How to free up space on iPhone?

GSM-Abinash August 21, 2022

0 91 5 minutes read

Anyone who has an Apple smartphone knows that, there is nothing worse, than being with it crowded. That is, no memory space. In addition to slowing down your phone, this can compromise your phone’s storage and operation. Given this, it is critical to know how to free up space on the iPhone.

Currently, the advancement of photo and video capabilities, which provide increasingly higher resolution and quality material, are one of the causes of full memory. In addition, constant downloading of in-app files such as WhatsApp, as well as data accumulated by iOS, and constant updating of apps, can compromise iPhone space.

In general, there are many things you can do to clean up storage on your iPhone. So check out below, the top tips.

Table of Contents

Why is my iPhone full?

In general, your iPhone can be full of things you don’t even use and don’t need. Given this, it is essential to know what is taking the space of your smartphone.

Below, here’s how to view and manage storage on your iPhone:

Go to Settings from your iPhone;
Then tap General;
Once that’s done, click iPhone Storage;
At the top, you’ll see a color-coded bar showing how much space you have, how much is occupied, and what consumes your memory the most. The largest categories are usually Photos and Apps, but it depends on their use;
Below is a list of your apps sorted by how much space they take. You can tap each app to see how much of that space is the app itself, and how much of it is the Document and Application Data.

Depending on how you use your iPhone, you may have a “puffy” photo app filled with photos and videos. Or it could be games and social media apps that are accumulating more storage. Below are five easy steps you can follow to free up storage on your iPhone, regardless of your iPhone’s use.

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How to clean storage on iPhone?

If you, as in the example above, realized that your iPhone’s memory is full, or almost there, it’s time to free up space without deleting the things you want to keep.

Below, here’s how to clean up storage on your iPhone:

Clean your photo library;
Clear the browser cache;
Clear the application cache and other application data;
Delete offline content.

Step one. Clean up your photo library

If you checked the iPhone storage as we suggested above, you already know who is consuming your memory. In general, photos are always among the main options. Clearing the entire photo library is not an option, however, there are things you can get rid of:

duplicate photos, like the ones you downloaded twice;
similar photos;
pictures of whiteboards, notes, checks, and things like that;
screenshots you no longer need;
great videos you don’t like.

So you can scour your library and delete photos and videos manually. On the other hand, there is a faster and more convenient alternative is an iPhone app like Gemini Photos.

Below, here’s how to release storage on your iPhone with it:

Download the Gemini Photos app;
Then, when you start it, it will start scanning your library automatically;
To do this, go to folder by folder from your gallery. With each folder you enter, the app will show the pre-selected photos, which are suggestions of what you could delete;
If you do not agree to the pre-selection, uncheck the photos you deem necessary. Once that’s done, tap Delete all.
After you’ve finished reviewing similar photo sets, tap to empty the trash.

After a cleanup like this, your library will significantly reduce.

Step two. Clear browser cache

If you often use your iPhone to browse the web in Safari or Chrome, keep in the face that your phone may be storing caches and other unnecessary data. And believe me: you’d be surprised at how much space you can free up just by clearing the browser cache.

Here’s how to clear the Safari cache:

Access Settings on your iPhone;
Then tap Safari;
Right after, go to “Clear Site History and Data.” Clearing safari history, cookies, and browsing data does not change autocomplete information.

Here’s how to clear chrome cache:

Open Google Chrome on your iPhone;
Then tap More, at the bottom;
Right after, click History;
Once this is done, click Remove browsing data;
After that, choose which browsing data you want to clear (browsing history, cookies, images and cached files, and the period) and tap Remove browsing data.

Step three. Clear application cache and other application data

Unlike browsers, most applications do not give you access to the cache and other data they store, such as login data. And if you tap each app at the top of this list in iPhone Storage, you’ll notice that it has several gigabytes of so-called Documents and Data.

See how you clean up app data for more iPhone storage. But remember: Before you start, make sure you remember your app logins or have them saved somewhere.

Go to Settings from your iPhone;
Then tap General;
Once that’s done, click iPhone Storage;
After that, tap one of the apps that appears in the list of memory-consuming ones;
Tap Delete App.
Go to the App Store and reinstall the app.

Yes, unfortunately, this is the only way to clear cache and other application data for most applications.

Step four. Delete offline content

You probably consume a lot of content every day – music, videos, and podcasts. And if you save this content offline to be able to play it on the subway or during a long flight, you will have a lot of memory consumed.

As a result, apps like YouTube, Netflix and Spotify can take up several gigabytes of iPhone storage each. So why waste space on those episodes of Stranger Things you downloaded in 2017 and a long-forgotten playlist you’ll never hear again?

Let’s start with Netflix. Here’s how to delete Netflix movies and tv shows you’ve saved on your iPhone:

Open the Netflix app;
Then go to Downloads;
Tap the pencil icon in the upper right corner;
Tap the red X to delete the video.

Next up, YouTube. To delete offline videos from YouTube, follow these steps. Remember: The process must be done with each saved video.

Launch the YouTube app;
Then tap Library;
Once that’s done, click Downloads;
Right after, tap the three dots next to a downloaded video;
Tap “Delete from downloads.”

Finally, here’s how to delete Spotify playlists:

Open the Spotify app;
Then tap Your Library;
Right after, tap Downloaded;
Select the album or band;
On the three dots next to play, choose Remove from this device.

You should also scour podcasts, Apple Music and other entertainment apps you’re using. After cleaning up all the offline content you no longer need, you’ll see how much iPhone memory you’ve managed to recover.

Bonus tip: Back up iCloud

Finally, you can back up apple’s cloud, iCloud. That way, you can keep your data stored in the cloud so you can free up your iPhone space. To do this, follow the step by step below: