How To Reduce The Size Of Other Data
You cant get rid of Other entirely, but you can sometimes reduce its size.
First, lets try clearing your Safari caches. Open Settings> Safari and choose Clear History and Website Data. If you have a lot of Safari tabs open on your iPhone, you might want to close most of them, too.
Clearing your Safari data might reduce the size of Other.
You might also want to change Messages to save fewer old messages. Open Settings, then Messages, and scroll down to the Message History setting. By default, Keep Messages is set to Forever, but you may want to change it to 1 Year or even 30 Days to reduce the data that the Messages app caches.
If youre a heavy texter, your Messages app might be filling up your storage with a lot of data.
Finally, go back to iPhone Storage and look at the apps list. Most of the apps store data that is categorized as Apps, but some will keep caches that are categorized as Other. If, say, the Podcasts app is taking up a couple gigabytes of space, its likely mostly cached data. Deleting the app and re-downloding it might put a dent in the Other category.
Delete Attachments In Messages
Texting isnt just about text, right? Youre sending and receiving memes, GIFs, selfies, little videos of your cat falling off the couch in her sleep. All that content is stored on your iPhone even if you dont save it to Photos, and if you text a lot it quickly adds up.
Heres how to delete all your attachments in Messages to clear some iPhone memory:
Thats it! Space-hogging attachments are gone.
How Much Does It Cost To Add More Storage To Your iPhone
Your Apple account comes with 5 GB of free iCloud storage. Although this is appreciated, 5 gigs probably isn’t enough space for you.
There are three paid storage plans to choose from:
- $0.99 a month: 50 GB
- $2.99 a month: 200 GB
- $9.99 a month: 2 TB
Your requirements will affect which of these three you should choose. However, the 50 GB $0.99 option would be more than enough for the average user.
If your whole family shares your iCloud account, you should probably go for the 2 TB option.
Recommended Reading: Screen Shot On iPhone 8
Why You Should Buy The 64gb iPhone 12
The 64GB iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini are the cheapest options and should be considered if you dont consider yourself as a power user.
Here are a few reasons why you might want to buy a 64GB iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 mini:
- You stream most of your movies and music.
- You dont plan to shoot a lot of 4K video.
- You plan to store your photos in iCloud Photo Library or on a computer.
- You come nowhere close to using 64GB of storage on your current phone.
Use Icloud Photo Library
In reference to point number two, you can view some photos offline. iCloud Photo Library will typically store recent photos and those that you access frequently in physical storage. If you have lots of free storage space, iCloud Photo Library will take advantage of that and add more photos locally. As you need more, iCloud Photo Library will automatically free up space by removing local copies. Typically this means older photos.
All of this happens in the background and without you realizing it.
If you want to enable iCloud Photo Library on your iPhone or iPad, just follow these steps:
Once enabled, just make sure you have the option to optimize storage space selected. Keep in mind that if you have a lot of photos, it can take iCloud Photo Library quite some time to finish uploading everything and to re-index your Photos app.
Also Check: How To View Blocked Numbers iPhone
Take Advantage Of Google Photos Dropbox Flickr Amazon And More
There are tons of apps and services out there that allow you to upload your photos to the cloud. Pretty much every service nowadays has an automatic upload feature that does all the heavy lifting and transfers with little to no attention on your part. All you have to do is choose the service thats right for you.
If free is your top priority, Id recommend , which offers unlimited storage space. Flickr also offers 1TB for free, which is more than plenty for the majority.
If you already use a service like Dropbox or Amazon, you can enable automatic photo uploads in those apps too. For Amazon, youll just need to download the to your iPhone or iPad. Just keep in mind that your photos and video will now go against your allotted storage space for those respective services. If convenience is more important to you, you may have to shell out a few extra bucks to up your storage capacity for particularly large libraries.
iPhone 12 Storage Options
Apple offers three iPhone 12 storage options at different price points.
The iPhone 12 starts at 64GB with 128GB and 256GB options available for people who want more space. The 64GB model is the cheapest option while the 256GB model is the most expensive.
If you dont want to pay full price for your new iPhone, you can save money if youve got a smartphone to trade-in. Youll also want to keep an eye out for other deals as we push through the year.
