on your device.
By default, every time you take a photo or video, it is saved in full resolution on your device. If you’re capturing photos and videos in the highest resolution possible, they can take up quite a bit of space. A minute of video shot in 4K at 60fps takes up approximately 400MB — nearly half a GB. That’s pretty significant.
To optimize your photos and videos, go to Settings Photos and toggle on Optimize iPhone Storage (for this to work, you’ll need to have the iCloud Photos setting above it enabled). Depending on how many photos and videos you have on your iPhone, this can take up quite a bit of time, but once it’s finished, you should see significantly more space on your device storage.
You can spend as little as $1 per month for more iCloud storage.
Offload your biggest apps
You don’t use every application stored on your iPhone. Many of them just sit there, like apps for your favorite airlines, third-party cameras and music production. And even if you use them only every once in a while, you probably don’t need consistent, daily access to most apps, which is why you should consider offloading apps in case you desperately need storage.
Say for example you want to download and install the latest iOS update. If it’s a major update, like iOS 16, you may need a little over 5GB to successfully install the software. If it’s a point update, like iOS 16.1, you’re looking at around 1GB. And if you don’t have enough storage space to update, you can quickly offload apps, which is a middle ground between keeping and deleting your apps.
Go to Settings General iPhone Storage and check which apps are taking up the most storage. Certain built-in apps like Photos and Messages cannot be offloaded, so be warned. If you find a sizable app you want to offload, tap on it and hit Offload App. Wait a little bit and the app should then be removed offline, while your documents and data will stay saved on your device.
Article source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/these-ios-settings-free-up-storage-on-your-iphone-without-deleting-anything/#ftag=CAD4aa2096