8 Smartphone Storage Hacks You Need to Know

If you’re not lucky to own a brand new iPhone X with a massive 256GB of memory, then you will no doubt have received a notification telling you that you’ve run out of storage at some point. You’ve deleted all your precious photos and removed your music, but you still have no space.

Fortunately, help is at hand, as Andy Cartledge, mobile expert at e2save, shares his top tips to make room for all the apps you can’t live without.

1. Clear out your apps

It’s a simple one, but there is no easier way of freeing up memory on your phone than scrolling through all your apps and binning off the ones you no longer use. Gaming apps in particular take up a lot of space, so if you’ve still got Angry Birds lurking around on your phone, it might be time to get rid. If you go into your phone’s settings and look at your phone storage, you’ll be able to see which apps are hogging the most space. The average app is between 10-100MB, but can be anywhere up to 2GB, so they do add up.

1. Back up your photos

Is there a more frustrating feeling than going to take a selfie and being told you don’t have enough memory? If you have thousands of photos from yesteryear that you rarely look at, back them up and delete them from your device. This can be done by plugging your phone into your laptop and saving them on there, or alternatively storing them online in iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox. Most smartphones are set to take high-res photos unless you change the settings, so clearing out a handful of photo albums can free up space in the GBs.

1. Delete your messages

Over time, your messages build up, so deleting old conversations you’ll never read again is a particularly good way of freeing up a few MB. If you’re on a mission to free up a lot of memory, delete the conversations with a lot of photos in. Clearing out your group chats can be a good way of doing this – just make sure you back up those memes first. This won’t clear up as much space as photos, your text message history will only be a handful of MB, but every little helps.

1. Use a microSD card

Unfortunately this isn’t an option for iPhone users, but many Android handsets come with an option to expand your memory with a microSD card. These cards are readily available online or in any good tech shop, although it’s worth double checking if your handset has a storage limit. Depending on what your handset is compatible with, you can beef up your storage by 16, 32, 128 or a whopping 256MB.

1. Delete app data you no longer require

If you have a long commute, then you might download TV programmes on BBC iPlayer or Netflix to make the journey more bearable. Once you’ve watched these programmes, remember to delete them from the app, otherwise they’ll be hogging up valuable memory space. TV and movies take up loads of space, with a HD Netflix movie usually taking up at least 1GB space.

1. Delete downloaded playlists

Streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify give you the chance to save playlists to your phone so you can listen to them on the go, with or without 4G. Although this is very handy, these tunes use up your memory. If you have some old playlists or albums that you’re never going to listen to again, it might be time to say goodbye. The average Spotify track in standard quality clocks in around 3MB, so with over 300 songs downloaded you’ll be approaching 1GB storage.

1. Download a film

A tip for iPhone users, this little known trick can help you to free up over 500MB of storage. Make a note of how much memory you have, then head to the iTunes store, and try to download a film which exceeds your storage capacity. Dismiss the notification saying you need more memory and then check how much storage you now have available. If successful, it should have freed up a few MBs memory without deleting the things you love! There’s no concrete explanation as to how this works – it’s likely that your iPhone has cleared out some unnecessary cache items or similar – but who are we to argue with a good thing?

1. Update your phone

Updating your phone may seem like an arduous task, however these updates occasionally contain features that can help free up memory, without deleting any of your important files.

To find out more, visit www.e2save.com

If you’re not lucky to own a brand new iPhone X with a massive 256GB of memory, then you will no doubt have received a notification telling you that you’ve run out of storage at some point. You’ve deleted all your precious photos and removed your music, but you still have no space.

Fortunately, help is at hand, as Andy Cartledge, mobile expert at e2save, shares his top tips to make room for all the apps you can’t live without.

1. Clear out your apps

It’s a simple one, but there is no easier way of freeing up memory on your phone than scrolling through all your apps and binning off the ones you no longer use. Gaming apps in particular take up a lot of space, so if you’ve still got Angry Birds lurking around on your phone, it might be time to get rid. If you go into your phone’s settings and look at your phone storage, you’ll be able to see which apps are hogging the most space. The average app is between 10-100MB, but can be anywhere up to 2GB, so they do add up.

1. Back up your photos

Is there a more frustrating feeling than going to take a selfie and being told you don’t have enough memory? If you have thousands of photos from yesteryear that you rarely look at, back them up and delete them from your device. This can be done by plugging your phone into your laptop and saving them on there, or alternatively storing them online in iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox. Most smartphones are set to take high-res photos unless you change the settings, so clearing out a handful of photo albums can free up space in the GBs.

1. Delete your messages

Over time, your messages build up, so deleting old conversations you’ll never read again is a particularly good way of freeing up a few MB. If you’re on a mission to free up a lot of memory, delete the conversations with a lot of photos in. Clearing out your group chats can be a good way of doing this – just make sure you back up those memes first. This won’t clear up as much space as photos, your text message history will only be a handful of MB, but every little helps.

1. Use a microSD card

Unfortunately this isn’t an option for iPhone users, but many Android handsets come with an option to expand your memory with a microSD card. These cards are readily available online or in any good tech shop, although it’s worth double checking if your handset has a storage limit. Depending on what your handset is compatible with, you can beef up your storage by 16, 32, 128 or a whopping 256MB.

1. Delete app data you no longer require

If you have a long commute, then you might download TV programmes on BBC iPlayer or Netflix to make the journey more bearable. Once you’ve watched these programmes, remember to delete them from the app, otherwise they’ll be hogging up valuable memory space. TV and movies take up loads of space, with a HD Netflix movie usually taking up at least 1GB space.

1. Delete downloaded playlists

Streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify give you the chance to save playlists to your phone so you can listen to them on the go, with or without 4G. Although this is very handy, these tunes use up your memory. If you have some old playlists or albums that you’re never going to listen to again, it might be time to say goodbye. The average Spotify track in standard quality clocks in around 3MB, so with over 300 songs downloaded you’ll be approaching 1GB storage.

1. Download a film

A tip for iPhone users, this little known trick can help you to free up over 500MB of storage. Make a note of how much memory you have, then head to the iTunes store, and try to download a film which exceeds your storage capacity. Dismiss the notification saying you need more memory and then check how much storage you now have available. If successful, it should have freed up a few MBs memory without deleting the things you love! There’s no concrete explanation as to how this works – it’s likely that your iPhone has cleared out some unnecessary cache items or similar – but who are we to argue with a good thing?

1. Update your phone

Updating your phone may seem like an arduous task, however these updates occasionally contain features that can help free up memory, without deleting any of your important files.

To find out more, visit www.e2save.com