Top 7 tips to free up space on your iPhone

The new ones iPhones will arrive in Brazil the next day 11 November, leaving aside the 16 GB version (the iPhone finally abandons the 16 GB!). Many people still have this model and know how difficult it is to find free space for a new app. If you are in this group of users, just follow our tips to suffer a little less.

If you haven't used it in a while then you don't need it.

The maxim of any change is always: if you kept some things in boxes for a year, then you don't need them anymore. On the smartphone it is no different. If you've downloaded an app and didn't even remember that it's there, taking up space, it's a sign that you don't need it. Erase without fear.

If you ever need an app again, be aware that most of the data is in the cloud and will come back once the app is reinstalled. To delete any app, just hold the icon until it wobbles and an “x” appears at the top. Tap there.

Delete unused Apple apps

I have been an iPhone user for many years, and in that time I created a folder called “junk”. In it were apps that I never used, but could not delete, such as Game Center, Tips, the video player, News and iBooks.

In iOS 10 Apple started to allow some native apps to be deleted. Uninstallable apps will appear on your screen just like you would uninstall a regular app.

It is worth remembering that these apps do not disappear, but they no longer occupy the space they used to occupy and are “hidden”. Anyway, for a 16GB iPhone, any space savings count.

Reinstall apps that consume too much data

Unlike Android, iOS does not allow you to clear the cache of apps directly. The cache is the memory that some applications use, such as temporary Chrome files, photos temporarily saved on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, temporary music in programs like Spotify and many others. These apps consume more than 500 MB of extra data alone, in addition to the application space itself.

To see how much data each app uses, just go to Settings, then General, and finally iCloud Storage & Usage. There is a list of everything that is installed and how much space it takes up. Just uninstall an app you use too much, like Facebook, and reinstall. It will go back to zero.

Do not take photos in Live Photos mode

This new feature is nice, cute, but uses more space than a traditional photo. Instead of a single image, iOS saves a short three-second video and it takes up the natural space of a video, which is much larger than a photo.

To not use this feature, just open the camera app and tap on the top where there is a little sun. It indicates whether Live Photos is active or not.

Do not film in 4K

Shooting in 4K was one of the new features of the iPhone 6s, which greatly increases the final resolution and makes everything more detailed. In addition to more details, the file space in the internal memory is much larger than a video in Full HD, which already has spectacular quality.

To give you an idea, a 4K video consumes, on average, 350 MB per minute. A Full HD video at 30 frames per second uses 130 MB per minute. Different, right? Putting it at the tip of a pencil, you can fill a 16GB iPhone with just 40 minutes of video – that's right, 16GB used in less than an hour of video.

To adjust the resolution, just tap on Settings, then on Photos & Camera. There is an option about video resolution. Always keep it at “1080p”, which is Full HD.

Delete books from iBooks you are no longer reading

Reading books on mobile devices is quite cool, as you can carry a huge library on just one device. However, each book takes up space. Always delete books that you are not reading yet, or have finished reading. All books will remain available in your iCloud account and can be downloaded at any time in the future.

Just enter the iBooks app and tap “Edit” to delete some of them.

Back up photos and videos

Photos, along with videos, are among the most populous libraries you have on your device. The golden tip is to use some backup service for them, such as iCloud, Dropbox or Google Photos. The second is, by far, the best for cataloging the images very well, in addition to offering unlimited backup for photos up to 16 megapixels and full HD videos.

Google Photos itself comes with a function that scans the photos that have already been to the cloud and deletes them from the device. All automatically. If you want to see a photo that is in the cloud, just open the app and they will all be there – the ones you backed up on your iPhone and even others that are in your account and you backed up from other devices.