How to Clear Space on iPhone When Your Storage is Full?

How to Clear Space on iPhone When Your Storage is Full?

When iPhone storage gets full, we have two options. Get the storage cleaned somehow or purchase a new iPhone with larger storage space. The former option is what most users intend to follow. However, the real question is how to clean up iPhone storage.

The manual approach of scrolling and deleting unwanted photos, videos, and files can take significant time. To ease and expedite the cleaning process, we have designed this step-by-step guide for you. Here we will detail the six simple steps you need to follow to free iPhone storage effortlessly.

What increases iPhone storage?

Before discussing how to clear storage on an iPhone, let's first see what is increasing the iPhone storage. The easiest way to check that is through iPhone storage settings. Open Settings, click General, and tap iPhone Storage. From there, you will see what files and data types are consuming the most space.

iPhone Storage Full

How to clear space on iPhone when your storage is full?

There are many ways to clear storage on iPhone. Follow the below six steps to free up significant storage space on your iPhone within the next few minutes:

Step 1. Offload Unused Apps

iPhone has a unique offloading feature that allows users to offload (uninstall) the app but keep the data on the device. This approach is effective for apps that you rarely or don't use.

Follow the below steps to learn how to reduce storage on iPhone by offloading unused apps:

  1. Open the "Settings" app.
  2. Click General > iPhone Storage.
  3. Select the app you want to offload and click "Offload App".
  4. Follow the above steps to offload other apps.

uninstall unwanted apps

This way, you can uninstall unwanted apps and save up significant space.

Step 2. Get Rid of Useless Photos

Photos are one of the main contributors to making the iPhone's storage full. To quickly clear storage in iPhone, you must get rid of useless photos. However, how to remove unwanted, duplicate, and similar photos when there are thousands of them. That's where the Cleanup Pro app steps in.

Cleanup Pro is an AI photo cleaner that can scan and delete useless photos from your iPhone with one click. It can scan your phone storage deeply and categorize photos into folders like duplicates, blurred, oversized, similar, and more. Afterward, you can either delete specific photos from these folders or delete entire folders.

The steps of AI cleaning on iPhone with Cleanup Pro App are as follows:

  1. Install and run the Cleanup Pro App from the App Store.
  2. Click AI Cleaning > Scan from the home screen.
  3. Wait for the scan to complete. Afterward, select the folders to delete or the specific photos.
  4. Click Clear App > Delete to get rid of selected folders or photos.

Cleanup Pro App

That's how straightforward it is to remove photos from the iPhone with the Cleanup Pro App. Feel impressed? Install the app and get rid of photos within seconds.

Step 3. Clear Browser Cache

When you use a web browser (Safari, Chrome, etc.), the iPhone stores caches and other data. This data can consume significant storage space with the passage of time. So, the next iPhone manage storage step is to remove cached files from Safari or other browsers to optimize performance. Follow the below steps to do so:

For Safari:

  1. Open iPhone Settings.
  2. Click "Safari".
  3. Click "Clear History and Website Data".

Clear Safari Browser Cache

For Chrome:

  1. Open the Chrome browser.
  2. Tap Options > Settings > Privacy and security.
  3. Tap "Clear Browsing Data".
  4. Choose cache data to delete and tap "Clear Browsing Data".

This way, you can clear the browser cache and have a positive impact on iPhone storage cleanup.

Step 4. Clear System Data on iPhone

iPhone system data is another reason for high storage consumption on iPhone. It is because apps also store cache and other data, but many don't give access to delete those data. For example, if you view the app data from the iPhone Storage, you will find GBs of consumed storage under "Documents and Data".

So, the best way to clear system data on iPhone is to clear the cache of frequently used apps to get back the consumed storage. Here's how can I clear storage on my iPhone by clearing the app cache:

  1. Open iPhone Settings and click General > iPhone Storage > Choose any app.
  2. Click "Delete App". The specific app will be deleted with all its cache data.
  3. Reinstall the app.
  4. Follow the above steps to delete and reinstall other apps.

Clear System Data on iPhone

Note: Memorize or note down the login credentials of all the apps before deleting them.

Step 5. Delete Large Attachments in Messages

Often, your messages include selfies, memes, GIFs, and other media content, which can take up a significant portion of storage space. So, if you are also receiving attachments in messages, you need to delete them to clear storage in iPhone.

Here's how to remove oversized files from your Messages app to save space:

  1. Open iPhone Settings and go to General > iPhone Storage.
  2. Click "Messages". It will display the list of Top Conversations, Photos, GIFs, Stickers, and more.
  3. From the list, select the category that consumes the highest storage space. Keep in mind that if you select "Top Conversations", it will wipe out complete threads, not only attachments. So, you can pick "Photos" or other categories to avoid it.
  4. Tap "Edit" from the top.
  5. Pick all the attachments to delete and tap the "Delete" icon.

Delete Large Attachments in Messages

This way, you can clean the Messages app and clear storage on iPhone.

Step 6. Remove Offline Content

Lastly, you should also clean up offline content. This refers to downloaded content from apps like Netflix, YouTube, or Spotify that you prefer to watch later. This offline content can consume GBs of storage silently. To remove offline content, follow the below steps:

For YouTube

  1. Launch the YouTube app.
  2. Go to Library > Downloads.
  3. Click "3-dots" next to the downloaded video and tap "Delete from downloads".
  4. Follow the above steps again to delete other videos.

Remove Offline Content

For Netflix

  1. Launch the Netflix app.
  2. Navigate to Downloads and tap the "Pencil" icon.
  3. Tap the "X" button to delete the saved video.

This way, you can delete offline content and free iPhone storage significantly.

Conclusion

No one wants to see the iPhone storage full message, but it can show up over time if you don't manage storage. However, the above five steps are here to rescue you and free iPhone storage in minutes. So, the wrap-up of this guide is to follow the above steps, especially the Cleanup Pro app, as it can effortlessly delete unwanted photos from your iPhone with one click.

FAQs

1. How to check the storage on your iPhone?

To check the storage on your iPhone, open the Settings app. Go to General and click iPhone Storage. From there, you can check which data types are consuming the most storage space.

2. What is the best iPhone cleaner app for free?

Cleanup Pro is the best AI-powered iPhone cleaner app that can remove unwanted photos and contacts from your iPhone with one click. It can sort photos into different categories, like duplicates, similar, blur, etc. Afterward, you can delete entire folders or specific photos. In addition, you can also compress videos and photos.

3. Why is my iPhone storage full after deleting everything?

Even if your iPhone storage seems full after deleting everything, there are two possibilities. First, a lag in iOS may be causing inaccurate storage space display. So, wait for iOS to display the correct storage stats. Second, residual data from deleted items, hidden files, or incompletely deleted files might still be consuming storage space.

To view or add a comment, sign in

More articles by Ankit Dyeonia

Insights from the community

Others also viewed

Explore topics