iPhone users often encounter the “iPhone Storage Full” notification, which can interrupt capturing photos and videos or downloading new content. However, there are ways to free up storage without buying a new phone or deleting precious memories. iOS features can help manage and optimize storage space.
One way is to optimize stored photos and videos. iPhones save photos and videos in full resolution, which can consume significant storage. A minute of 4K video at 60fps, for example, uses about 400MB. Enabling the “Optimize iPhone Storage” setting in the Photos settings, along with iCloud Photos, transfers full-resolution files to iCloud. Lower-resolution versions are kept on the device. Users can download the high-resolution files from the Photos app when needed, and, usually, recent files will be stored locally. If iCloud storage is insufficient, users can upgrade their plan, with options ranging from 50GB for a dollar a month to 2TB for ten dollars a month.
Another method is to offload unused apps. This removes the app but keeps its documents and data, which is the middle ground between Keeping and Deleting. Upon user’s request, iOS can temporarily delete them to provide more space. To do this, users can go to the iPhone Storage settings, identify large apps, and select “Offload App.” This action frees up space occupied by the app, and the user can go and do this for all large apps. Offloaded apps can be re-downloaded from the App Library or home screen, and the user won’t need to re-sign.
