5 Tips To Free Up Space on iPhone - Without Deleting Anything Important

We’ve all been there - you try and take a photo on iPhone, and you’re suddenly told there’s no space left.

Most of us go into a frenzy of deleting apps, photos and films to free up space - while promising ourselves that we’ll buy a device with more memory next time round.

But there are a few tips which can free up space on even the most cramped iPhone - without throwing anything important away…

Try renting a (very large) film

A lot of iPhone users swear by this rather unusual tip, which surfaced on Reddit earlier this year.

Apple’s software will automatically ‘clean up’ files if you try to rent a film that’s too large for the remaining storage - and if it doesn’t download, you won’t be charged.

We recommend The Lord of the Rings - just select it in iTunes Store, and try to download by pressing the Rent button.

When it says you don’t have sufficient space, tap Settings - and you should (hopefully) have a bit more space available, as Apple will have attempted to clear out useless files that take up space, such as browser histories.

Some users report gaining hundreds of megabytes of free storage from the trick - and you can see it in action, as apps such as Chrome will grey out and say, ‘Cleaning’ just after you’ve done it.

Set messages to auto-delete

Your Messages history can eat up a huge amount of space - especially if you sent photographs via text.

You can obviously delete threads manually, but the best way to police this is to set your messages to auto-delete after 30 days.

To to Settings > Messages, and under ‘Keep Messages’ set them to expire after 30 days.

Find out which apps have guzzled up your data

Many apps will download stuff over and above their actual software - such as songs in Spotify, or videos in iPlayer.

If you’re short on space, target these apps and delete the offending stuff.

Go to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage, then click on the arrows next to apps.

You’ll see another setting called ‘Documents and Data’ - which shows how much data the app has downloaded. Either delete the app entirely, or visit it and clean it up.

Stop uploading photos to iCloud

This might not seem like the most sensible tip, given that iCloud’s Photo Stream lets you store photos online, rather than on your phone - but switching off can save a lot of storage.

If you have Photo Stream turned on, you’ll load up photos from your iPad or other Apple devices - and this can fill your storage quickly.

Switch it off in Settings > Photos & Camera.

You’ll need to back up your photos another way - either by using a free app such as Dropbox, or by attaching your phone to your PC.

Get rid of books and comics

Ebooks can consume a surprising amount of space - and if you’ve read any on your iPhone, odds are they’re still there.

Head to the app, and get rid of any you’re not reading - they’ll be available for download, free, whenever you want them.

Also go to Settings > iTunes & App Store, and ensure you’re not automatically downloading books, music or video files you’ve bought - these can use up huge amounts of space.