If you are running out of space on your iPhone or iPad then be sure to stay tuned because
today I'm going to teach you seven handy tricks to help you reclaim a lot of that space.
I'm also going to teach you how to change a few different settings on your iOS devices
to help prevent this from being an issue in the future.
That's coming up next on Tech Talk America.
Hey folks, and welcome to the class.
We have a lot to go over today, but before we begin, I'd like to recommend that you start
by writing down how much free space you currently have on your iPhone or iPad.
That way.
When you're done watching this video, you can look back, see how much space you got
back, and hopefully let me know what that number is.
Down below in the comments section.
Now, if you don't know how to locate that number, let me show you real quick on your
iPhone or iPad.
Just go ahead and open up settings, then navigate to general tap on about, and I want you to
look at this number right here.
So write that number down and let's begin the class.
As I mentioned in my intro, there are two parts to this equation.
We are looking for large files that can be easily deleted.
But the other part is going to involve changing a few settings on your iOS devices so that
it automatically offloads data to iCloud in order to free up space on your local device.
Now, for some of you out there, you may discover that you need to purchase a little bit more
iCloud storage, but before we go down that road, Let's start by cleaning up iCloud.
If you're following along at home, I invite you to open up settings and tap on where it
says your name at the very top.
Then we're going to tap on iCloud and on this next page, we're going to tap on where it
says managed storage.
On this next screen, you'll probably see backups as one of the items towards the top of the
list.
Now, just in case you don't see it there sit tight.
That's a different issue.
We'll get to you in just a moment here.
You can see all of the different devices that iCloud is currently backing up.
Now, one of the things that a lot of people forget about is when you purchase a new iOS
device, whether that's a new iPhone or a new iPad, iCloud doesn't know to stop backing
up.
The old device and it also doesn't know to get rid of those old backup files.
So as a result, a lot of people end up purchasing way more iCloud storage than they actually
need, because they don't realize how much space is being taken up by backups of old
devices.
And what you see here on my screen is actually a perfect example of that.
So I recently purchased the new iPhone 12 as well as a new iPad.
And if you look at that screen, you'll see that I have 45 gigabytes of iCloud storage
that is currently being taken up by my old iPhone and another 44 being taken up by my
old iPad.
So if you see older devices that you have since replaced in this list, just go ahead
and tap on them and then select, delete backup.
Now for those of you out there who did not see backups appear on the previous screen,
that is most likely an indication that you are likely backing up those devices to your
computer.
Now, I don't want to go into a long-winded explanation, but in general, I do not recommend
backing up through this method.
The beauty of iCloud is that everything happens automatically.
Whereas backing up to your computer requires you to remember, to constantly plug it in.
So on the main iCloud screen, I highly recommend that you make sure that iCloud backup is turned
on.
Just remember the next time you get a new device and you've restored your data to then
go back and delete the old backup for the old device.
It's very confusing.
If only when it restored your data, it gave you an option to say, Hey, do you want to
delete that old 44-gigabyte file?
It's taken up all that space on your iCloud storage.
It doesn't do that.
So now that we've reclaimed all of that iCloud storage, I'd now like to show you two settings
that you might want to consider changing.
Let's start by going back into settings and tap on where it says your name at the top.
Next, we'll tap on iCloud.
And finally, let's tap on photos.
The settings that you see here are what I recommend in general for pretty much everyone
which includes using iCloud to store your photo library.
And I also recommend that you optimize iPhone storage.
The next trick will help make it so that photos and videos you capture in the future, take
up less space from the main setting screen.
We're going to scroll down quite a ways until we get to camera settings.
Let's now start by tapping on record video.
Now it should be noted that the settings that you see here on my screen may look a little
bit different depending on which generation device you're using.
Now, in my case, on the iPhone 12, you'll see that I currently have it set to record
video at 4k resolution and at 30 frames per second, which takes up approximately 350 megabytes
of space for every one minute of video.
But if I scroll down, you'll see that I have this option right here to record HDR video
at high efficiency.
