This post has been updated since it originally published on April 25, 2023.
There are few things more annoying than a pop-up on your phone to let you know you’re running out of storage. Suddenly, you’re unable to snap another photo, shoot another video, or download that app that looks really good. Until you find some way of gaining storage space back, you can kiss most of your phone’s best functions away. But it doesn’t have to be that way. One easy thing you can do to gain storage is to delete a few apps (and rely on a few more) that can help get your phone up to speed. Apple experts say you should delete these seven apps on your iPhone to save so much storage.
Delete music that isn’t being listened to
Spotify and Apple Music are both relatively small apps, but they can quickly grow in size when music is downloaded for offline listening, says Shane Liuw, SEO Expert at First Page Digital. “You should determine whether any songs are truly necessary to download, as they can always be streamed via Wi-Fi or cellular connection,” Liuw says. “You may wish to save videos for offline viewing on a plane. They consume a significant amount of space, and you should develop the habit of deleting them. That is one recommendation made by your iPhone, but you may have downloaded them elsewhere, in apps such as Netflix.”
Know which pre-installed apps take up space
Often times you download apps that take up a lot of storage space — but some of the pre-installed apps that Apple has already placed on your phone are also responsible for taking up space.
“Preinstalled apps can take up a significant amount of storage, and it’s worth considering which ones you can delete to make more room,” says Ivan Novak, the head of IT at Energy Casino. “Some preinstalled iPhone apps that commonly take up a lot of storage space include Photos, Music, Podcasts, Messages, and Mail. The reason these apps take up so much space is that they store a lot of data. For example, Photos stores all your photos and videos, which can quickly add up in size. Similarly, Music and Podcasts can take up a lot of storage space if you download songs or episodes for offline listening. Messages and Mail store all your text messages and email, respectively, including any attachments like photos or videos.”
Deleting preinstalled apps can be a great way to free up storage space on your iPhone, Novak says — however, it’s worth noting that not all preinstalled apps can be deleted. “For example, you can delete the Photos and Music apps, but you can’t delete the Messages or Mail apps,” Novak says. “I remember one funny real-life scenario where a user was convinced that they needed to keep every single message they’d ever received, which was causing their Messages app to take up a massive amount of storage space. I had to explain to them that it’s okay to delete old messages, and that doing so would free up a lot of storage space on their iPhone.”
In short: delete the apps that you can get rid of and you’ll save a great deal of space.
Allow your iPhone to manage your storage space for you
Did you know your phone has a setting that can actually save space for you? “I’d assert that your iPhone is intelligent enough to manage software for you and can automatically delete infrequently used apps to free up space,” says Sumit Bansal, founder and CEO of TrumpExcel. “Although I usually disable this option because I want to know when an app is deleted first, this is a clever way for your iPhone to manage its own storage. Additionally, your iPhone will make recommendations on how to save space. My computer indicates that I can save 91.38GB by deleting all videos downloaded from iTunes, for example, though I prefer to keep those locally.”
Social Media Apps
Is it necessary to delete every single social media app and live in relative online seclusion? No, not unless you want to do that. But if you are struggling with storage issues, consider deleting Facebook because the app eats up storage space. You can always access Facebook via your browser and your phone will benefit from the extra storage.
Old Gaming Apps
Before we suggest deleting even more social media apps (because, honestly, Instagram and TikTok are taking up an undeniable amount of space), let’s turn our attention toward a less painful space-saving solution. If you have old games sitting on your phone that you never open — Angry Birds, anyone? — just do yourself and your phone a favor and delete them. You probably won’t miss them one bit and they’re taking up an unnecessary amount of storage without giving anything back in return.
YouTube
Another app that’s worth switching to your browser to view: YouTube. The YouTube app uses a large amount of data as it consistently (and often accurately) learns your viewing habits and adjusts to meet them.
Google Maps
When you use Google Maps, it collects data such as your location and transportation mode, for the obvious reason that this information makes it an overall more effective app for navigational purposes. But all of that data collecting comes with a price: less storage space. There’s no good reason to use both Apple Maps and Google Maps, so if you find that you have more than one nav app downloaded, consider deleting and keeping just one.
Consider relying on helpful apps to increase storage space
Sometimes it isn't just about the apps that you choose not to use — some apps can actually help you save storage space.
“There are a few apps that could be deleted from a smartphone to make it run faster and more efficiently,” says Vlad Mishkin, CEO of Web Scraping. “First, there is an app called "App Cache Cleaner" that can clear out old or unused apps from the cache on the phone. This can free up storage and speed up the phone. Another app that could be deleted is "App Locker". This app prevents certain unwanted apps from being opened, which can also speed up the phone.”
Try these Apple expert tips the next time you experience an iPhone storage shortage.
