To free up space on your iPhone, a good option is to take care of the “Other”section of the storage. You still need to know what falls into this category. Explanation.
New year, new iPhone! But if you’re still using the same device, you might be starting to notice that it’s running a bit slower. However, this does not mean that you need to invest in a completely new model. The solution might be to do a little tidying up of the storage. Or rather, in the “Other”device storage.
The “Other”section of iPhone storage is pretty cryptic, it can act like a bottomless pit. If you’ve ever had the chance to run out of storage on your smartphone and tried to manually free up space, you may already be familiar with other storage. If not, let’s see what it matches before detailing how to reduce it.
The “Other”section is an iPhone dump. You can store items such as system files and Siri voices there. But the main reason why this is a bottomless well is a hiding place; cache groups elements of apps and websites to make them easier to load when you visit. The cache fills up when you surf the web, stream videos or movies, and even when you send text messages with photos or videos. In apps like Google Maps and Chrome, cached data often takes up all of the available storage on the device.
How Much Does Other Storage Cost on Your iPhone? To find out, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. After a little calculation, you will see a graph with the categories and what they represent in terms of storage. The “Other”section is most often displayed in gray in the far right corner of the graph.
The most effective way to get rid of all the clutter from the Other section is to reset your iPhone. A little cruel, of course, but effective. However, there are other alternatives as well.
Download Applications
Not to be confused with deleting an app, uninstalling an app means that the app is removed from your device, but all data is kept in case you decide to reinstall it. Use this trick especially if you have apps like Google Maps that take up a lot of space but don’t store much. To upload an app, go to iPhone Storage in Settings > General, tap on the app you want to upload, and then tap on Upload App.
Hint: The iPhone Storage section has a list of apps with a number next to each name indicating the storage in use. This gives you a quick overview of which apps use the most memory and which don’t. It is convenient for you to decide which applications to download.
Clear Safari cache and close tabs
If you use Safari frequently, your iPhone saves history and data that you may not need. To clear your Safari browser cache, go to Settings > Safari, then Clear Browsing History and Data. And if you’re using Chrome, follow our guide.
Closing all tabs also helps free up memory and keep your device running smoothly. You can control how often Safari tabs are closed in Settings > Safari > Close Tabs. You can also, of course, close tabs manually, or let Safari do this for tabs that haven’t been viewed in a day, a week, or a month.
Stop storing messages forever
By default, your iPhone saves all the text messages you send and receive… forever. This is handy if you need to keep up a two-year conversation, but not very useful if you need space on your phone. To prevent your iPhone from storing your messages indefinitely, go to Settings, then Messages. Scroll down to view your message history and click Save Messages. Always change for 30 days or 1 year. The window asks if you want to delete old messages. Click “Delete”to do so.