How to free iPhone memory

In the past few days you’ve bought an iPhone and overjoyed have started to download all the apps you could, to add music files to be listened online, films and much more. As a result, the storage space of the device got saturated and now you can’t even take some pictures. Well, I’s obvious to me that now you need to worry about cleaning out the memory of your iPhone, leaving there only what you really need.

I’m sorry? You already had the idea of doing that but, being novice with Apple products, you would love a few tips? Well, you happen to be standing in the right place at the right time! With today’s tutorial I’d like show you how to free iPhone memory, and believe me, is simpler than you could think. Following the advices I’m about to provide, you’ll be able to gain more free memory on your Apple smartphone, without having to say goodbye to important data and, most importantly, without messing up.

So? What about putting aside small-talk and start focusing on what should be done? Yes? Great! Make yourself comfortable, grab your iPhone and start focusing on the reading of this tutorial entirely dedicated to the subject. I am sure you will eventually be satisfied about what you learned and you’ll be ready even to provide useful advices to all your friends in need of similar tips. Shall we bet?

Index

• How to free iPhone memory – Uninstall large apps
• How to free iPhone memory – Delete application data
• How to free iPhone memory – Manage multimedia items
• How to free iPhone memory – Photos and videos
• How to free iPhone memory – Music
• How to free iPhone memory – More tips

How to free iPhone memory – Uninstall large apps

The first and simplest way to free your iPhone memory is go and remove all those potentially not-useful apps that are just taking up space on your device for nothing.

To discover which are the apps that are taking up more space in your iPhone, you’ll need to access to the home screen of the device, click on the “Settings” icon (the gear icon), then on “General” and next on “iPhone Storage”. If you’re using a device with a iOS version prior to the 11, you have to go to Settings>General>Storage and iCloud Usage>Manage storage under the heading “Storage”.

Now you should see a listing of all the apps installed on your iPhone. To delete the heavy and unnecessary ones, just select the name e click on “Delete App” in the screen that opens. To identify more quickly the most unnecessary apps, you can take account of the last opening date, as reported below each of them. That happens because the less useful are also the ones you use less, and so the ones that you’ve opened a long time ago.

Keep in mind that by doing this, the selected apps and the related documents and data will be completely removed from the device. However, if for some reasons you prefer to remove the app, keeping the files and the related infos untouched, and if you own a device with iOS 11 or later versions installed, you can click on “Uninstall App” and, unlike the command above mentioned, you’ll manage to free up the space used by the app on your iDevice, still keeping the related documents and data. So, if you choose this option and in case you shall install again the deleted apps, all your data may be recovered.

How to free iPhone memory

Assuming that, as the old saying goes, “Prevention is better than cure” and considering also the fact that removing “manually” all the bulky and unnecessary apps can be annoying, really annoying, you can simplify and automatize the execution of this operation by entrusting yourself to the app automatic removal (only from iOS 11 on available). This is a feature that, how deducible, goes into action by itself by removing the less used apps, but without deleting related data and documents.

To enable it, you just need to click on “Enable” that you find next to “Offload Unused Apps”, always in the section Settings>General>iPhone Storage. The same feature can be activated also clicking on “iTunes and App Stores” from the “iOS Settings” section and by switching on the button in correspondence of “Offload Unused Apps” at the screen bottom.

How to free iPhone memory – Delete application data

Maybe you didn’t know it, but you need to know that some apps, as Safari, Facebook and the apps for wallpapers download for example, include cache and temporary files that in time will occupy a significant quantity of storage space on the device. Therefore, removing those data (when possible) can be more that useful to free up the iPhone memory.

But how do we delete those data? I’ll explain it right now. As for Safari, access to the “iOS Settings” section, click on “Safari” in the screen that opens and click on “Clear History and Website Data” twice in a row.

How to free iPhone memory

By the execution of those steps keep in mind that not only the Safari cache will be deleted, but also the Internet website list you have recently opened. Another important thing you need to consider is that those navigation data will be deleted not only from your iPhone, but also from the other devices which may be related to your iCloud account (e.g. Mac and iPad).

Not considering navigation data and history, even the offline reading list of the famous Apple browser (namely the links stored in the app reading list) can occupy valuable space on the device for nothing. Accordingly, I recommend to clean it up occasionally.

To do it, go to “Settings”, click on “General” and the click on “iPhone Storage”. If you’re using a device with a iOS version prior to the 11, you have to go to “Settings > General > Storage and iCloud Usage > Manage storage under the heading “Storage”.

Next and in both cases choose Safari from the list of applications installed on the device. Click then on the button “edit” on the top right of the screen that opened, click on “-” (minus sign) appeared in correspondence of “Offline Reading List” and click on “Delete” that appears right.

 

As for Facebook, there’s no specific feature available to delete cache files, so that to remove them from the device it is necessary to act in a less practical, bu still effective way: remove and install again the app. To delete the app you just need to click and keep the pressure on its icon until it will start shaking, then click on “x” that appears on the top right of the same and click on “Delete” in response to the notification appearing on screen. For further infos you can read my article on how uninstall iPhone apps.

How to free iPhone memory

Same story for all other apps on the iPhone that tend to accumulate a larger amount of temporary files. The only exception are the apps that incorporate a specific feature, such as those to download new wallpapers for the device, where, indeed, there’s usually a button to delete the cache or to limit it to a certain number of MB.

