Managing your iPhone storage space is one of the most important things you can do to keep your phone running efficiently and smoothly. Managing space on the iPhone can be tricky since iPhones do not have expandable storage, and buying an iPhone with a lot of space can be expensive. Below are ten tips for managing the space on your iPhone so you can make the most of what you have. To get the most out of these tips, there are a number of free iPhone apps such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Keep Safe to help you save your files to the cloud and manage your iPhone’s space.

10 Ways to Manage Storage Space on Your iPhone

Tip #1: Know How Much Storage You Have

It’s easy to see how much total storage your iPhone has and how much of that storage has been used. Go to “Settings”, then “General”, then tap “Storage and iCloud Usage”. There, you will see how much total storage is on your iPhone, how much storage is still available, and a link to see which apps are using the most storage.

Tip #2: Know Which Apps Are Using the Most Storage

From the “Storage and iCloud Usage” screen, tap “Manage Storage”. This will bring up a list of all of the apps installed on your iPhone in order of how much space they are using. Most likely, the top storage-sucking apps will be ones that download media such as photos, music, and movies to your iPhone. Once you know which apps are using the most storage, you can go into those apps and delete unneeded files.

Tip #3: Delete Unneeded Files from Apps

After you use Tip #2 to find out which apps are using the most storage, you’ll need to open those apps and delete any unneeded files. For example, you can open Photos and delete photos and videos you don’t need (videos and live photos can take up a lot of space). Go into apps with downloaded music and movies (such as Spotify, Amazon Video, Videos, and Music) and delete titles you don’t need anymore. If you purchased titles through these apps, you should be able to download them again in the future if you want to.

Tip #4: Delete Unneeded Apps

From the “Manage Storage” menu, scroll through the list and decide if there are any apps and software you don’t really need. A lot of companies have mobile websites that work just as good as their app, so you may not really need as many apps as you think. To delete an app, go to the home screen and tap and hold any app icon. Once the app icons begin “shaking”, tap the “X” in the upper-left corner of the app icon to delete it.

Tip #5: Use Cloud Storage

Using cloud storage is a great way to reduce the amount of storage used on your phone because the files are stored on the internet (a cloud server) instead of your phone. Your iPhone comes with an iCloud storage account that you can use to back up photos, contacts, and other data. Other apps that are free and give you a place to store files on the cloud are Box and Dropbox. You can also periodically back up files on your iPhone, such as photos, to a cloud storage account and delete them from your phone.

Tip #6: Use Streaming Media Apps

Using streaming apps instead of downloading files to your phone saves storage because the files are never downloaded onto your phone. Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music all stream videos and music, which is a better alternative to purchasing the video or song in iTunes.

Tip #7: Delete Unneeded Photos and Videos in iMessage and SMS Conversations

SMS and iMessages use storage on your iPhone, especially if your friends and family send you media files such as pictures and videos often. Save any photos or videos you want in Photos, then back them up to your cloud storage account. To delete a photo or video from a conversation, tap and hold the picture or video you want to delete, then tap “More”. Check each message you want to delete, then tap the trash can icon in the lower-left corner. You’ll need to delete the file from both photos and the message to completely remove it from your phone’s storage.

Tip #8: Delete Unneeded iMessage and SMS Conversations

In addition to deleting individual messages, you can also delete entire SMS and iMessage conversations. Go to the list of conversations and swipe left on the conversation you want to delete. A red “Delete” button will appear to the right, and all you need to do is press this button to delete a conversation.

Tip #9: Reduce the File Size of Photos

When taking photos, limit the quality of the photos by tapping “HDR”, then “Off”. Also, avoid taking live photos unless you have a reason to by tapping the circular icon (white means live photos are off).

Tip #10: Clear Recently Deleted Photos

Recently deleted photos stay on your iPhone for thirty days, so remove any deleted photos immediately. Go to the Photos app and find the “Recently Deleted” folder and delete the same way you would any other photo.