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Low on iPhone Storage Space? Do This Instead of Deleting Your Apps and Photos
You may find it difficult to find the right balance when clearing up storage space on your iPhone, especially when you don’t want to delete photos and apps.
Fortunately, there are practical ways to optimize your iPhone’s storage without deleting anything.
This guide explores five tips for freeing up storage on your iPhone while keeping all your photos and apps, from optimizing your photo storage with iCloud to adjusting video resolutions and image formats.
1. Optimize Photo Storage with iCloud
It’s no secret that photos take up a lot of storage space. Luckily, Apple made it easy to tackle this issue.
Optimizing photo storage can save space on your iPhone. To turn on this feature, go to Settings > Photos and enable the “Optimize iPhone Storage” option.
This feature stores smaller photo files locally, while full-resolution photos and videos are securely kept in iCloud.
2. Adjust Image Formats and Video Resolutions
The latest iPhone models let you take full-resolution photos and record videos in 4K, but that comes at a price: those formats are a storage hog.
Before you know it, your iPhone will run out of storage. Instead, change the image file formats and video resolutions.
Navigate to Settings > Camera > Formats, and choose the High-Efficiency file format for photos.
While in the Camera settings, access the Record Video menu to select a lower video resolution.
Below the video formats is a chart showing how much space you can save based on your iPhone’s video resolution.
3. Remove Downloads from Streaming Apps
Streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify often allow users to download content for offline viewing.
You can delete videos from the Downloads menu within each app or view them all simultaneously in the Settings menu.
To delete downloaded content, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, find the app with downloaded content, and swipe left on the media files under the downloads section to delete them.
4. Offload Unused Apps
Instead of outright deleting apps, consider offloading them to save space.
Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, check which apps take up the most storage, and select “Offload App.”
This removes the app while retaining associated documents and data. However, certain built-in apps, like Photos and Messages, can’t be offloaded.
Alternatively, you can automate this process by going to Settings > App Store and turning on “Offload Unused Apps.”
5. Clear Browser Cache for Additional Space
Clearing your browser cache can free up some storage space. While this might not yield as much space as other methods, it’s a useful step.
For Safari, open Settings, choose Safari, and tap “Clear History and Website Data.” If you use Chrome, tap the three dots at the bottom of the screen, select History, and tap “Clear Browsing Data.”
For more details on clearing the browser’s cache, see our guide on how to clear cookies on iPhone.
Wrap-Up: Get More iPhone Storage Without Deleting Apps and Photos
Maintaining a clutter-free iPhone without deleting anything is possible and quite straightforward.
Whether optimizing photo storage with iCloud, adjusting image formats, removing downloads from streaming apps, offloading unused apps, or clearing browser cache, each step contributes to reclaiming valuable space on your iPhone.
With the above tips, you can easily save tons of storage space and keep your iPhone more organized and efficient.
