Keep your Iphone in tip top shape …. by getting rid of all the stuff you don’t need. You’ll never run out of space again.
Have you ever gotten this dreaded pop up on your Iphone right as you’re about to take a photo? If you’re anything like me, you then scrabble to try to delete any app that hasn’t been used recently or quickly remove some older photos where you didn’t look very good. By the time I free up space on my phone, the photo opt has likely passed.
Getting frustrated that my ‘fixes’ were always temporary, I figured out what was taking up so much space on my phone. In-fact, I found 6.
Before I dig in to my 6 tips, you should find out what’s taking up the most space on YOUR phone. Simply go to the Settings app then go to General > Usage > Manage Storage.
You’ll see all your apps in order of the amount of space they’re taking up on your phone. For those apps that you don’t use enough to justify, DELETE!
1 Photos
It’s probably no surprise that photos tend to take up a LOT of space. So take a look at your most recent selfies and decide if you really need all the extras that didn’t make it to your facebook page. Yes it’s painful, but dwindle those photos down to the essentials.
You can also enable automatic uploading to Dropbox. Simply download the Dropbox app (yes, we’re trying to get rid of apps, but this one will be beneficial!) and either create an account or sign in, if you already have an account. Then select “enable camera upload”. Now moving forward all your photos will also download in to your Dropbox account as long as you keep the app on your phone. This means you can safely delete the photos on your phone to clear up space!
2 Do you take photos in HDR?
If you don’t, I highly recommend it. This feature allows you to take better quality photos from your iphone (HDR = high dynamic range). Just be aware that it is automatically set to save both versions of the photo (a plain one and a HDR one). To change this, simply go back to Settings > Photos & Camera and deselect ‘Keep Normal Photo’.
3 Remove old Podcasts
Podcasts can take up a LOT of room on your phone and typically aren’t necessary to store once you’ve listened to them. “Serial” I’m looking at you! At the bottom of your podcast app will be the individual ones that you’ve already listened to. Just swipe left and select the red delete button.
4 Delete old text messages
I admit, sometimes I think it’s fun to look back through past text messages, but it’s doubtful that most really need to be saved. Yet, your text messages are auto set to never delete. To change this go to Settings > Messages. Under Keep Message, select 30 days or 1 year.
5 Stop Photo Streaming
Photo stream automatically syncs your photos between your Apple devises. This means that any photos on your ipad will sync (and take up space) on your iphone. Unless you specifically need this feature often, you should turn it off. Go to Settings > Photos & Camera > My Photo Stream and turn it off.
6 Clear your browser history
Browser history likely isn’t a main culprit of Iphone space, but you may be surprised how much it takes up. To clear your browser, go back up to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data.
I hope this helps you free up space on your Iphone!
My you never be in a situation without enough space to snap a selfie again!
Thanks so much fo the great tips.
These are some great suggestions for clearing up space on your phone. Sometimes, I do this while traveling or stuck waiting. Deleting old emails and texts can clear up a lot of room!
Thanks for so many good ideas.
I found your site on Raising Homemakers today, and I signed up to follow you by email.
Hope you have a blessed day today~
Melanie
Also clearing out your notes app and any old apps you no longer use. The nice thing about the new settings is it shows what you’re major space hogs are.
liz @ sundays with sophie
This is a constant struggle for me. Thanks for sharing!
I hate when phone is full and I am trying to take a picture. I do try to clean it off occasionally but didn’t think about the picture syncing and messages.
What an amazing group of tips! Thank you so much for sharing–I had to do basically all of them and its nice to know they were all free to do.
I cannot tell you how much this helps – I’ve just sent it on to my sister, as well.
True story – I once tried to screen shot (and take a picture, mind you) of that exact error message… Sometimes my brain doesn’t work so well, so reading tips to free up space on an iPhone is right up my alley!
These are truly brilliant!
Thanks for them! #sharewithme
Thank you! The first thing you suggested I did… cleared up apps I’m not using. Our phones are so handy, but, we really have to stay on top of how we used them, because, I for one can just fill mine up with all kinds of “stuff”.
I just did a bunch of these things! My phone is always full, thanks for the tips!
Great tips. We can always use free up space tips on our phones. Busy lives we all have.
Thank you! I hadn’t heard of some of these tips and am one of those whose phone is ALWAYS full!
What a GREAT post – I had no idea about two of your ideas, this was SUPER helpful!!! Tweeted for sure!
Super, super advice! I’m off to do some deleting!
