- You can clear an iCloud account's storage in several ways to free up space and avoid having to pay for extra storage. Apple gives you 5 GB of iCloud storage with the purchase of one of its devices.
- The best way to free up space on your Android phone is to add more of it. Once you select the size you want, installing it is a snap. There’s no formatting to worry about, just pop open your SIM.
Introduction
Go to your phone’s settings, and select “Storage.” Among other things, you’ll see information on how much space is in use, a link to a tool called “Smart Storage” (more on that later), and a list. On Android, go to Settings Storage Free up space. To delete an app, tap the empty box to the right to select and then tap Free up. Add storage to your phone. Removing apps is a quick-and-simple way to free up space. You can always grab them again later if you want to. Employ the services of a smart Android Management tool such as Syncios Mobile Manager (free) to clear up useless apps with app data and game save, backup apps to your pc to release phone storage.
iPhones are great. And since you're here I assume you agree, at least to a certain extent! Each year, Apple release new designs with bigger, clearer screens, faster processors, cutting-edge cameras and more. However, their storage capabilities always seem to be lacking (and it's very expensive to get those larger storage phones). One question that seems to persist through the ages is 'How to Free Up Space on iPhone'.
Apple have come a long way to help their users by way of storage issues with iCloud, but for many, this still isn't enough.
This article provides a guide which will show you 5 different ways you can get the very best out of your iPhone storage. Some steps you can do directly from your iPhone right now - others require the use of a third party tool such as TouchCopy (backing up your files to your computer before deleting from your iPhone - smart!).
You can jump to each step using the links below:
What's Taking up Space on my iPhone?
First, let's find out exactly what is taking up space on your iPhone, and how much space you have left.
Pick up your iPhone, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
You'll see areas like Apps, Media, Photos and Other (What's 'Other'? See Method 2) - as well as how much space they're occupying on your iPhone. You can scroll down on your iPhone to find out how much space each individual app is taking up. Spoiler Alert: tap an app, then tap 'Delete App' to get rid of it.
Read on to find out how to free up space on iPhone!
Method 1: Delete the Big Offenders
The easiest way to make the most room on your iPhone is to delete the stuff that's taking up the most space. The question is - what do you delete?
The first place you want to be looking is at your Apps, Videos, Music and Photos. Of course, these can all vary in size, but generally, that's where most of your storage will be tied up.
As you can see in your iPhone General Settings (iPhone Storage), your iPhone conveniently lists all your apps by size - biggest first. For the first step in this guide, scroll through the list on your iPhone and delete any apps which you don't need or use anymore. To do this, tap and App, then tap Delete App.
You may be pleasantly surprised by just how much space you can make with this step alone!
Further to this, the next big offenders are likely to be Photos, Videos and Music. You can go through their respective apps and delete anything you don't need. But to be safe, why not back up these items to your computer before deleting them, so you have a safe copy if you want them again? Jump to Method 4 to learn how to do this efficiently.
Method 2: How to Clear Cache on iPhone
Next, let's see how to find and delete data which you probably don't need saved on your iPhone. Cached data is information that apps and websites store on your device to make their applications work more efficiently for you.
For example, a website will store images in your cache so that when you go and access that page again, your browser won't have to fetch the image again because you already have it.
Trouble is that you probably access loads of webpages and use loads of apps too. This means that your iPhone becomes clogged up with oodles of information that it just doesn't need.
Every so often, we recommend clearing out your iPhone caches to get rid of any unwanted storage-hogging files.
Cached data and cookies come under the Documents and Data section of your iPhone Storage. Check out our full step-by-step guide to find out 'What is Documents & Data?' and how to clear cache on iPhone. To do this, you'll need to go into each app's settings and delete cookies, history and caches that you don't need.
Make sure you check the cache of all apps (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter...) and browsers (Google Chrome, Safari...) that you use on your iPhone for maximum storage return!
Method 3: How to Delete Duplicate Songs on iPhone
Beyond just deleting music you no longer like; you may have accumulated many duplicate tracks over time. This is true wasted space because duplicate tracks are unnecessary.
If you don't want to trawl through your library to weed out duplicate tracks, there's a great tool which can help. Tune Sweeper is software for PC or Mac which will cover all of your iTunes clean up needs. The feature we're really interested in is its ability to locate and remove duplicate tracks from iTunes. Once your library is clean, you can then sync it with your iPhone and hey presto - space saved.
Let's see how we can use the popular Tune Sweeper tool to delete duplicate songs on iPhone:
- Download and install Tune Sweeper on your PC or Mac
- Launch Tune Sweeper and click 'Search for Duplicates'
- Your iTunes library will be scanned, and Tune Sweeper will return a list of duplicate songs
- Manually choose which files to remove, or allow Tune Sweeper to do it automatically by selecting a Keep Selection Preference
- Once you're happy with the selections, click 'Remove Duplicates'
- Sync your updated iTunes library with your iPhone to upload your new duplicate free library to your device.
Try Tune Sweeper free ▼
Receive an email with a link so you can download the free trial on your computer:
Note: We respect your privacy. We won't share your Email address with anyone else, or send you spam.
Method 4: Backup data from iPhone to Computer then delete from iPhone
If you're still unsure about what to delete from your iPhone, back up your media first!
You can create complete backups of your iPhone in iTunes. Then, if you've made a mistake, you can always just restore the backup as if you'd not deleted the media.
