Okay. Over the past few days, I have run into so many people who encounter the, “Phone Storage Full,” problem, and I have also shared with others these solutions so many times, that I just wanted to make a video to tell the world how they can fix their Phone Storage Full problems.
Not All Storage Is The Same
Sometimes, and especially on the iPhone, “storage” can mean two different things:
- Cloud Storage (i.e. iCloud), and
- Local Phone Storage
Clearing Cloud Storage
If your error message is saying that your “iCloud” (or other cloud) storage is full, then this is not such a big problem. It just means you can no longer sync (upload, backup, etc.) until the problem is fixed. Here is the solution:
- Stop the back up – could be that there is just not enough room in the could
- Delete things from the cloud
Apple only gives you 5GB (at the time of this writing) to save all your stuff (not including the photo stream). This is not really enough for a typical phone user. You can simply stop backing up and delete the old backups. I have gone back to backing up to my computer. I work at a computer for most of the day and charge my phone there. Easily solved. It just backs up safely when I charge.
Next, you can delete.
Simply go into settings, iCloud, and delete backups, documents, and things stored there. Sometimes apps will store data on iCloud, which is really helpful. But when it is not, you can just locate it and delete. Solved. (see video)
Clearing On-Phone Storage
The next kind of storage is on-phone storage. This means the data/memory is being stored on the physical chips inside the phone itself. This is a bigger problem as once you are out of local on-phone memory, you will not be able to download more songs, take more pictures, etc.
Let’s fix it.
Simply go to Settings. General. iPhone Storage.
(and these menu items may change in the future, just look somewhere in settings)
The latest version of iOS will have some tips of how to reclaim your storage. THESE PRINCIPLES WORK THE SAME ON ANDROID, but with different menus, options, etc.
Here are my tips:
- Delete deleted photos – When you delete a photo, it actually sticks around in Trash or the “Recently Deleted” Album for 30 days before it is actually deleted. You can delete it sooner by opening that album, selecting the photos and videos, and deleting them. (see tip below)
- Delete unused apps – You can simply go through your phone and delete apps you no longer use. The latest iOS update also allows you to offload apps without deleting the data, so you can re-download them, and open them, as if you never deleted the app.
- Delete Media Songs, Books, Audiobooks, or Movies – Simply locate these on your device (also can be located from the “iPhone Storage” settings menu) and delete them with impunity. Usually if you bought a song, audiobook, or movie from an electronic media store like iTunes, you should be able to download it again later. Check first if you are not sure.
Managing Your Picts In The Digital Age
Okay. Here is the biggie. You photos are no longer physical on film or paper. They exist in the virtual world as data bits and bites. One wrong turn, and these precious memories could be lost forever. It’s a great idea to print out prized photos, make a photo book, or even just back them up to a random hard drive somewhere (post the hard drive to a loved one living in another city).
But when your phone (the device you rely on day-to-day) is crammed with photos (or falls in the toilet) it is very tempting to just kiss those memories goodbye, so you can get on with life.
Sometimes, it is just too hard to figure out how to get the things off your phone or figure out the best place to put them.
The cloud can help. There are several services out there. I recommend Google Photo or Amazon Prime for those with memberships already. I’ll walk you through using Google Photos to …
- Back up ALL you photos
- Clear Off You Phone
Google Photos
Simply look up Google Photos in your app store and install it to your device. You will need a Google Account, if you don’t already have one. Log in and let it start uploading to the cloud.
The service is free for as many photos or videos you want to back up. It even optimizes the size of your photos and videos, so you don’t take up ridiculous amounts of room on needless pixels. If you choose not to optimize your photos, you merely need to pay for the photos and videos over the allotted storage limit. Very simple. I opted for optimization and unlimited storage.
The benefits are:
- Unlimited storage of all your photos and videos from any device (works from computer, too) – we uploaded almost a Terabyte of photos and videos (it took a week)
- It will automatically eliminate duplicates
- It makes them all searchable (try searching for “beach” or “purple dress”)
- They are always with you and accessible with internet connection – access to any photo you own from the palm of your hand
- Share any photo instantly
- Automatically reduces clutter (picts of receipts and documents) – puts them in separate “Archive” folder. Very handy.
- Creates new content: collages, short videos, animations, and stylized photos
- And most of all it FREES UP YOUR PHONE
Once you have uploaded it all to the cloud, you simply click on the menu and select, “Free up space.” And all the photos are removed from the phone. They are actually put in the “Recently Deleted” album, which you can clear out to reclaim your phone storage, and reclaim your phone.
Storage Basics
It’s helpful to understand a few of the basics about data storage, so you can navigate your electronic world with more confidence.
Size Matters
Just a quick lesson on Digital Storage and file size comparison. These are the average sizes of typical files for the following media:
- Document – .4MB
- Picture – 1-3 MB
- Song – 3-8 MB
- 1 Minute Video – 50-100 MB
- Movie – 4,000-8,000 MB
You can see that videos will take up most of the space on any of your devices. So, when deleting to clear up storage, you should first start with videos and movies.
Memory vs. Storage
Also, the term “memory” usually refers to the running short-term memory (RAM) of a device, which affects its thinking power and speed. This memory is lost when you turn the power off. The term, “storage,” usually refers to the amount of data kept on a device for recall later. They both refer to data or information, they just work differently.
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