running out of space

[fleeper]

My 16gb iPhone SE is running out of space. I have purchased more icloud space. My phone backs up everynight when charging so how can I clean it up and make sure that all my messages are in cloud, pics, etc? I would like to just erase my phone and put back only what I need/want.

Thanks.

 

[robertk328]

Hi there,

With iCloud backup, you can't really just put back what you want. It's an all or nothing thing. A few things you can do to help:

• Go through Settings > General > Storage and iCloud usage. Clean up some apps/data that look to be taking up space. Music, podcasts, etc. can all take up space. Some apps use up a lot of space too, consider deleting and reinstalling to clean it up some.
• if you take a lot of photos, consider enabling iCloud Photo Library and choose the "Optimize phone storage" feature. This will offload photos from your device and keep them in iCloud. If you want to look at a photo that is in iCloud, it will download. Keep in mind if you delete a photo from your device, it will delete from iCloud as well. Just let iOS do the work. If you want, you can also try using a service like Dropbox to automatically upload photos. Then you can clear them from your device but still access through the Dropbox app. I prefer iCloud Photo Library due to the integration but you may not care.
• If you don't need to keep your iMessages, consider setting them to delete every 30 days. Settings > Messages will bring you to a page with that option.

 

[Ledsteplin]

You can make more space on the phone as well as in iCloud by keeping all photos in your recently deleted album cleared out. Those can add up quickly.
Also keep messages deleted in iMessage. Especially those with photos and videos.

 

[libra89]

Also keep messages deleted in iMessage. Especially those with photos and videos.

Hmm, what do you mean by keep messages deleted? Is there a place where deleted messages go after deleting in messages? If so, I'll like to know.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Hmm, what do you mean by keep messages deleted? Is there a place where deleted messages go after deleting in messages? If so, I'll like to know.

No, when you delete them, they're gone. Unless they're still backed up in iCloud. That's the point. They take up storage space. Especially those with photos and videos. Some like to hang on to old messages. I don't.

 

[libra89]

No, when you delete them, they're gone. Unless they're still backed up in iCloud. That's the point. They take up storage space. Especially those with photos and videos. Some like to hang on to old messages. I don't.

Ooh okay, I see. That's good to know, thank you. I don't use iCloud for anything.

 

[CrowGirl1990]

It's hard these days with a 16GB device. Certain apps can balloon inside overtime like Facebook and Snapchat. Delete those apps every once and awhile and redownload them.
Good luck