[imagesource: Cheon Fong Liew / Flickr]

Those popup messages that read “iPhone Storage Full”, “Not Enough Storage”, “Cannot Take Photo”, “Cannot Record Video”, “iCloud Storage Is Full” etc are the bane of any iPhone user’s existence.

We’ve been so pampered by these tiny handheld devices that help us manage absolutely everything, from our social lives to our finances and even health, that when it utters any variation of “no more” life can suddenly feel a little hard to handle.

The good news is, there are myriad ways to free up space on your iPhone and reconcile your storage so that you can download that video, take that picture, or store that file.

Yes, a lot of it does involve a sort of digital KonMari approach of deleting and unloading, but hey, at least that’s free.

Here are a few quick and easy steps to take right now, thanks to The Verge, if you can see your iPhone storage creep ever closer to 100%.

To check that, you’ll need to go to Settings, General, and then iPhone Storage where you’ll find a helpful breakdown of the files, media, and apps eating up your space.

Something like this:

This will be the base from which you will mostly be working, deleting and manipulating accordingly.

The most obvious thing to do to free up space is to opt for Apple’s iCloud storage, which you can learn more about here.

The first 5GB is free, after which you’ll have to pay around R15 every month for up to 50GB.

Another tip is to check out your Recently Deleted folder in your Photos app if you delete any media, as it gets stored there before you choose to permanently delete it.

Do you see that Review Large Attachments option in the image above? That is also a great place to explore to free up some space:

Here, you’ll see a list of photos and videos you’ve sent or received in messages, which you can delete by placing your thumb on one, swiping to the left, and clicking the red Delete button.

Prioritize getting rid of the first couple at the top, which will likely be videos, as those occupy the most amount of storage. In my experience, I have found that deleting these sometimes gives me just the bit more storage I need if I’m on the go and don’t have a lot of time to think through which apps, photos, or videos I really don’t need anymore.

Next up, getting rid of old text messages by clicking on your Messages app and deleting old conversations you don’t need anymore.

But you can go one step further:

Your iPhone can also automatically delete messages if you’d like. Just head to Settings, scroll down and tap on Messages, and then click on the Keep Messages option under Message History.

There, you’ll be able to choose whether you’d like your phone to keep messages for 30 days, one year, or forever.

Moving on to offloading apps you no longer use.

Apple conveniently shows you the last time you used certain apps, which you can access via Settings > General > iPhone Storage:

If you don’t want to lose data associated with the app, you can offload them instead. By doing that, your documents and data will still be available when you reinstall it. To offload, you just need to head back to Settings, click on General, and once again tap on iPhone Storage. Click on the app and select Offload App.

Time to remove all those stored videos, books, podcasts, and songs stored within your streaming, reading, and other media apps.

Once again, head over to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and then whatever app you choose:

A page will appear that tells you how much space is taken up by both Documents & Data and the App Size itself. That’s information you can use to, say, delete ebooks you’ve finished reading, close tabs in your browser, or remove specific podcast episodes you no longer need, as opposed to getting rid of the entire app itself.

Then, you might want to clear your web browser cache. Although be warned, this will sign you out of the websites you frequently use.

For Safari users, head over to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data to clear your cache.

Altogether, those tips above should stave off many of those annoying storage messages for a while.

There’s also the option of upgrading to a newer, more storage-blessed iPhone, which you can do with Digicape’s trade-in option:

South Africa’s largest independent Apple retailer will allow you to trade in your old iPhone and other Apple goodies, making it even more affordable to upgrade.

Storage doesn’t need to be a problem.

[source:verge]