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Podcasts are another common storage space hog on the iPhone. People tend to download a lot of podcasts, but not delete them. These can actually take up a lot of space. Fortunately, it’s easy to delete podcasts. Tap Settings > General > Usage > Podcasts, then slide your finger from right to left over each item and tap the delete button. Videos can be deleted the same way. Tap Settings > General > Usage > Videos and use the same method to delete unwanted videos.
Music can also take up a lot of space, but it is easy to delete individual songs or the entire collection. If you use the stock Music app, your music is coming from iTunes. You either have this music in iTunes in the Cloud or on your computer. It’s safe to delete your entire music collection and then just add new albums and songs later. Follow the steps in this article to delete Music from your iPhone.
You can also set your iPhone to use a lower bit rate for storing music. If you’re not too concerned about audio quality, this is a good option. To do this, make sure your device is connected to your computer (or you are using iTunes WiFi Sync) and start iTunes. When iTunes has found your device, click on the Devices button on the top right, then click on your device.
You will see a summary screen for your device. Under options, check “Convert higher bit rate songs to” and select a bit rate. Selecting a lower bit rate will decrease audio quality, but will save storage space on your device. You can also choose to scale video down to standard definition. This will save space, but even on an iPhone, the decreased quality is noticeable. If you beam the video to your TV via AirPlay, it will also be in standard definition. I don’t recommend doing this unless you really need the space. Make sure to apply your changes by clicking the Apply or Done buttons.
Delete Messages
Text messages and iMessages can take up a lot of space, especially if they contain images and videos. They also tend to accumulate as people forget to delete them. To delete messages, launch the Messages app. To delete a whole message thread, slide from right to left on the message, then tap the Delete button.
To delete individual messages in a thread, tap on the thread to open it. Then hold your finger on one of the messages and click “More…” from the pop-up menu.
Select the messages or images you would like to delete by tapping on them. You can tap on them again to un-select them. Finally, tap on the trash can icon and then tap Delete Messages.
Some people report that messages re-appear after they are deleted. These messages are deleted, but haven’t been removed from the device. As you use up space on your iPhone, the messages will be permanently deleted. You can sync with iTunes to permanently delete these messages.
It’s easy to free up storage space on your iPhone using the methods featured in this article. Remember to back up anything you delete in case you make a mistake. You can save a lot of money by managing free space on your iPhone. For most people, it is unnecessary to get the highest capacity iPhone. If you are diligent about backing up your device and deleting unused content, you can make do with the base model.