iPhone storage full? Here’s what you can do instead of deleting photos

It always helps to have your favourite memories stored a click away for when you need to revisit them. Luckily for us, the iPhone does a fairly good job of collating and segregating them into easy-to-access albums. But, let’s face it, no one really likes to be annoyed with a storage full notification, more so because it bugs us more often than required.

However, keeping your device storage optimised is crucial for various reasons. From being able to install important OS updates to having enough space for all your media, you need space for just about anything. While the obvious thing to do at the time would be to delete your old photos or videos, what if we tell you that you may not have to resort to that anymore? Read on.

So, your iPhone's storage is full; what's next?

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already tried deleting media over numerous instances and are still dealing with full storage. But there are two other ways you can try to free up a significant amount of storage on your iPhone.

Optimise your storage: No one wants to delete their favourite photos. Whether they’re memes, photographs or screenshots, the easier way to have storage on your device is to optimise the media that is already present on it.  

When you click a photo, or when someone sends you one, it is saved in full resolution on your iPhone by default. And if that’s not all, recording videos in high or full resolution often takes up more space than you think. But iOS gives you an option to optimise your photos and videos. This step basically moves the full-resolution media into your iCloud storage and keeps the lower versions on your iPhone.

If you ever need to access a higher-resolution variant, you can click on any file that is being optimised and download it back to your phone. However, it is crucial to note that you require a stable internet connection to ensure this happens seamlessly. Apart from this, you also need an active and adequate iCloud plan to ensure all your media is in one place. 

ALSO READ: Understanding what cloud storage means

Offload your apps: We often tend to download apps in the spur of the moment but end up not using them as often as we’d think. Which is why it is always a good idea to offload your apps every now and then. Navigate to Settings and tap on General and iPhone Storage. Within this list, you will be able to tell which apps take up the most space on your device. Once you find a sizable app, tap on it and select Offload. 

After you give it some time to offload, the app will be removed from your device but will still allow you to access all your important data. You can offload as many apps as you want, but once you do, you will not be able to access them. To use them again, you may have to visit your app library on the App Store and re-download it.

While these solutions are both long and short-term, they should essentially do the trick. It is always a good idea to revisit the media on your phone and practice hygiene by deleting what is no longer useful.