Ever came across the dilemma of not being able to save anything of your phone because of storage? This is most common to iPhones because of the fact that they do not have expandable storages, but it can be a nuisance to Android users as well. But you, what do you do when your phone storage runs out?
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This question is often brought up especially by iPhone users. Our smartphones are basically a necessity nowadays. Photos, videos, files, games, music – everything is actually storable in our smarthphones. This is why getting the warning that your storage is nearing its peak is kind of an annoying instance. For Android-run phones, there memory can be exapnded so it can easily be transferred. Apple phones, iPhones, on the other hand, it’s not. So receiving the message usually chills up people in panic.
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What do you do in these instances?
Of course, in normal cases, you would have to delete a couple of saved items in your storage in order to make room for others. However, there are instances where you don’t know what to delete – I am sure you’ve encountered this and I know how it feels.
So, the first thing you need to do is to look up which files are consuming too much space in your memory.
NOTE: This guide will be for iPhones. You can mirror the things to Android devices for you to have the same result.
To know which applications use up the most space, go to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage. By going here, you’ll be able to have vision on:
- How much space you have left; and
- How much space you’re currently using
There’s a Manage Storage button there and hitting on that would allow you to see which apps, files, and programs are using up a majority of your space.
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Photos and videos
Obviously, one of the things that would consume the most space would be the media in your phone. Believe it or not, in my phone, I have over a thousand pictures and videos and guess how much space they take up? About 8.4 GB! Can you imagine?
But I don’t want to delete my photos… How do I store them differently?
When your phone storage runs out and you don’t have any other way on how you can salvage it, the next best thing to do is to delete stuff. Start with the media saved on your phone. If you have some pictures and videos that have a sentimental value, here’s a list of things you can do:
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- Utilize a free storage service like Google Drive, Google Photos, or any other application which can serve as a virtual drive. Other storage services would be: Microsoft Office 365 Personal, Amazon Prime, iCloud Photo Library, etc.
- If you have a laptop or a computer, save your photos and videos there so you can delete the copy on your phone.
- Upload your photos to online accounts which can effectively hold it.
The point of this is that you have to make sure that you have a copy of it before you entirely delete them. Maybe you need a couple more information from it that’s why your stored it? We don’t know. The important thing is that you have an extra copy so you can go and proceed in deleting it from your phone.
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Messages
Your messages doesn’t seem to be a niusance but as a matter of fact, it can contribute to high storage space consumption. Yes, believe it or not, your messages are probably contributing more to the reason why your phone storage runs out.
My messages app alone, has a total usage of 4.5GB of space. This is because of other things (not just text messages) like GIFs, videos, photos, files, etc. They actually take up a huge chunk of the storage.
If you don’t have anything with your messages, you can free it up. To delete these messages, select on a message conversation. Click on the “i” icon on the top right part of the screen. On the bottom part, you will see two (2) tabs:
- Images; and
- Attachments
To be able to successfully delete these files, hold one of the images or attachments and click on “More.” This will allow you to select all items and you can delete it in one single go!
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In iPhones, the messages are designed to be saved by default. In order to change this and to be able to have it not saved “forever,” go to Settings > Messages > Message History > Keep Messages. Once you’re there, you’ll be able to choose how long you want your phone to keep and store these messages. Another useful tip to do when your phone storage runs out.
The iTunes rent trick
If you’re still not decided on what you will delete, or if you really have no idea on what to do, you can have this iTunes trick as a fallback in these types of scenarios.
Go to your iTunes app and try and attempt to rent a movie. NOTE: Make sure that the movie file size exceeds the amount of storage you have left on your phone in order for it to prompt you.
Clicking on “rent,” it’ll automatically alert you, notifying that you don’t have sufficient space for the movie left for the movie you’re trying to rent. This will give you two (2) choices: OK and Settings
Hitting on Settings will make you go to the original Settings page. Then you have to go to General > Storage & iCloud Usage. You will notice that your phone automatically cleared your phone out of data that’s not very relevant like:
- Cookies
- Saved forms
- Auto-fills
- Irrelevant data
- App history logs
As you notice, these are the stuff you don’t really need. So, your phone did its work automatically without you having to think of anything!
Browser-saved data
You may not be noticing it but your browser data is also a contributor in storage space-consumption. To clear your web browser, go to Settings > Browser Name > Delete Cache and History. You will be surprised at how much space browser data is using.
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In addition to these, there also are applications which can help you clean up and determine which files are erroneous. However, make sure to choose the right application because some can do more damage than good.
Now, you know what steps to take when your phone storage runs out. So, do you think that your iPhone is sick and tired of being full? Do you think that you somehow need to clear up a little space for it? Delete irrelevant things and give it more space now and worry about not having enough storage space later!