Another advice I recommend to you, to free as much space as possible on your iPhone by removing data related to the use of the apps, is to take advantage of the “iTunes File Sharing” function that allows you to delete useless files within the apps. Many apps, as for the download managers, tend to accumulate files that copy themselves on the iPhone’s memory or download by themselves from the Internet: is it likely that we forget to remove them and, as easily perceived, will occupy space on the iDevice.

To use the above mentioned function, connect the iPhone to your PC using its Lightning/Dock cable, wait a few moments to iTunes to run (it this doesn’t happen automatically, start the app manually by using its icon), click on the iPhone icon you’ll see appearing top-left in the program window and select “File Sharing” from the sidebar. So click on the icons of all apps within it and when you find unnecessary files to be deleted (on the right side on iTunes), click on their icons and click the “Delete” button or the space bar on the computer keyboard to delete them immediately. Super easy!

How to free iPhone memory

How to free iPhone memory – Manage multimedia items

We now come to the management of multimedia items. Fotos, music and videos are going to occupy a lot of space on the device memory too. Provided that remove the unnecessary items is the best way to gain space on your iPhone, there are even smart tricks that allows you to continue to have access to your files, without deleting them totally. Let’s analyze the topic more in detail.

How to free iPhone memory – Photos and videos

As for fotos and videos, my advice is to move everything on your PC (as explained in my previous tutorial about how to import fotos from the iPhone) and remove all the unnecessary contents from your iDevice.

To delete them, open the iOS Foto app, select the Album tab, then head to “All Fotos” and click on “Select” in the top right corner. Then select the items you want to delete and click on the trash icon on the bottom right. Done!

Subsequently remember to go to the Album “Recently Deleted” (that encloses all the recently deleted files and that allows to restore the accidentally deleted ones) of the Fotos app and to delete the files even from there. You can find more detailed infos on the topic in my tutorial about how to delete fotos from iPhone.

How to free iPhone memory

 

Another trick to free your iPhone memory is to activate the iCloud “Fotos Library” and to benefit from this function to optimize the storage memory. Indeed, it’s a free Apple service that stores fotos and videos achieved via the online iDevices automatically, and keeps on the smartphone only optimized versions of those latter (those in high quality can be downloaded, if needed). You can enable it by going to Settings > Fotos and by switching on the button related to the iCloud Foto Library. For further infos, take a look at my tutorial about how to store fotos on iCloud.

How to free iPhone memory

How to free iPhone memory – Music

As for the music, if you’ve a copy of your iTunes Library on your iPhone, I recommend you to reconsider the settings so that only the tracks you’re really interested in shall be moved to your smartphone. For further infos read my tutorial about how to move music from your PC to the iPhone.

You can also save space by subscribing to a music streaming service, as Apple Music that is perfectly integrated with the company products, as you can imagine, considering it’s a made in Apple solution. In this way you’ll be able to lighten the multimedia library of your iPhone and still have everything on Cloud. The price for using this service is of 9,99€/month (or 14,99€/month for the family plan that supports up to 6 users or 4,99€/month for students). A trial period is also provided. It also allows to create a multimedia library on Cloud and synchronize it within all the devices logged in to the same Apple ID.

How to free iPhone memory

 

How to free iPhone memory – More tips

Considering that the available space on the iPhone may still not be enough (also because of the non expandable memory, unlike other smartphones), relying on one or more cloud storage services can surely be a big help to keep your files intact, without affecting the storage memory of your device. You have no idea of what these cloud storage services are? You don’t know which one rely on? Then take a look at the list below that I arranged for you and clear your head!

• iCloud Drive – It’s a cloud storage service made in Apple. It is therefore included in all iPhones. The basic plan is for free and offers 5 GB space, but, where necessary, it is possible to skip to different paid plans depending on your needs: 50 GB (at 0,99€/month), 200 GB (at 2,99€/month) or 2 TB (at 9,99€/month). It is perfect to store in use app data on iOS and to use the above mentioned services. For further infos take a look at my tutorial on the topic.
  How to free iPhone memory

How to free iPhone memory

• Google Drive – Is a cloud storage service offered by Google. All types of files can be stored. For iPhone there’s a dedicated app. The free basic plan offers 15 GB storage, while the paid ones start from 1,99€/month for 100 GB storage space. For further infos take a look at my tutorial on the topic.
• Dropbox – Popular cloud storage service available from almost all the devices, iPhone included (in the form of specific app). 2 GB storage space are for free (but there’s the possibility to expand the capacity by inviting friends on Dropbox and by taking part to several promotions). In case of need it is also possible to activate the paid plan from 9,99€/month to take the storage available space up to 1TB. For further infos take a look at my tutorial on the topic.
• OneDrive – It’s a Microsoft cloud storage service. From iPhone it is possible to have access through the dedicated app. The basic plan is for free and offers 5 GB space, but paid plans are also available (50 GB at 2€/month and 1TB at 7€/month). For further infos take a look at my tutorial on the topic.

Lastly I’d like to inform you that by choosing to use one or more of the above mentioned services for the storage of your files in the Cloud, you can manage in all from your iPhone by using the app “File” (included “as standard” from iOS 11 on). It’s an app that allows to manage all the files that are physically on your device, but also to have access to those stored on your network from a single, comfortable location. To use it, you’ll have to download the specific service original app from your iPhone, but next you will be able to organize all your documents from “File”, without opening each time the single apps.

How to free iPhone memory