11 Ways to Free Up Space on iPhone

2025 Author: Jason Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2025-01-23 12:04

Like the beauty of the compact iPhone display, the "charm" of the device will end when you run out of storage memory. Fortunately, this problem is not an international crisis and can be easily solved: you can free up space on your device in a few minutes by deleting unused apps, data, and media. You can also take advantage of some of the iPhone's built-in memory expansion and processes to completely disable the device's hard disk usage.

Step

Method 1 of 11: Reset iPhone RAM

Step 1. Unlock the device

Random Access Memory (RAM) on the phone is provided to process data. However, as with computers, this memory can be filled with temporary files. By resetting your device's RAM, you can increase the processing speed.

If you've applied a passcode or Touch ID to your device, you'll need to enter it. Otherwise, touch the “Home” button to unlock the phone

Step 2. Hold down the lock button

This button is on the side of the device. By holding down the button, a menu to turn off the phone (shutdown) will be displayed after a while.

Step 3. Release the lock button

Now, you can see an option at the top of the screen with a "slide to power off" message.

Step 4. Hold down the “Home” button

You need to hold down this button until the iPhone returns to the home screen.

This process will reset the random access memory (RAM) of the device which can increase the processing speed of the phone

Step 5. Review the reset results

To see changes to the processing speed, open an application. Now, this app can load faster than ever before. While it won't free up space on the device's hard disk, this method can significantly speed up the iPhone process.

Method 2 of 11: Removing Unused Apps

Step 1. Look for unused apps

Step 2. Touch and hold the app icon

The icon (along with other icons) will begin to wiggle. You may also see an "X" button in the top-left corner of the app icon.

Step 3. Tap the "X" button in the corner of the app icon

After that, a pop-up menu will appear asking if you want to delete the app.

Step 4. Touch “Delete” to confirm selection

The app will be deleted from the iPhone afterwards.

• Step 5. Repeat this process for any deprecated apps on iPhone

  If you haven't used a particular app for more than a month, it's a good idea to delete it.

  Method 3 of 11: Deleting Documents and Data

  Documents and data are application caches, login information, message history, and other application documents stored on the device. Over time, the size of the documents and data used by the application can swell, exceeding the size of the application itself.

  

  Step 1. Touch the settings menu (“Settings”) from the home screen

  

  Step 2. Touch the “General” option on the “Settings” page

  

  Step 3. Next, tap on “iPhone Storage”

  On this page, you can see a list of all the apps installed on your phone and the amount of memory each app is using.

  

  Step 4. Touch the app that is taking up a lot of storage space

  

  Step 5. Touch the “Delete App” button

  

  Step 6. Open the App Store app and reinstall the same app

  Now, the app won't take up as much storage space as before because the app's documents and data are emptied (or nearly empty).

  Method 4 of 11: Deleting Photos and Videos

  

  Step 1. Touch the “Photos” app icon to open it

  This app saves all visual media from camera roll folder, downloaded photos and social media duplicates. With this app, you can delete photos and videos that you don't need.

  

  Step 2. Select the photos you want to delete

  You can select it via the “Camera Roll” folder which contains all the photos, videos, and similar content. To select a photo:

  • Tap the " Albums " button in the lower right corner of the screen.
  • Select "Camera Roll".
  • Tap "Select" in the top right corner of the screen.
  • Touch each photo/video you want to delete.
  • You can see that social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat usually keep duplicates of photos already on your phone. By deleting the duplicate content, you can free up large amounts of storage space, without removing the original content from the iPhone library.

  

  Step 3. Tap the trash can icon in the lower right corner of the screen

  After that, a pop-up message confirming the deletion of the photo will be displayed.

  

  Step 4. Touch "Delete [number] Photos" button

  After that, the deleted photos will be moved to the "Recently Deleted" folder.

  

  Step 5. Empty the "Recently Deleted" folder

  When deleted, the photos will be moved to the “Recently Deleted” folder in the “Albums” menu. To delete photos in the “Recently Deleted” folder:

  • Tap " Albums " in the top left corner of the screen.
  • Touch the "Recently Deleted" folder.
  • Tap "Select" in the top right corner of the screen.
  • Select "Delete All" in the lower left corner of the screen.
  • Select " Delete [number] Items ".

  

  Step 6. Exit the Photos app

  Now, you've successfully deleted your unused photos and videos!

  Method 5 of 11: Deleting Music

  

  Step 1. Touch the “Music” app icon to open it

  If you need it, you can always delete an album that contains a lot of music to free up some storage space on your device.

  

  Step 2. Touch the “Library” tab

  After that, the iTunes library will be displayed.

  

  Step 3. Touch the “Songs” tab

  A list of saved songs will be displayed.

