Your iPhone comes with 5GB of iCloud storage, which can seem like way more than you need at first. Storage space can quickly become an issue with all the photos, music, and apps that you then keep on your phone. You can do several things to sort out your iPhone storage concerns.
This article will dive into methods you can utilize to create more room for all that extra content you want to stow on your phone. Here, we will learn how to free up storage space, making room for new content. We shall also look at how to buy more storage for your iPhone if that is the route you would prefer to take.
How to Get More Storage on an iPhone
There are two ways to get more storage for your iPhone. One is to free up the already existing space. The second is to buy more iCloud storage for your device. Let’s begin by taking a look behind door number one.
How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone
Freeing up space on your iPhone can maximize your storage capacity. It’s also the cheaper way to go about getting more storage on your device. You can take several steps to make the most of the existing storage space. We will look at those below.
Analyze Your Storage
To get a little more wiggle room in your iPhone storage, you first have to identify what’s taking up space. To do this:
- Go to “Settings” and then “General.”
- Navigate to “iPhone Storage.”
- You will now see a list of files stored on your iPhone
Now that you can see what’s using up your storage space, you can decide what’s worth keeping and what you can get rid of. Apple will also make recommendations about files you might want to consider deleting.
Optimize Photo Storage
Photos can take up a lot of space. However, you can save smaller versions of the original pictures to your local storage. The full-resolution images will, by default, be saved to your iCloud instead. To turn this setting on:
- Open “Settings.”
- Navigate to “Photos.”
- Ensure that there is a blue tick next to “Optimize Phone Storage.”
Your photos will now automatically be saved to your local device storage in a smaller size.
Save Photos to the Cloud Service
Deleting photos from your iPhone and saving them in cloud storage instead would be the best way to free up space on your device. To do this, you can use a third-party cloud storage service like Google Photos. You might be wondering why not just use your Apple iCloud to store your images. The reason is that once you delete photos from your iPhone, they are also deleted from your cloud.
To transfer your photos to Google Photos, follow the steps outlined below:
- Sign in to Apple ID and navigate to “Transfer a copy of your data.”
- Click on “Request to transfer a copy of your data.”
- On the dropdown menu, select “Google Photos.”
- Check the “Photos” and “Videos” boxes.
- Tap on “Continue.” You will now see how much Google storage you will need for the photos.
- If you have enough storage, click “Continue.”
- Sign in to your Google account from the pop-up window and grant Apple the necessary access.
- Follow the prompts, and your transfer will begin.
Delete Unused Apps
You can also clear your iPhone storage by deleting apps that you no longer use. Find these apps by going to the Settings menu or following the steps below:
- Navigate to “Settings,”
- Go to “General.”
- Select “iPhone storage.”
A list will show all the apps, their space, and when they were last used. Here, you can delete the apps you haven’t touched in a while.
If you are not quite ready to get rid of the app, you can offload it instead. This is the process of uninstalling the app but retaining all its associated data. That way, if you ever need to reinstall it, you can pick up right where you left off. To offload an app:
- Go to “Settings.”
- Tap “General” and “iPhone storage.”
- In the displayed list, tap an app and select “Offload app.”
You can even allow Apple to do this for you automatically. Go to “App Store” and toggle the “Offload Unused Apps” option from your Settings.
Delete Old Messages
Another way to free up space is by getting rid of old messages. Your iPhone can do this automatically with the proper settings. To activate the option:
- Open “Settings” and select “Messages.”
- Navigate to “Message History.”
- Tap “Keep Messages.”
- Now select how long you would like your messages retained.
This option allows you to keep messages for 30 days, a year, or forever.
Delete Content Downloaded From Apps
You most likely use apps to download music and video content. Deleting this content could free up some storage space. To find and delete these files:
- Go to “Settings.”
- Select “General” and “iPhone Storage.”
- Search for an app you have downloaded content from.
- The App’s storage information will be displayed, including buttons to delete or offload the app.
- Your downloaded content will be shown under the “Delete App” button.
- Swipe left on the media to delete it from your device.
How to Buy More iCloud Storage for Your iPhone
Your iPhone comes with a default 5GB of iCloud storage space. If you find that this is not enough for you, you can buy additional space.
Apple’s iCloud service offers four different storage plans with varying prices. They range from free to $9.99 a month. Some of its plans can be shared with family members.
This is how to go about buying additional iCloud storage:
- Open “Settings” and go to Apple ID by tapping on your name at the top of the screen.
- Click on iCloud on your Apple ID page.
- Press “Manage Storage.”
- If you haven’t already subscribed to a plan, click on “Buy More Storage.” Or, if you already have a plan and would like to increase storage, tap on “Change Storage Plan” instead.
- On “Storage Plan,” select the plan you would like to upgrade to.
- Press “Buy” and enter your Apple ID password to complete the transaction.
Get Those Extra GBs of Storage Space
Running out of storage space on your iPhone can be a very frustrating experience. Lucky for you, there are several ways to squeeze out those much-needed extra GBs of space. From deleting unused apps to getting rid of old messages, you just might be able to find the additional storage space you require.
If that is just not a viable option for you, then there are always third-party storage services that you can turn to. Apple has also made it possible to procure extra storage space on the iCloud service. With this guide, you can navigate your way to getting more storage space on your iPhone.
Have you needed more storage space on your iPhone? Let us know how you got additional space on your device.
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