Even though using your iPhone to shoot photos and videos is simple, all it takes is one thrilling trip or holiday season to trigger the dreaded “iPhone Storage Full” alert.
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Fortunately, downloading new music or TV series doesn’t need you to purchase a brand-new phone with a terabyte of storage. Additionally, you don’t need to go through your priceless images and films to choose which ones are worthy of being kept.
This post is a part of 12 Days of Tips, which aims to maximize your health, home, and technology over the holidays.
Instead, you may be able to free up a significant amount of additional capacity on your iPhone by just using certain iOS capabilities.
Read more: Prior to doing anything else, adjust these 8 iOS 18 settings.
You may free up a substantial amount of storage on your iPhone by using two built-in iOS settings: a temporary one and a permanent one. You may download more programs, capture more pictures and videos, and apply the most recent software updates if you have more free space. What you should know is as follows.
See the top cloud storage choices for 2024 and hidden iOS settings that every iPhone user should be aware of for further advice on increasing iPhone storage.
Optimize your iPhone’s images and videos to increase storage capacity.
Optimizing the images and videos that are already on your smartphone is the simplest method to preserve your priceless memories—even if they are simply screenshots of memes—while also freeing up storage.
Every time you snap a picture or record a video, it is automatically stored on your smartphone in full quality. Photos and videos might take up a lot of space if you’re shooting them at the maximum quality. A minute of 4K video at 60 frames per second uses around 400MB, or over half a GB. That’s very important.
To optimize your images and videos, go to Settings > Photos and turn on Optimize iPhone Storage (you must have the iCloud Photos option above it enabled for this to function). This may take a long time, depending on how many pictures and movies you have on your iPhone, but when it’s done, your device’s storage should have a lot more room.
Optimize the storage settings on your iPhone.
You must have the iCloud Photos setting enabled for this to function.
Nelson Aguilar/CNET screenshot
In order to save space, all of your full-resolution images and videos are subsequently moved to your iCloud, while smaller, lower-resolution copies remain on your device. You may download any optimized file from the Photos app to see your higher-resolution images and movies, but this needs a strong internet connection. You won’t have to download all of your recently shot pictures and videos since they can already be in full resolution.
Upgrading your cloud storage is a simpler option than purchasing a new phone if your iCloud storage is inadequate. You may upgrade to 50GB in the US for only $1 per month, or you can go larger and get 200GB for $3 or 2TB for $10. Depending on your nation or location, prices might vary.
Go to Settings > (your name) > iCloud > Manage Account Storage > Purchase More Storage to increase your iPhone’s iCloud. After selecting a strategy, adhere to the guidelines. You may get iCloud+, which includes the iCloud Private Relay and Hide My Email services, if you upgrade to any premium iCloud membership.
iPhone settings for iCloud storage plans
More iCloud storage may be purchased for as low as $1 a month.
Nelson Aguilar/CNET screenshots
To save iPhone storage space, unload your biggest applications.
Not all of the apps on your iPhone are used. Many of them, such as applications for music creation, third-party cameras, and airlines, simply sit there. You generally don’t require everyday access to the majority of these programs, even if you use them infrequently. For this reason, you should think about offloading apps, particularly when you are in dire need of storage.
Let’s say you want to install the most recent iOS update. You could need slightly more than 5GB to install the program if it’s a significant upgrade, like iOS 16. You should budget around 1GB if it’s a point update, such as iOS 16.1. You may also fast unload programs, which is a compromise between maintaining and removing your apps, if you don’t have enough storage space to update them.
To see which applications are using up the most capacity on your iPhone, go to Settings > General > capacity. Be advised that certain built-in applications, like as Messages and Photos, cannot be offloaded. To unload a large application, press on it and choose unload App. After a short wait, the app should be taken offline, but your data and documents will remain on your device.
Your iPhone’s app storage
To “delete” the app, you must press Offload App twice.
Nelson Aguilar/CNET screenshots
If temporary storage is required for software downloads, just go through the list and remove all of the apps that you can. Each app will have a different amount offloaded, however the number next to App Size should be visible. The number next to Documents & Data will remain on your device, so throw it away. To remove it, you must really remove the application.
Until your storage is enough, offload as many programs as you must. Offloaded apps cannot be used, but you may redownload them by going to your App Library and tapping the iCloud icon. To download the offloaded app, just touch on it if it’s on your home screen. You will be able to use the app as if it had never been removed; you won’t need to sign in again or anything.