And when I flip that switch on, now the same amount of footage takes up roughly half as
much space.
So that can definitely help you moving forward.
If we go back a screen and tap on formats, you'll find a similar setting for photos.
The next item that we're going to tackle are bloated apps, which means that this next segment
is the digital, the equivalent of a stool.
Softener.
God, I love metaphors don't you.
To find out if you have any bloated apps, just go back into settings, then go to general
and tap on iPhone storage.
Your iPhone will now calculate the size of each app and the largest ones will appear
at the top of the list.
So if we look at my phone, you'll see that there's a couple of different things going
on now.
I love podcasts, but 29 gigabytes of podcasts that looks a little suspicious.
Let's investigate.
Sure enough.
It looks like months ago.
I subscribed to Oprah's super soul podcast.
And then never listened to it.
Sorry, Oprah.
All we have to do is tap, edit, and then tap on the minus symbol next to owes podcast,
by the way.
True story.
I stepped on Oprah's foot at the Academy Awards in 2004.
In my experience from working with clients over the years, the top two items that take
up the most space are typically messages and photos.
So the majority of the tricks that I'm going to teach you from here on out are all going
to focus on those two topics.
Let's now go back and look at a couple of other things in that list.
As you can see here on my iPhone, the Messages app is currently taking up 47 gigabytes of
data.
That's a lot of text messages.
What are you texting?
David?
Shut up.
Don't look into that further stop.
Don't there's nothing suspicious.
Don't be suspicious.
by making one simple change, I was able to reduce that number from 47 gigabytes to 14.
All you need to do is allow iCloud to store the bulk of that message's data.
Now, to do this once again from settings, tap on where it says your name at the top,
then tap on iCloud and turn on messages in iCloud.
Now, please note, if you currently have iCloud for messages turned off.
And then go to turn it on.
It can take several hours for that data to upload to the cloud and keep in mind that
it's only going to do it when your device is both powered and also connected to wifi.
So if you do decide to use this setting, which I recommend you might want to consider doing
it overnight, I actually have a second trick for those of you with a lot of messages, data
from settings, let's go back to general and tap on iPhone storage.
From here, we'll tap on messages, and then we're going to tap on review large attachments.
If you look at my phone, you'll see that we have three duplicate videos that are all taking
up almost 900 megabytes apiece.
And what's really nice about this screen is you'll see immediately, which of the files
are taking up the most space.
So if you don't need them, you can simply tap on them to select them and then hit, delete.
Duplicate photos is a very common issue.
And while you can not resolve this from the iPhone or iPad, there is an app for the Mac
that I highly recommend the name of that app.
It's called power photos.
I have a full tutorial on how to use it.
And also I have a discount link.
Should you decide to purchase that app?
You'll find links to everything down below in the video description.
The final few items on my list are all located in the photos app.
So let's go ahead and launch that.
And then we're going to tap on where it says albums here at the very bottom.
Let's now scroll to the very bottom of this list, and there's a few different areas that
you might want to consider investigating the first.
And probably the most important are videos.
Videos tend to take up the most space.
So you might want to consider browsing through here and delete anything that you don't need.
Now, the other areas that you also might want to consider checking out are bursts, screenshots,
and screen recordings.
Finally, when you're done cleaning up your photos, I'd like to remind you that the photos
trash does not clear out for 30 to 45 days, unless you tell it to do it sooner than that.
So just tap on recently deleted.
And then if you tap on select at the very top, right, you'll see the option to delete
all at the bottom left.
So how much space did you end up getting back on your device?
Take a quick moment and let me know in the comments section what that number is.
Thank you so much for watching everyone.
If you enjoyed this video, make sure you take a quick moment to hit that thumbs up light
button.
If you'd like to support my YouTube channel, you can either through Venmo app tech talk
America or through PayPal, and there's a link to that down below in the video description.
Thank you for watching everyone.
This is David de Cox with tech talk America class dismissed.