Great post! I used to always have that problem but not yet with my new phone. I will start trying some of these now to hopefully never have to deal with that dreaded message! #PoCoLo
I have had this message quite a few times in the last year or so. I have removed apps but it is great to see some other ways of handling it too! Thank you so much for this. And thank you for linking to #PoCoLo again x
I hate getting that “no room” message! Thanks for the tips. I had no idea that you could change the settings on text messages. I’ve already adjusted my settings! Visiting from #busydoinglife
Great tips! #busydoinglife
Great tips! I had no idea you could turn off the duplicate photo saves for HDR. I always have that ‘storage full’ message panic, hopefully this will help! #busydoinglife
I get this all the time and it drives me crazy!! Thank you for these as I will be doing some of them to help 🙂 #busydoinglife
I did all of this and I still didn’t have space. I basically deleted all photos, videos and apps but found that the ios software now takes up so much space there is barely any room for anything else. So I got a Samsung haha! They come as standard with a 32gb memory. I love it 🙂 left apple behind after many dedicated years! #TheList
You. Are. AH-mazing! I have gotten rid of apps, photos that I don’t need, apps that I don’t use, and I still get that stinkin pop-up! I had no idea that the browser history could be a problem, or the texts messages. The photo streaming makes sense, although I never did put two and two together! HA! HA! I pretty much fixed every setting on my phone as I was reading your post! Thank you so much for this! oxoxox!! Jennifer
I am such a bad iPhone user! I have about 750+ photos still on my phone. I have many, many text messages that I am sure I don’t need anymore and I am always forgetting to clear my history! Thanks for the reminders! I have to go and delete things now! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your post on the #SimplySundays link up party! I look forward to reading more of your posts!
Gosh, this happens to me at least once a week, always when my baby is being cute and I want to capture the moment!! My main problem is I have tooooo many photos stored on my phone, I cull them pretty frequently and have them all backed up but I just can’t bring myself to delete all my favourite family shots. I could definitely do better at keeping on top of deleting text messages and emails, a project for another day (soon!) perhaps. #TheList
I get this message weekly and it drives me crazy. I will take your tips and try them. Thank you ever so much for linking up to Share With Me. I hope to see you again tomorrow for another great round up and hope you have been enjoying the blog hop. #sharewithme
Ooh I hate that message! Thanks so much for the tips – I now regularly delete apps off my phone if I don’t use them daily – the rest sit in the cloud anyway, so if I need an app I can just download. Thanks for linking this post to #AllAboutYou
I never thought about clearing out old text messages or browser history, I’ve been having to get my hubby to move the pictures off of my phone almost weekly to make space for the next load I’ll want to take!
I have just bought my first iphone so this is super useful! Thanks for sharing on #TheList x
Thank you!
I have been getting that message lately. Ugh. I know I need to delete some photos.
What perfect timing! I got tje message about my storage being full today! I think the podcasts I listen too may be the culprit, so I’m definitely going to try your advice. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing these tips on the #SmallVictoriesSundayLinkup! I’ve become obsessive about keeping my podcasts clean and tidy since I listen to so many!
Lindsay you wrote this for me! Would you believe this message popped up on my phone this morning. I will be sorting out Dropbox today thanks to you. Thanks for sharing with us at #AnythingGoes. I’m pinning this for my future reference.
Great ideas Lindsay! Thanks for sharing.
So many great ideas here! thanks for the tips 🙂
Thanks for sharing at Creative Mondays, pinning 🙂
I don’t have an iPhone, but this is so well written that it’d definitely help those that do.
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
This is perfect! Pinned and tweeted. We appreciate you taking the time to party with us! I hope to see you on Monday at 7 pm, so we get to see your fabulous new creations. The party goes until Friday at 7 pm. Happy Saturday! Lou Lou Girls
So good – I’ve been getting this message a lot lately. Just deleted texts & cleared browser history!
So glad it was helpful! I HATE that message 🙂
This was very helpful & effective! Thank you! Hopefully iCloud won’t send me anymore emails about upgrading for being too close to my storage limits.
Thanks for the tips! Very helpful!!
When you delete photos on the iphone 5 (and maybe others) they go in to a folder under albums called “recently deleted”. THIS is my space hog! I did not know about this folder because it is under albums and you have to scroll down. Select and delete all!
Clearing text messages helps for sure. Recent calls may or may not also help.
I have also deleted a lesser used app (buzzfeed, yelp, paypal) before an event or trip and then simply reloaded it afterward, to make more space for photos during that period of time.
These are such great tips! Thank you for sharing!!! And thanks for stopping by!
These are such brilliant tips! Thanks for sharing these!