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4 Useless Apps To Delete From Your iPhone Because They’re Taking Up Lots Of Storage: Voice Memos & More

December 22, 2024 by Lisa Cupido
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All apps can be useful if you use them, appreciate them, and get a lot out of them. But an app becomes useless when it fails to address a need you have and also takes up needless amounts of storage space in the process. An iPhone that lacks space is an iPhone that runs slower and less efficiently. The time to address storage space isn’t when you receive the always-dreaded “storage full” notice on your phone. At this point, you’ll be unable to use your phone the way you normally would. Several of your functions will be limited – for example, you may lack space to take and store photos and videos.

One of the best ways you can free up storage space is by deleting apps you don’t need. These four apps may be considered “useless” by you if you can live without them. Delete them from your phone so that they don’t take up storage space.

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voice-memos

1. Voice Memos

 


If you can’t remember the last time you left yourself a voice memo with some kind of important reminder, the truth is probably that this app isn’t one you consider useful. Voice Memos take up varying amounts of storage space, depending on the length of the memo itself. A memo of about 1-2 minutes can take up as much as 500 KB to 2 MB, while a longer memo of over an hour can take up several hundred MBs. What’s more: we often forget to delete old voice memos, so they just sit on our devices taking up space.

apple-books

2. Apple Books

 


If you never use Apple Books, there’s no reason to keep it on your phone. And if you regularly use this app and wouldn’t dream of deleting it, remember to go into the app every now and then and delete old books. All of those old files are hogging up storage space.

apple-podcasts

3. Podcasts

 


Podcasts is similar to Apple Books: useful only if you use it, and even if you do, it requires maintenance. An unmaintained Podcasts app will accumulate files quickly, plus the app may be downloading episodes of shows you’ve subscribed to at some point, but don’t listen to. Make sure you regularly delete old episodes.

apple-iphone-notes

Notes

 


There are a number of note-taking and time management apps in the Apple Store, and you may already have your favorites. If you can’t remember the last time you opened Notes, you can probably delete it. Notes is one of those apps that takes up storage depending on how it’s used. If you only use it for text, it will take up less space, but using it with media attachments can take up significantly more storage space. You can check how much space Notes (and any of the apps mentioned here) are taking up before making a final decision about whether to delete them by going to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. Scroll down to your list of apps to find out the amount of storage each app is using.

Author:

Lisa Fogarty is a lifestyle writer and reporter based in New York who covers health, wellness, relationships, sex, beauty, and parenting.

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