It’s a fact: your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch will only hold so much. Here’s how to manage it.
Removing apps, videos & music
It’s easy to remove items from your device to make room for more.
- To remove an app, press and hold your finger on an app icon until it wiggles. Tap the x, then confirm that you want to delete it and all its data. Some apps come with the device and cannot be deleted.
- To remove a video, open the Videos app. Choose Movies, TV Shows or Music Videos. Tap Edit at the top of the screen, then tap the small x above the video you want to remove. Videos with a cloud icon are not actually stored on the device – they stream from iTunes.
- To remove music, open the Music app. Tap My Music, then tap Artists, Albums, Songs, or Genres at the top. To see just the music stored on the device, turn on Only Downloaded Music here. Now search for an artist, album or song. Tap the … to the right of the music, choose Delete, then Remove Download. Remember to change back to turn Only Downloaded Music off when you’re done. If you sync your music with iTunes on your computer, connect your device and manage it there.
- To remove photos, import them to a computer. Then choose the option to delete them from the device.
If you’re running low on space, try removing videos first. Every minute of video takes as much space as 20 songs or 45 photos.
Checking total storage & removing items
To see exactly how much everything takes on your device, check Usage.
- Tap Settings, then General.
- Tap Storage & iCloud Usage, then under Storage tap Manage Storage. Wait a moment while your current storage is totaled.
- See the available space and total used at the top. Apps are shown below, with the largest size first (including the app and all its data).
- Tap an app. You can delete an app and/or its data here. Some apps come with the device and cannot be deleted but it’s possible to remove their data. Tap Edit at the top of the screen, tap the – button next to items, then tap Done.
Learn about iCloud storage here.
How much storage do you need?
A basic iPhone or iPad has 16 GB of storage. When you're choosing your next iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, consider 32 or 64 GB. That might add $100 to the cost but it’s well worth it. You’ll need it for the built-in HD camera and to watch movies stored on the device. 32 GB should be enough for about 100 apps plus 200 docs, 1,000 photos, 1,000 songs, 2 movies and 1 hour of video shot with the built-in HD camera.
Using iCloud & Apple Music
We highly using Apple’s cloud services to greatly expand the capabilities of your device. Enable iCloud Photo Library in iCloud Settings and your photos & videos are backed up to iCloud, and synced with all your other Apple products. Storage is managed automatically on each device, so you can shoot and view thousands of photos. And with Apple Music and iTunes Match, you can stream tens of millions of songs without taking any space at all. Learn more.
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