Recommended Reading: How To Reverse Image On iPhone
Why Is My iPhone Storage Still Full After Buying More Storage
Most of the time, this is due to a problem with one of Apple’s servers. You’ll have to wait it out.
If not for a server issue, an isolated glitch might be the culprit. Try force-restarting your handset. The force-restart process depends on the iPhone model you own:
- Here’s how to force restart the iPhone X, XS, XR, 11, 12, and 13:
- Press and quickly let go of the Volume Up button
- Press and quickly let go of the Volume Down button
- Keep holding the Side button until the Apple logo screen appears
How To Accept An Invitation
Open the message sent to your Apple device, and press the iCloud invitation in the body of the message. Accept and join the Family Sharing Plan.
Once a sharing storage plan is successfully set up, all photos, notes, documents, files, etc. will remain private to each individual user. Everyone in the Family Share plan continues to use their personal accounts they just share the amount of storage on the organizer’s account.
Once your Family Share plan hits 2TB of storage, all members will get a notification. Apple plans top out at 2TB, so when that happens, you’ll have to fight amongst yourselves on who should slim down their iCloud account.
Apple Fan?
Sign up for our Weekly Apple Brief for the latest news, reviews, tips, and more delivered right to your inbox.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
Recommended Reading: Itunes Could Not Check For An Update To The Carrier Settings For Your iPhone
Thumb Drives That Upgrade iPhone Memory
It is impossible to put an SD card into iPhone, but you can add more storage by a thumb drive.
There is various small and lightweight thumb drives in the market. Plug it into the Lightning port on iPhone 5, 6, 6s, 7, 8, etc., and you can easily increase your iPhone capacity from 15GB to 128GB, 256GB even more.
Since these are protruding attachments on iPhone, they aren’t the most elegant devices. For more options of external storage for iPhone, you can check it in this article.
Easy Steps To Free Up Storage Space On Your iPhone
If youre like me, it seems that your iPhone always runs out of space at the most inopportune times. If your iPhone storage is full or nearly full, you need a way to clear up space on your device quickly.
Ive had at least four generations of the iPhone, so I know a thing or two about how to free up storage space. In this article, Im going to go over some steps you can take to clear storage on your iPhone.
You May Like: How To Make Keyboard Bigger iPhone
How Do You Find Out Whats Using Up Space On Your iPhone
The first thing you need to do before you just start deleting files is to find out exactly whats taking up most of your storage.
To find out, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and you should see a bar graph that shows how much space you have, like so:
From the screenshot above, you can see that apps take up the majority of the space on my iPhone, followed by messages and photos.
Whats The Difference Between Storage And Icloud Storage On An iPhone
Unfortunately you arent able to add additional storage to an iPhone. You will only have the storage amount that was included when you purchased the device.
You can see detailed information about how both types of storage are being used on your iPhone by going to:
Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage
This will display a screen like the one below:
Note that if you total the amount of Used and Available space under the Storage section, it will not total the amount of storage space for your iPhone. There are operating system files for iOS that use some of this storage space. For example, the iPhone in the picture above is a 32 GB iPhone, but it only has 27.39 GB of usable storage space.
The total storage space listed under iCloud indicates how much space you can use in the cloud for backups and file storage. I upgraded to the 50 GB plan, which currently costs $0.99 per month.
If you select the Manage Storage option under theStorage section, you can see a detailed summary of which apps are using space on your iPhone.
If you select the Manage Storage option under iCloud, you can see what is using your iCloud storage space.
In the iCloud storage image above, the bulk of my storage usage can be attributed to pictures and device backups. You will note that you can share your iCloud storage among the devices that are using your Apple ID. For example, I have iCloud backups for several different iPhones, as well as an iPad.
Recommended Reading: How To Play 8ball On iPhone
What Is The Difference Between Device Storage And Icloud Storage On My iPhone 7
Your iPhone has two different types of storage. One, which we will call Device Storage indicates the amount of physical storage space that is available on the device. Its similar to the hard drive on your computer. The other type of storage is iCloud Storage and is located in the cloud. Your iPhone will need an Internet connection in order to use and access your iCloud storage, but its physical separation from the iPhone makes it a good choice for backups in the event that your iPhone is ever damaged or stolen.
