With the iOS 7 upgrade requiring 3.1GB of free space on your iPhone, you may find yourself making some tough choices about what to purge from your device. You've painstakingly built up a stellar collection of apps, photos and videos that you'd hate to part with, but some things just have to go.
How: On an iPhone, open up the settings app, scroll down to “Safari.” Scroll down again and tap “Clear history and website data.” On an Android, open settings via the cog icon, then find Apps in the menu. Locate the app for which you want to clear data, tap on storage, then clear the cache. In Settings General iPhone Storage, tap on an app at the top of the list. This will often be a social media app like Facebook or Snapchat, a messenger, or a content app like YouTube or Spotify. The first is to perform a soft reset of the phone. You can do this by going to settings storage sense phone temporary files delete Internet Explorer options delete history. Once you have done this, press and hold the down volume button + the power button until the phone shuts off and vibrates. If your phone or tablet does have a microSD card slot, you can purchase a microSD card and insert it into your device to gain more storage. The storage you gain can hold music, videos, pictures, and other media files–and, in some cases, even apps (see the next section). Some apps may allow you to move their cache locations to the SD card, too. An issue in iOS or iPadOS 13 might prevent the system from freeing up storage for you. To fix this issue, update your iPhone or iPad to iOS or iPadOS 13.6.1 or later. If you don’t have enough available storage to update wirelessly, update your device to iOS or iPadOS 14.1 or later using a computer. Published Date: December 07, 2020.
We're here to help. By identifying your device's storage-suckers, you can delete or uninstall some items without having to wipe your phone clean. And don't forget that by uploading your apps, photos and music to iCloud, Dropbox or to your computer, you don't have to lose anything permanently.
First, find out what's draining your storage space. On an iPhone, go to Settings > General > Usage. At the top of the screen, you'll see your available storage, followed by a list of apps that are taking up the most space.
Android phones will have a similar usage menu, usually found under 'Settings' or in the 'My Device' app. With Android, you can also export some data, including contacts and apps, to an external SD card to free up your internal memory immediately.
1. Photos and Video
Image: Flickr, drea
Video files are enormous. HD videos take up roughly 78MB for every minute of footage, so all your saved clips are probably tanking your phone's storage. Once you've posted your video to Instagram video (or wherever else), save it to your computer, delete it from your phone and watch the MBs magically reappear.
Next, ask yourself if you really need 10 photos of hamburgers on your phone. What about the five selfies you took before you found one worthy of Instagram? Photos can take up a fair amount of space, too. Back up your photos, then delete as many as you can handle. Your internal storage will thank you.
Enable automatic uploading from Camera Roll to Dropbox or the Google+ app to save time backing up.
2. Music
With every MP3 taking up more than 3MBs of space, your music collection is the next most likely culprit. Music-streaming apps such as Spotify take up way less space than a massive music library; keep the stuff you really love, and leave the rest on your computer — you can always switch up your playlists later.
3. Apps
How To Clean My Storage On My Phone
Image: Mashable, Nina Frazier
Clean Up Phone Storage
Most apps don't take up that much space, but if you're a serial downloader or have half a dozen apps that you're willing to part with, it might pay to uninstall them.
See also: 10 Free Android Apps You'll Use Every Day
How To Clean My Storage On My Phone Without
On an iPhone, press and hold the app you want to delete (yes, this feature is the same in iOS 7). On an Android phone, go to Settings > Applications > Manage My Applications, and click on the app you want to uninstall.
Widgets and folders will also take up space on Android. Delete or deactivate any folders or widgets you aren't using in 'Manage My Applications.'
4. Clear Your Cache
The longer you use your phone, the more extraneous information will be stored on it. On an Android phone, clear the cache for a specific app in 'Manage My Applications.' On an iPhone, click on any app listed under 'Usage' to see whether there is extra data that can be deleted.
5. Little Tweaks
There are a few more minor things you can do. Try clearing your browser history or deleting outdated contacts, completed reminders, old notes or text messages. It won't make a huge difference, but just think: 'Clean phone, clean mind.'
What else do you get rid of to save space on your phone? Let us know in the comments.
Image: Mashable, Nina Frazier