If you're not a fan of iTunes, or you don't want to create backups of your entire device to your computer, try a program like TouchCopy. With TouchCopy, you can browse all your iPhone content from your computer, then transfer whatever you like and back it up on your computer. In this way, you get full control of your iPhone data, which is something you just don't get with iTunes.
Once you've safely copied a batch of videos or photos or music from your iPhone to your computer, delete them from your iPhone to clear up some storage space! Here's how it's done:
- Download and install TouchCopy on your PC or Mac.
- Launch TouchCopy and connect your iPhone.
- Click Photos.
- Choose which photos to copy, or ctrl+A to select all photos.
- Hit 'Copy Photos'!
Once your photos have been safely copied to your computer, you can delete them from your iPhone to free up that precious storage space! Deleted photos will be moved to a 'Recently Deleted' Album on your iPhone and will be kept there for 30 days. If you're sure you want to delete the photos, go ahead and empty your Recently Deleted album to reclaim the space.
Check out our guide if you'd like to find out how to delete single, multiple or all photos from your iPhone.
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Receive an email with a link so you can download the free trial on your computer:
Note: We respect your privacy. We won't share your Email address with anyone else, or send you spam.
Method 5: How to use iCloud to Free Up iPhone Storage
We've covered some major ways to free up some serious storage space on your iPhone, but it wouldn't be a complete list without covering exactly what you can do with iCloud on your phone. As I mentioned at the top, Apple have come a long way to providing storage solutions for iPhone users with iCloud.
You can use iCloud to store a lot of your files from your iPhone, without taking up the space on your iPhone.
Here's how it works: You take a photo on your iPhone. Instead of the photo being stored on your iPhone itself, it's stored in iCloud. Your iPhone can access and see these photos if you're connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data. Imagine if all your photos, videos and music were stored in iCloud. You can save some serious space!
The only downside to this method is that you only get 5GB of iCloud Storage space free. Anything more and you'll have to put your hand into your pocket.
That said, let's see how we can make use of iCloud to help with our space saving journey:
- On your iPhone, open Settings
- Tap General
- Tap iPhone Storage
- By Recommendations, tap 'SHOW ALL'
Here you can enable such features as 'Offload Unused Apps' and the aforementioned 'iCloud Photos'. Simply Tap Enable on the features you like the sound of!
When you unbox your smartphone, it’s so shiny and new, a blank slate just waiting for you to customize to your needs. It doesn’t take long for it to collect apps and data, however, and soon, your battery slows down, apps start crashing and storage runs low.
But don’t start shopping for a new phone again just yet. By following the tips below, you can declutter your Android or iOS device to help it run more smoothly and efficiently.
Uninstall Unused Apps
The average smartphone user has 60-90 apps installed but only uses about 30 every month (and nine per day). The chances are good that you have at least a handful of apps you rarely put to use. Getting rid of the unnecessary apps will not only declutter your phone’s appearance but might help it run better and could even allow your battery to last longer between charges.
Although phone settings vary, you can generally view and remove apps from the Settings menu.
How Do I Free Up Storage Space On My Lg Phone
On an Android phone, go to Settings and select Apps. Choose the first app you want to remove and select Uninstall. Tap OK to confirm that you wish to uninstall the app from your phone. Repeat the steps to remove any other unwanted apps from your device.
On an iPhone, launch Settings, choose General and select Storage. Choose the first app you want to remove and select Delete App. Tap Delete to confirm that you wish to uninstall the app from your phone. Repeat the steps to remove any unwanted apps from your device.
Choose Pics To Save
How Do I Free Up Storage Space On My Zte Phone
Go through pictures and videos on your phone to decide which ones are worth keeping. Delete those that you don’t want and send the ones you do want to the cloud, storing them on a service such as Google Photos, iCloud or Dropbox. Depending on how many photos you have on your phone, this one could take some time, so you might want to work on it whenever you have a few minutes to spare.
Clear The Cache
Cached data can save time and data when opening a website or using an app, but it also takes up space on your device. Clearing it can free up resources on your phone.
On an Android phone, you can clear the cache on individual apps from the Settings menu. Alternatively, clear the cache for all apps by opening Settings, select Storage (or Storage & Memory), choose Cached Data and tap OK to confirm you want to clear the cache on your device.
The steps to clear cached data on iPhones vary between apps, but one approach is to open Settings, select an app and choose Reset Cache or a similar option.
Delete Messages
You might not even realize how many old text messages are just sitting on your phone, eating up space. Check your messaging app to discover how many you don’t want or need and delete them. It’s also a good idea to trash other types of messages stored on your phone, such as emails or visual voicemail messages.
Delete Downloads
When you open a file through a browser, a link in an email or other files you receive on your phone, they are downloaded to your device. You likely no longer need the PDF of an amusement park map you downloaded last summer, and deleting these files is an effective way to clean up your phone.
On an Android phone, find an app called Files or My Files. Browse the file categories to find and delete any you don’t need to keep.
On an iPhone, you can typically delete downloaded web files using Safari. Go to Settings, choose Safari, tap Downloads and select Remove Download List Items.
Clean Up Contacts
Your address book might be filled with names and numbers you don’t even recognize. If you have duplicates, unwanted information from syncing your email account, or other entries you no longer need, deleting them is beneficial. Just open your address book and select the edit button on the contact you want to remove. Tap Delete and move on to the next one.
Once you have successfully cleaned up your phone on the inside, you might be motivated to clean the outside of it, as well!