The iPhone storage is full message pops up when you try to upgrade to the latest iOS version, take photos or record videos, or download that popular app everyone is talking about.
Despite removing any program you don’t absolutely require, your iPhone is still full. You check the storage capacity of your iPhone by going into Settings > General > iPhone Storage and discover that it is already at capacity. Worse, a sizable portion of it is just labeled as “Other” (renamed System Data in iOS 15). And what exactly does that imply? If you want to get rid of it, how do you go about doing so? If you’re having trouble understanding and working with the Other/System Data storage parts, this guide should assist.
Here’s the lowdown on how to check the space on your iPhone
In order to view how much space your apps and data are taking up on your iPhone’s storage, launch the Settings app, navigate to General, and tap on iPhone Storage. Your iPhone’s storage capacity and the specific file kinds that are taking up space will be displayed in a bar graph at the top of the screen. A breakdown of how much space each app and its associated data take up on your phone can be found below.
Due to the time required to scan and evaluate its storage, your iPhone may take several seconds before displaying the graph. It’s important to wait a few seconds after the chart displays before making any decisions, as the phone’s analysis may cause the app list and storage sizes to fluctuate temporarily.
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Where exactly do you keep your Other/System Data?
In addition to the more typical Applications, Media, Photographs, and Mail sections, the top bar of your iPhone’s Storage menu may also contain an Other/System Data section, which can grow rather substantial. System Data typically takes up between 5 and 20 GB, but if it’s much higher than that, it’s likely out of hand. iOS, which contains the system’s essential files and often takes up roughly 10GB, and System Data, which contains data other than apps and downloads, may be found at the very end of the app list. Choose System Data to view its storage usage.
As a true catch-all, the Other/System Data category contains a wide variety of data types and sizes. Caches, logs, Siri voices (if you’ve downloaded more than one), updates, and a whole lot more are all part of this. Streaming large amounts of media is a major contributor to the explosion of Other/System Data. Media is a category that contains all of your purchased and downloaded media from the iTunes Store, TV app, and Music app. Other/System Data, however, includes stream caches that are utilized to ensure flawless playback.
You may see that Safari’s caches have grown rather enormous. In addition, the caches for sending photos and videos via text can quickly become too large to use if you send many such messages. In theory, your iPhone will handle these caches to prevent internal storage from filling up, but in practice, it doesn’t always deliver.
The best practices for decreasing the size of an iPhone’s Other/System Data
Because Other/System Data cannot be deleted totally, its amount is occasionally manageable.
Let’s start by erasing the history and cookies from Safari. Choose Safari’s Clear History and Website Data option from the Settings menu. You should probably close most of the Safari tabs you have open on your iPhone.
There is a possibility that you will want to modify Messages so that fewer old messages are kept. To view your past messages, go to your device’s settings, then to “Messages.” Keep Messages defaults to Forever, but you may lower that to save space in the Messages app by changing it to 1 Year or even 30 Days. Just be aware that doing so may remove any previous messages, so make sure to save any you don’t want to lose.
When you’re done, head back to iPhone Storage > Apps > List. While the vast majority of programs only save Apps Data, there are a few that will maintain Other/Sys Data caches. For example, if the Podcasts app is eating up several gigabytes of storage, most of that space is probably just cached information. A decrease in the amount of data stored in Other/System Data could result from uninstalling and reinstalling the software.
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Apple’s nuclear option: backing up and resetting your iPhone
Although it is possible to reduce the size of Other/System Data by manually clearing out caches and temporary files, this won’t guarantee the smallest feasible backup and restore. It may take some time to accomplish this. Using a computer, especially a Mac or PC, is the most efficient method.
Any Mac with macOS 10.15 Catalina installed or later
- Get started by linking your iPhone to your Mac with the included USB-C to the Lightning connector.
- When prompted, enter your passcode and then hit “Trust” on your iPhone.
- Choose your iPhone from the list of locations in the Finder’s sidebar on your Mac.
- Choose the “General” menu item.
- Choose “Restore all of my iPhone’s data to this Mac.”
- By selecting “Encrypt local backup,” your backup data will be encrypted and protected with a password. Get up and running by clicking the Back Up button.
- Also, if you enable Wi-Fi syncing, you can connect your iPhone to your computer without plugging in any cables.
- Using a Mac for iPhone backup
The latest version of macOS is 10.14 Mojave, however, users of prior versions of the operating system, as well as Windows PCs, will be able
iTunes may be used to create a backup of your phone on a computer running Windows or macOS 10.14 or earlier. After connecting your iPhone to your Mac or PC, click the little phone icon in the top left to choose your iPhone. Then, select “This Computer” from the Backups menu, and click the “Encrypt local backup” box to secure your backup with a password. Then select the option to back up immediately.
Reboot and fix up
After you’ve completed your backup, you may erase everything on your iPhone by going to Settings > General > Reset and tapping the option to “Erase All Content and Settings.” Your iPhone will be restored to its factory settings. Connect it to your computer again while iTunes is open, and then proceed with the initial setup process when it resumes.
To shrink the size of Other/System Data storage, this is the best and longest method. After a factory reset and restoration, there’s simply no way to reduce it more.
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