How To Free Up Backup Space On Iphone

If you keep your smartphone long enough, you're bound to run into the issue of how to free up storage space. The good news is that there are some ways you can clear up space on your device quickly.

In this article, I'm going to show how to clear up storage on your iPhone.

I've had at least four generations of the iPhone, so I've had to free up storage space many times.

How To Free Up Storage Space on Your iPhone

You may be wondering why your iPhone keeps running out of storage space in the first place. The short answer is that you might have too many videos, photos, apps and other files stored on your device.

How Do You Find Out What's Using Up Space on Your iPhone?

The first thing you need to do is to find out exactly what's taking up most of your storage.

To find out, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and you should see a bar graph that shows how much space you have:

iPhone setting that shows apps, messages, photos, media and other

From the screenshot above, you can see that apps take up the majority of the space on my iPhone, followed by messages and photos. Now it's time to free up some space.

Here Are 7 Steps To Free Up Storage Space on Your iPhone

Here are some recommendations Apple's iPhone Storage screen shows you to free up storage space.

1. Auto Delete Old iMessages

If you go to Settings > Messages > Message History, you can select how long you wish to keep old conversations on your iPhone. You have three options to choose from:

30 Days
1 Year
Forever

Selecting this option to auto-delete your iMessages is a great way to save storage space on your device without having to pay attention to it.

2. Remove Large Attachments

save space by reviewing large attachments on iPhone

It will also show you how to see large files so you can decide whether to delete them.

3. Uninstall Unused Apps

Many of us have apps that we rarely use. They're just taking up the space we need for other things.

If you scroll down the iPhone Storage screen, you can see the apps you've installed along with the last time you opened them.

Just find the "Last Used" line under the app's name to help you decide whether you should keep it or delete it to save space.

iPhone setting that shows how to uninstall unused apps

If you click on the app, the iPhone also gives you the option to "Offload" the app, which will delete it from your device but restore all of your documents and data if you choose to re-install it.

4. Back Up Your Files With a Cloud Storage Service

To save space, you may also decide to store your files in a cloud account rather than on your iPhone. If you choose this option, the obvious choice for an iPhone user is iCloud, which comes with 5GB of free storage space. Here are some other popular cloud storage services you can get for free:

Dropbox: Basic account comes with 2GB of free space.
Google Drive: Free account comes with 15GB of free space, shared with your other Google accounts.
OneDrive: Basic plan comes with 5GB of free storage.

5. Back Up Your iPhone Files to Your Computer

You can also choose to back up your iPhone to a desktop computer or tablet. You can do this by connecting your iPhone to your computer with a cord or by syncing it with an iCloud account installed on your desktop.

If you choose to store your files on your PC, the good news is that your iPhone will no longer be the sole repository for your files and data.

The not-so-good news is that this option may take up quite a bit of space on your computer. Here's how to transfer photos from your iPhone.

6. Manage Photos

Speaking of iCloud, if you go to Settings > Apple ID > ICloud > Photos, you can find several options that will allow you to save space by managing the images on your iPhone. They include the ability to:

Automatically upload photos to iCloud: Once you toggle the iCloud Photos button, you won't have to remember whether your photos are going to the cloud: They all are! This can be a great space-saving measure for your phone.
Remove photos and videos: If you toggle the iCloud Photos button to "Off," it will prompt you to confirm that you want to "Remove from iPhone" all the images and videos that have been on your device.
Turn on Photo Stream: If you turn on the "Upload to My Photo Stream" feature, it will send the last 30 days of new photos to the cloud. This means you can delete them from your device and save space.
Optimize iPhone Storage: If you have this feature checked, it will automatically downsize full-resolution photos and replace them with smaller versions that take up less space.

iPhone setting that shows how to optimize and manage photos

7. Buy More Mobile Data

Aside from options that allow you to manage files on your phone, you may decide that you just want to buy more storage space. Apple currently offers the following paid storage plans:

50GB : $0.99 a month
200GB: $2.99 a month
2TB: $9.99 a month

You can also choose to go with a third-party cloud service listed above. Here are the best free ones.

Final Thoughts

Here are the best ways to free up storage space on your iPhone:

Delete old conversations.
Remove old videos and other large attachments.
Uninstall apps you don't use.
Back up your files to the Cloud.
Transfer files to a computer.
Manage your photos.
Buy more data (if you must).

If you find that your issue is more about data than storage, check out some steps to conserve your mobile data on an iPhone or Android device.

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