My 64GB iPhone was so low on house it barely labored. This is how I saved it

With the launch of the iPhone 16e and Eleventh-gen iPad, Apple has formally phased out all units with 64GB of storage in favor of 128GB because the entry-level choice. That’s nice for brand new patrons, however there are lots of people who nonetheless have 64GB iPhones and iPads which are too new to switch. I do know from expertise: I personal an iPhone 12 mini and a Sixth-gen iPad mini, each in any other case nice units, and it’s turn out to be a headache to handle the newest variations of iOS with such a small quantity of house.

In the event you even have a tool with 64GB of storage and have been fighting fixed low storage alerts, I’m right here to assist. Right here’s how I made my units usable once more with out having to purchase a brand new one.

iOS has a storage administration drawback

The best quantity of storage varies from individual to individual. For individuals who primarily use their telephone for messaging and searching the online, the 64GB entry-level choice was normally sufficient. However during the last a number of years, iOS itself in addition to many apps have required far more house.

For instance, if you happen to solely set up Instagram, WhatsApp, Fb, and YouTube in your telephone, you already find yourself taking over greater than 1GB of storage earlier than any caches or downloads. As for iOS itself, the newest model of the working system takes up greater than 10GB and probably twice that with System Knowledge. Given that you just’ll in all probability wish to obtain greater than 4 apps onto your telephone, filling up 64GB of storage doesn’t take lengthy.

Whereas bigger system and app sizes are inevitable as we get extra superior options, Apple is partly in charge for not optimizing how iOS and iCloud handle storage. In principle, iCloud routinely decides what to obtain to your gadget based mostly on out there house, however what occurs more often than not is that iCloud tries to obtain all of your recordsdata, even whenever you don’t want them. iMessage may turn out to be an issue, because the system retains a big cache of all of your messages and attachments. 

All of that’s to say, when an iPhone or iPad reaches its storage restrict, the gadget turns into just about unusable. Apps crash, the digital camera gained’t launch, it turns into unattainable to put in system updates… the state of affairs will get dangerous.

However issues aren’t hopeless. In the event you’re coping with an iPhone or iPad that has run out of obtainable storage, right here are some things I do to make it usable once more

Take away unused apps

This might sound apparent, however step one is to seek out out what precisely is taking over your iPhone’s storage. To do that, go to Settings > Basic > iPhone Storage. There you’ll see particulars of how a lot house every app is utilizing, in addition to the system.

In case your gadget has reached the state of crashing as a consequence of a scarcity of free storage, you can begin by eradicating some put in apps. Begin by deleting apps you now not use. You possibly can kind the listing by dimension or final used date, which is able to make it simple to see any seldom-used apps which are consuming into your space for storing.

In the event you can’t deliver your self to half with any of your apps, you can even quickly take away an app out of your gadget with out deleting its information. To do that, faucet on an app within the iPhone Storage settings and select the “Offload App” choice. This may delete the app itself by storing its information, paperwork, and settings. That method, whenever you reinstall the app, every little thing might be restored as if it have been by no means deleted.

Additionally within the iPhone Storage settings, chances are you’ll wish to allow the choice “Offload Unused Apps,” which is able to routinely take away apps that haven’t been used shortly, however with out deleting any information.

Delete outdated iMessage chats

In the event you’re a heavy iMessage person, bear in mind that your conversations can take up lots of house in your iPhone or iPad. Sadly, though iCloud backs up all of your messages within the cloud, it additionally retains them downloaded and eats up storage in your telephone.

Foundry

Till Apple resolves this, we advocate deleting your outdated chats. Go to Settings > Apps > Messages and search for the choice “Hold Messages.” You possibly can set iMessage to routinely delete outdated messages after 30 days or 1 12 months, which is able to repeatedly unencumber your iPhone’s storage. Nonetheless, simply keep in mind that altering this may also delete messages out of your different Apple units.

It’s an all-or-nothing situation, nonetheless, and there’s no simple approach to save particular person conversations or again them as much as an exterior drive, so if you wish to hold any particular conversations, you’ll have to put in somewhat work. There are some third-party apps that might assist, however for probably the most half, you’ll want to save every attachment individually and screenshot conversations.

Change the iCloud Images settings

Images and movies are the largest culprits in the case of consuming up space for storing. Just like iMessage, iCloud Images additionally backs up your photographs with out eradicating them out of your units, and that may be an issue whenever you’ve solely obtained 64GB of storage.

There are a few issues you are able to do. Clearly, the primary is to undergo and delete outdated movies, screenshots, or duplicate photographs out of your digital camera roll. The Images app has a tab below Utilities the place you may simply discover any duplicate photographs and movies in your library—chances are you’ll be shocked by what number of you will have.

Foundry

You can too head over Settings > Apps > Images and test that the “Optimize iPhone Storage” choice is on. This may permit your iPhone to take away among the full-resolution photographs out of your gadget and solely obtain them whenever you wish to see them.

However in some circumstances, chances are you’ll want an much more aggressive resolution. On my units, for instance, I’ve greater than 700GB of photographs and movies in iCloud. So, even with optimized iPhone storage, there’s nonetheless lots of information that finally ends up being downloaded to my telephone.

In the event you’re in an identical boat, think about turning off iCloud Images and eradicating all of the photographs and movies saved in your gadget. As a substitute, you may periodically switch the photographs you snap or save to your Mac or an exterior drive.