  

  Step 4. Delete unwanted songs

  Although individually, the existing songs will not take up much storage space, deleting unwanted albums can free up device memory. To delete a song:

  • Find the song you want to delete.
  • Touch and hold the song title.
  • Touch the " Delete from Library " button.
  • Touch the "Delete Song" button at the bottom of the screen.

  

  Step 5. Continue deleting songs

  With this step, the selected songs will be removed from the library. If you delete a song purchased from the Apple Store, you can still download it from iTunes as long as you have the appropriate Apple ID.

  Method 6 of 11: Deleting Messages

  

  Step 1. Touch the "Messages" app icon to open the message archive

  iMessages, “hidden” content or apps that take up valuable storage space on your iPhone can hold several gigabytes of chat material/data. After you delete a bunch of old messages, you can see a significant increase in the storage memory of the device.

  

  Step 2. Delete messages in iMessages

  Make sure you've saved all photos and videos from the conversation before deleting the message. To delete it:

  • Tap the "Edit" option in the top-left corner of the screen.
  • Touch each chat you want to delete.
  • Tap " Delete " in the lower right corner of the screen.

  

  Step 3. Close the Messages app

  Touch the “Home” button to exit the application.

  

  Step 4. Touch the “Phone” app

  After that, the Phone app and its content will be displayed, including the voicemail collection.

  • Clear call logs or entries (by one) from the displayed list.

    • Open call log. This log can be found under the “Recents” tab.
    • Make sure you have managed or checked all the entries in the call log because once deleted, these entries cannot be recovered.

    • Read the list carefully. You can delete individual entries from the list. Place your finger on the middle side of the entry row and slide the entry towards the left. With this step, you will show the " Delete " button. Touch the button. If you set the device to show a second warning, touch " Delete ".

      A contact bar with a red name indicates that you missed a call from that contact

    • Clear the entire list in one step to maximize storage space savings. Touch the "Edit" button on the screen. This button is usually shown at the top of the screen. After that, touch the "Clear all" button.

  

  Step 5. Delete voicemail

  If you can put your feelings or "memories" aside, there's no reason to keep your old voice messages on your phone because you can copy the contents of the messages in writing. To delete a voicemail:

  • Tap the " Voicemail " tab in the lower right corner of the screen.
  • Tap the "Edit" option in the top right corner of the screen.
  • Touch each voicemail that you want to delete.
  • Tap " Delete " in the lower right corner of the screen.

  

  Step 6. Close the “Phone” app

  Now, you've successfully deleted messages from iMessages, voicemail, and even some (or all) entries from the call log!

  Method 7 of 11: Clearing Cache and Data

  

  Step 1. Touch the settings menu (“Settings”) to display the device settings

  Safari browser cache and data can eat up storage space on a hard disk quickly. If you browse the internet frequently, clearing this information will increase the speed or performance of the system.

  

  Step 2. Touch the “Safari” tab

  You may need to swipe a bit further as this option is at the bottom of the “Settings” page.

  

  Step 3. Select the “Clear History and Website Data” option

  This option is also at the bottom of the “Safari” page.

  

  Step 4. Touch "Clear History and Data" to confirm selection

  After that, the Safari data will be deleted and the browser cache will be emptied.

  If Safari is still open when you clear the cache, make sure you close and reopen the app for optimal performance

  Method 8 of 11: Clear Notification Center (iOS 5 and Newer Versions)

  

  Step 1. Open Notification Center

  After turning on and unlocking your iPhone, swipe down from the top of the screen. After that, the notification bar will be displayed. Try pulling the blade from the center with your finger.

  

  Step 2. Search for each day that displays notifications

  Make sure you read the notification logs carefully to make sure you don't miss any important notifications. Until iOS 10, iPhone had a feature to sort notifications by app (this option was considered convenient), but in iOS 10, you can only sort notifications chronologically (by date and time they appeared).

  

  Step 3. Find and tap the "x" button next to the date or app name (depending on the iOS version you're running)

  

  Step 4. Touch the “Clear” button after the “x” button turns into a “Clear” button

  

  Step 5. Make adjustments to notifications if you feel that there are no more useful apps showing notifications

  • Open the settings menu (“Settings”) and select “Notifications”.
  • Look for an app that is no longer interesting, and tap its name.
  • Look for the "Show in Notification Center" slider bar with a green tint. If the bar is displayed in a different color (eg blue), you might suspect that notifications for the app are already enabled (older iOS versions used a different color for this type of setting).
  • Slide the slider to the left until the slider does not display the color on the bar.
  • Check the settings of this app to make sure that the app can display notifications the way you want. On iOS 9 and earlier, there are two types of alerts that can be displayed when a notification appears (with the device locked): “Banner Style” and “Alert Style”. In the “Alert” type, the notification will appear from the top and disappear, while in the “Banner” type, the notification is displayed in the form of a box in the middle of the screen. However, on iOS 10, warning messages or “alerts” can appear and disappear automatically, and are set to appear statically (and not disappear) until you manually delete them. Try making notification adjustments. You can find these settings directly in the "Show on Lock Screen" option line.
  • However, notifications can also be turned off completely (e.g. if they arrive while the device is locked).