But the difference between these two types of storage can be difficult to grasp, and it can be frustrating when you know that you have space available in iCloud but your iPhone is telling you that you dont have enough storage space to download a new game, or download a movie that you want to watch.
When you purchased your iPhone, you were able to choose from several different versions. You can start here to see all of the options available to you. But they can essentially be summarized like this:
- You can pick from the iPhone 7 or the iPhone 7 Plus
- You can pick from several different carrier models
- You can pick from five different colors
- You can select from a 32 GB , 128 GB, or 256 GB option
Use #3 Automatically Backup Photos
Lets say you want to have a backup of your pictures that are stored on your iPhone. I mean imagine you dropped your phone into a pool tomorrow and all your pictures on your phone were lost. How much would you lose? A lot of good memories, right?
The iXpand drive and its app have the ability to automatically backup the pictures and videos from your iPhones camera roll. It will save a copy of these pictures in a folder called camera backup on the drive.
To set up the automatic picture backup on the iXpand drive:
You May Like: Turn Off iPhone X Without Screen
How To Use Icloud Storage Instead Of Phone Storage
In our previous post, we explained what to do when an iPhones storage is almost full. In this article, we want to tell you about another way to store your data iCloud. An iPhones internal storage capacity ranges from 16 to 512GB. To supplement storage options, Apple offers its iCloud services for storing data on your iPhone. Read on to learn more about the following tips:
Clear App Cache And Other App Data
Unlike browsers, most apps dont give you access to their cache and other data they store, such as login data. And if you tap on each app at the top of that list in iPhone Storage, youll notice it has several gigabytes of so-called Documents and Data. Heres how you clear that app data to get more iPhone storage:
Yup, unfortunately, this is the only way to clear cache and other app data for the majority of apps.
Recommended Reading: How To Disable Private Browsing On iPhone
The Cheapest iPhone Storage Upgrade Ever
A small team of iPhone repair specialists in Shenzhen, China is now taking advantage of this niche of people who want iPhone storage upgrades by starting up a small business that offers a 128GB storage upgrade for iPhone users for a mere $60.
The process is simple you just hand over your money and your iPhone, and the specialists get to work on upgrading the internal storage inside of your iPhone. Theyll take it apart on their workbench, do all the electrical soldering for you, and approximately 30 minutes later, theyll power your device back on to show you that you now have 128GB of internal storage instead of 16GB or 64GB of internal storage.
user BeSound decided to do some good old-fashioned reporting on the third-party upgrade and has filmed the process, as well as the before and after of the iPhone storage transformation. You can watch the full video below:
These guys reportedly get around 50 customers per day, which means theres definitely some good demand for iPhone storage upgrades on the cheap. Unfortunately, the upgrade is limited to only specific devices due to limited availability of parts.
Is 64gb iPhone Ok
64GB is the least amount of storage you can get on modern iPhones like the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12. And in most cases, 64GB should be enough for the average user.
However, there are a few things you NEED to keep in mind. Firstly, Apple killed 64GB on the iPhone 13 range. All iPhones now ship with 128GB as standard, topping out at 512GB for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Mini and 1TB for the iPhone 13 Pro models.
The second relates to how many pictures and videos to plan on taking? If youre a serial snapper, and you run lots of apps and games on your iPhone, youll probably need more than 64GB.
The third relates to downloading content and media onto your iPhone. If you like downloading and storing lots of files on your iPhone, from TV shows to films and videos, then 64GB might not be enough for you.
If you fit the above criteria, Id probably recommend that you go with a 128GB iPhone just to be safe. Apple doesnt include expandable storage on any of its iPhones, so you have to be careful with how you manage what youve got.
OK, so when is a 64GB appropriate? Simple: if youre a light user, somebody like my mum, then 64GB will be more than enough for you. What do I mean by a light user?
A light user is someone that doesnt take loads of photos and videos and, most of the time, uses their phone ONLY for IM, web browsing, email, and social media. A light user runs limited apps and doesnt usually have many games stored on their phone.
Don’t Miss: Update iPhone Carrier