{"id":48688,"date":"2023-09-12T18:29:06","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T18:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/?p=48688"},"modified":"2025-02-28T12:07:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T12:07:24","slug":"how-to-get-more-storage-on-iphone-with-free-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/howto\/get-more-storage-on-iphone.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Get More Storage on iPhone with Free Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s nothing worse than trying to capture a photo or back up your iPhone and seeing a message that you don’t have enough storage. Unfortunately, something like this can happen at the most inopportune time. Before it happens to you, look at these ways to get more storage on iPhone that won’t cost you a dime.<\/p>\r\n

<\/span>Can You Get More Storage on iPhone Without Buying It?<\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Unlike other devices like digital cameras or portable gaming consoles, you cannot expand the storage space on your iPhone using a memory card.<\/p>\r\n

When you start running low on storage, you should remove items that take up the most space to make room for new items. This usually includes unused apps, message attachments, browser and app cache, and downloaded files you no longer need. You may even move things to a different storage location like photos and videos.<\/p>\r\n

💬 To avoid issues, keeping an eye on your iPhone’s storage space is key. Luckily, you can view your storage to see which items are consuming space.<\/div>\r\n

Head to Settings<\/b>, select General<\/b>, and tap iPhone Storage<\/b>. You can then see a color-coded view of what takes up the storage space on your device.<\/p>\r\n

\"iPhone<\/p>\r\n

<\/span>How to Increase Storage in iPhone for Free<\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Very few things are free nowadays. But when it comes to getting extra storage on your iPhone by making more of what you already have available for use, there are things you can do that don’t cost anything except a little of your time.<\/p>\r\n

<\/span>Method 1:<\/span> Clear Your Browser’s Cache<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n

A great place to start when you need to get more storage space on iPhone is to clear your Safari browser cache. The cache holds onto items like images, fonts, and style sheets from sites you visit. As you can imagine, these items build up over time and take up space.<\/p>\r\n

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  1. To clear your Safari cache, open the Settings<\/b> app, navigate to the Apps<\/b> section, and select Safari<\/b>.<\/li>\r\n\t
  2. Choose Clear History and Website Data<\/b>.<\/li>\r\n\t
  3. Select All history<\/b> as the Clear timeframe<\/b> and confirm by tapping Clear History and Data<\/b>.\"Clear<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    You’ll then see that the Clear History and Website Data<\/b> option is grayed out. It’ll remain this way until you begin browsing in Safari again.<\/p>\r\n

    💡 Pro Tip<\/b>: When you clear your browser cache, you’ll be logged out of most websites. To avoid the hassle of remembering and re-entering all your passwords, you can use Apple’s Keychain feature<\/a>, which securely stores your passwords and can automatically fill them in for you.<\/div>\r\n

    👨‍💻 My personal experience:<\/b> I use my Safari web browser all the time and was able to free up around 700 MB of storage after clearing my history and website data. I did notice that many websites took significantly longer to load for the first time after the clean-up, and a good chunk (around 200 MB) of the freed-up storage space was gone again after just an hour of browsing. Still, it’s useful to be aware of this solution because you might find yourself in a situation where a few hundred extra free MB is all you need to install an app or take a few pictures.<\/p>\r\n

    <\/span>Method 2:<\/span> Delete Your Apps Cache<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n

    Similar to your web browser, apps that you install contain a cache. Some culprits are social media apps like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram where you see many photos and videos.<\/p>\r\n

    The process for clearing an app’s cache depends on the app itself. Here, we’ll use Facebook as an example.<\/p>\r\n

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    1. Open Facebook<\/b> and select the Menu<\/b> icon in the lower right corner.<\/li>\r\n\t
    2. Scroll down to expand Settings & Privacy<\/b> and pick Settings<\/b>.<\/li>\r\n\t
    3. In the Preferences section, tap Browser<\/b>.<\/li>\r\n\t
    4. Below Browsing Data, tap Clear<\/b> next to Your browsing data<\/b>.\"Clear<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
      💡 Pro Tip<\/b>: For apps without a built-in cache-clearing option, you can add more storage to your iPhone by uninstalling and reinstalling the apps. Head to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, spot the biggest offenders, and delete them\u2014then grab them again from the App Store. This is the best and only solution for apps with no native cache management because iOS doesn’t allow third-party cleaners to touch other cache files belonging to other apps.<\/div>\r\n

      👨‍💻 My personal experience:<\/b> While my cache cleaning effort started with the Facebook app (I was able to free up around 500 MB of storage space), it certainly didn’t end there. I methodically continued with other frequently used apps one by one. After a few cache cleanings, I struck gold. My Spotify cache was almost 10 GB large! Best of all, I noticed very little difference in streaming performance. Maybe a few songs took a little longer to start playing, but that was it. The cache was probably full of old music that I no longer listen to.<\/p>\r\n

      <\/span>Method 3:<\/span> Organize Your Photos & Videos<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\r\n

      Photos and videos are often the biggest storage consumers on your iPhone, sometimes taking up 60-70% of your device’s capacity. While iOS provides some built-in tools for managing your photo library, native features only scratch the surface of what’s possible when it comes to freeing up more storage on iPhone, which is why we also include an extremely effective third-party cleaner app.<\/p>\r\n

      Merge Duplicates<\/h4>\r\n

      With iOS 16, Apple introduced the Merge Duplicates feature. This allows you to combine copies of photos or videos that are exactly or close to the same. For instance, instead of five photos of the same subject, you’ll have just one.<\/p>\r\n

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      1. Open the Photos<\/b> app and select Albums<\/b>.<\/li>\r\n\t
      2. Scroll down below Utilities and tap Duplicates<\/b>. You’ll see all duplicates next to each other along with their sizes and dates.<\/li>\r\n\t
      3. To merge one set of duplicates, tap Merge<\/b> on the right. \"Merge<\/li>\r\n\t
      4. For all duplicates, tap Select<\/b> on the top right, Select All<\/b> on the top left, and then Merge (X)<\/b> at the bottom.\"Merge<\/li>\r\n\t
      5. When the prompt appears, choose Merge X Copies<\/b> or Merge X Exact Copies<\/b> to confirm.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
        💡 Pro Tip<\/b>: If you accidentally merge the wrong photo or video, don’t panic. Merged duplicates are moved to the Recently Deleted folder, and they sit there for 30 days, so you can easily recover your deleted videos<\/a> or photos.<\/div>\r\n

        Use Third-party Free Cleaner App<\/h4>\r\n

        While Apple’s duplicate-merging tool is a decent start, it’s not always enough if you’re serious about how to get more storage on your iPhone without buying it. Fortunately, there’s Clever Cleaner<\/a>, a completely free cleaner app that goes well beyond the identification of exact and partial duplicates (but it does excel at it too) by providing the following storage space-maximizing features:<\/p>\r\n