  Method 9 of 11: Emptying Recently Used Apps Page

  

  Step 1. Double-tap the “Home” button

  After that, a page with a preview of all the apps that have been opened since the last time you restarted the device will be displayed.

  

  Step 2. Browse the applications that are still open one by one

  You can slide the bar left or right to see the apps you've opened and are still running in the background.

  

  Step 3. Place your finger in the center of the preview window of the app you want to close

  You can use more than one finger for multiple simultaneous applications that you want to close. However, you usually can't close more than two apps at once.

  

  Step 4. Swipe the app upwards using your finger until the app window reaches the top of the screen or disappears from the display

  

  Step 5. Swipe and browse the list to clean and close those apps that are not being used and still taking up memory space

  

  Step 6. Keep in mind that you cannot close the home screen itself from the recently used apps page

  The home screen should always be left open.

  Method 10 of 11: Setting Up Pages (Widgets)

  

  Step 1. Open Notification Center as described earlier

  

  Step 2. Switch to the widget page (“Widget”)

  Widgets was a feature that first appeared in iOS 7, but became more personal with the advent of iOS 8. If you have a lot of widgets that you don't use or no longer need, you can move/delete them. However, this process may not be the same for every iOS version. On iOS 10, you need to swipe right to display the entries on the left side of the “Notification Center” page. However, on iOS 7, 8 and 9, you need to tap the "Today" button from the top of the screen.

  Widgets can be reinstalled from the list of widgets by touching the green “+” button on the left side of the widget, below the list of available widgets

  

  Step 3. Swipe up the list of widgets to display the circular "Edit" button

  If there's a "# " line for new widgets, you've moved the screen too far, and need to check the previous list line. It's directly below the last widget in the list.

  

  Step 4. Look for the list of installed widgets

  These will appear at the top of the screen and contain a red "-" button.

  

  Step 5. Touch the “-” button to the left of the name of the widget you don't want to see

  After that, the "Remove" button will be displayed.

  

  Step 6. Delete the widget

  Touch the "Remove" button. Deleting a widget can provide a small increase in storage space. Therefore, be prepared to check other alternative steps to make sure you can get an accurate increase in storage space.

  

  Step 7. Close the “Settings” page for the widget

  Touch the “Done” button to close it.

  

  Step 8. Make sure that the unwanted widgets are no longer on the list and that only the required ones are displayed

  

  Step 9. Close the list of widgets

  Touch the “Home” button or swipe the “Widget”/” Notification Center” page to the top of the screen.

  Method 11 of 11: Using Alternative Internet Storage Spaces (Cloud)

  

  Step 1. Try downloading an alternative internet storage space

  While downloading more apps may seem counterintuitive to your goal of freeing up more storage space, free apps like Google Drive and Apple's built-in service iCloud offer additional storage space beyond the limitations of a device's hard disk.

  

  Step 2. Look for Google Drive

  While there are several free cloud/internet storage apps to choose from, Google Drive has the highest rating and competes with OneDrive in terms of the largest free storage space (15 gigabytes). This is why Google Drive should be the first app you download. To search Google Drive:

  • Touch the App Store app on iPhone.
  • Touch the search option to display the search bar.
  • Touch the bar at the top of the screen.
  • Type in "Google Drive".
  • Touch "Search".

  

  Step 3. Touch the “Get” option which is next to Google Drive

  After that, Google Drive will be downloaded to the phone.

  

  Step 4. Use Google Drive

  You can move photos and videos to Drive. This process can significantly reduce the amount of storage space used on the iPhone's hard drive. To use Google Drive:

  • Touch the Google Drive icon to open the app.
  • Tap the "+" icon in the lower-right corner of the screen.
  • Follow the instructions shown on the screen.

  

  Step 5. Repeat the app download process for other internet storage service apps

  While these apps will take up storage space at first, you can store your entire photo and video library in these apps and, since you need to use data to access them, you don't need an internet connection to view the photos.

  Some alternative apps to try are Microsoft OneDrive (15 gigabytes of free space; one terabyte for Office 365 members), DropBox (two gigabytes of free space), and Box (10 gigabytes of free space)

  Tips

  • Downloaded apps will still be available in iTunes if you delete them. All apps are stored in internet storage space until you decide to delete them manually yourself.
  • On iOS 10, some of the iPhone's built-in apps can be uninstalled and reinstalled if needed. To get these apps back, you need to use the search keyword "apple" and search for previously available apps. However, only some of Apple's major bloatware apps (e.g. " Home ", " Podcasts ", " Contacts " and some iPhone apps) can be removed.