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Clearing Space on Your Phone

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Nearly all cell phone users have experienced the dreaded message telling them that they don’t have enough storage. Most user’s go-to is to delete old photos that they no longer want. However, there are a few other things that you can do to free up space.  

First, you want to identify what things on your phone are taking up the most space. On iPhone, you can see which apps are taking up the most space. Go to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage. You will see a list of apps and the amount of storage they’re using. You can also plug your phone into your computer and open iTunes, then check the bottom bar to see what category of data is taking up the most space. “Other” means settings, calendar events, notes, browser history, email and attachments, and more miscellaneous data.  

While Android does not have a specific option to do this, it does have a way to clear large amounts of unneeded data easily. Cached data from your apps is not necessary, and essentially only takes up space. Go to Settings > Storage > Cached data, then tap OK in the confirmation window. 

Now, move on to delete unnecessary data like: 

  • Old, unneeded photos 
  • Old text messages 
  • Call history and voicemail 
  • Unused or outdated contacts 
  • Unused apps  
  • Completed reminders 
  • Books, movies, or videos 
  • Music that you no longer listen too 
  • Delete and reinstall email account to get rid of stored attachments 

In the future, storage issues can be counteracted before they even appear. Since photos are usually the worst culprit, you can download an app like Google Photos, sync your photos to your computer, or use iCloud’s online storage with your iPhone. Whichever of these you use, be sure to delete the photos off your phone once the transfer process is complete!

 

Adapted from: http://www.popsugar.com/tech/What-Other-iPhone-Storage-30986511, http://www.pcworld.com/article/3080036/android/6-quick-ways-to-clear-space-on-an-overstuffed-android-device.html, and http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/iphone/how-free-space-on-iphone-3524712/