My 64 GB iPhone was so low on the space it barely worked. Here's how I saved it

With the launch of the iPhone 16th and the 11th generation iPad, Apple has officially deleted all devices with 64 GB of storage in favor of 128 GB as an entry -level option. It's great for new buyers, but there are many people who still have 64 GB of iphones and iPads that are too new to replace. I know from experience: I have an iPhone 12 Mini and an iPad Mini of 6th generation, the other two devices, and it has become a headache to manage the latest versions of iOS with such a small amount of space.

If you also have a device with 64 GB of storage and you have difficulties with low -constant storage alerts, I am here to help you. Here's how I made my devices usable again without having to buy a new one.

iOS has a storage management problem

The ideal quantity of storage varies from person to person. For people who mainly use their phone for messaging and web browsing, the entry -level option of 64 GB was generally sufficient. But in recent years, iOS itself as well as many applications have required much more space.

For example, if you only install Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook and YouTube on your phone, you already end up taking more than 1 GB of storage before caches or downloads. As for iOS itself, the latest version of the operating system occupies more than 10 GB and possibly twice with the system data. Since you probably want to download more than four applications on your phone, filling 64 GB of storage does not take long.

Foundry

Although the larger system and applications are inevitable because we obtain more advanced features, Apple is partly responsible for not optimizing how iOS and iCloud manage storage. In theory, iCloud automatically decides what to download on your device according to the available space, but what is happening most of the time is that Icloud tries to download all your files, even when you don't need it. Imessage can also become a problem, because the system keeps a large cover of all your messages and attachments.

All this is to say that when an iPhone or an iPad reaches its storage limit, the device becomes practically unusable. The applications crash, the camera will not be launched, it becomes impossible to install system updates … The situation becomes bad.

But things are not desperate. If you are dealing with an iPhone or iPad that has lacked storage available, here are some things I do to make it usable again

Delete unused applications

It may seem obvious, but the first step is to know what exactly takes the storage of your iPhone. To do this, go to Settings> General > iPhone storage. There, you will see details on the quantity of space that each application uses, as well as the system.

If your device has reached the collision state due to a free lack of storage, you can start by deleting certain installed applications. Start by deleting the applications you no longer use. You can sort the list by size or last used date, which will facilitate the vision of the rare applications that eat in your storage space.

If you cannot separate from one of your applications, you can also temporarily delete an application from your device without deleting your data. To do this, press an application in the iPhone storage settings and choose the “Offload App” option. This will delete the application itself by storing its data, documents and settings. In this way, when you reinstall the application, everything will be restored as if it had never been deleted.

Also in the storage settings of the iPhone, you may want to activate the “unload unused applications” option, which will automatically delete applications that have not been used for some time, but without deleting data.

Remove old cats iMessage

If you are a heavy user Imessage, know that your conversations can take a lot of space on your iPhone or iPad. Unfortunately, even if iCloud supports all your messages in the cloud, it also keeps them downloaded and eat storage on your phone.

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Until Apple resolves this, we recommend that you delete your old cats. Access Settings> Applications> Messages and search for the “Keep the messages” option. You can define iMessage to automatically delete old messages after 30 days or 1 year, which will permanently release the storage of your iPhone. However, remember that the change in this will also delete messages from your other Apple devices.

However, it is an all or nothing scenario, and there is no easy way to save individual conversations or support them to an external reader, so if you want to keep specific conversations, you will have to put some work. There are third -party applications that could help, but for the most part, you need to record each attachment individually and capture conversations.

Modify iCloud photo settings

Photos and videos are the biggest culprits when it comes to eating a storage space. Similar to Imessage, iCloud photos also support your photos without removing them from your devices, and this can be a problem when you only have 64 GB of storage.

There are a few things you can do. Obviously, the first is to cover and delete old videos, screenshots or double photos of your camera bread. The Photos Application has a tab under public services where you can easily find double photos and videos in your library – you can be surprised by the number you have.

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You can also go to the settings> Apps > Photos And check that the “optimizing iPhone storage” option is activated. This will allow your iPhone to delete some of the photos in full resolution of your device and download them only when you want to see them.

But in some cases, you may need an even more aggressive solution. On my devices, for example, I have more than 700 GB of photos and videos in iCloud. So, even with the optimized storage of the iPhone, there is still a lot of data that ends up being downloaded from my phone.

If you are in a similar boat, remember to turn off the iCloud photos and remove all the photos and videos stored on your device. Instead, you can periodically transfer the photos you take or save on your Mac or an external player.