If you have a 16 GB iPhone, chances are you are already experiencing some space constraints. The constant inability to take a photo or the message on WhatsApp telling you to free up space can be unnerving.

 

The low storage can also cause your iPhone to run slow and make it impossible to save important files. It will affect the functionality of some apps too, like Instastory videos and the likes.

 

In your settings, you can assess which apps or files are taking up the most space and delete them. You can also save space by tweaking the way your phone saves images. Deleting music, WhatsApp chats and text messages can help.

 

You might also want to reduce the rate at which you watch WhatsApp stories and Instastories. They automatically save up in an invisible place on your phone and take up useful space. You can also edit your WhatsApp settings so that it does not automatically download videos shared on the app. This way, you will be saving not just space but data too.

 

However, if your phone is running too low on space, here are some quick ways to recover valuable space.

• First, you will need to find out how much space is left on your iPhone.
• To do this, go to Settings.
• Click on “General” and then “iPhone Storage.” A graph will appear at the top of the screen indicating how much free space is left and what apps are using up the most space.

 

Now, to the real business of deleting unwanted apps and data that are taking up space on your iPhone.

 

A storage graph will show you all the apps taking up the most space according to their hierarchy. You can click on an app on the list to see the app’s details. Here, you can also choose to delete the app and all the data or just temporarily offload the app from the iPhone.

 

“Offload App” removes the app from the phone, but leaves all the data behind. That way, when you reinstall the app, the data will still be there. This will help you not to permanently lose your data and still free up space. An app like Google Maps takes up a lot more space than the data in it.

 

However, when you choose to delete an app, it removes the app and all the data therein. This would be effective for when the data in the app is obviously larger than the app itself. A good example will be Instagram.

 

 

You can optimise your iPhone photos. New generation iPhones, like the iPhone 7 or later, have a “High Efficiency” mode. It gives you the option to take photos that will take up significantly less storage space. To do this, follow the steps below.

• Open the Settings app.
• Click on Camera and then Formats.
• Ensure that the camera capture mode is set to “High Efficiency.” If it’s not, then do it.

 

You can also get your phone to store lower resolution images on the phone and keep the full resolution images on iCloud. This would mean the photos you will share from your phone will have a lower resolution. To do this:

• Open the Settings app.
• Tap General and then iPhone Storage.
• On the right of Optimise Photos, tap Enable.