How to increase your iPhone storage capacity

Whether you've been denied the perfect photo op or couldn't install a new app, finding out your iPhone® storage is full is always inconvenient.

Don't worry. Here at Asurion, our experts help millions of customers solve their device problems every day—from speeding up a slow phone to troubleshooting laptops that won't connect to Wi-Fi. Here are their tips for increasing your iPhone storage capacity.

There's not enough space on my iPhone

If you've ever had this problem, you know what a hassle it can be. When your iPhone runs out of storage, you won't be able to receive messages, install new apps, take photos, sync media files, install iOS® updates, or do anything else that requires space. Your iPhone might also start automatically erasing messages, and your photos and apps might act up.

To see how much storage capacity your phone has, open Settings > General > iPhone Storage. You'll see a list of installed apps and how much storage each one uses.

How to increase iPhone storage capacity

Freeing up storage on your device is easy. There are several ways to do so.

Free up memory on your iPhone

Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to see which apps are taking up the most space on your device. Select the apps you don't use as much and uninstall them.

You can also remove music, podcasts, videos, and other media to free up even more space.

Use iCloud storage

iCloud® Photos stores your photos and videos in the cloud rather than on your phone. So when your phone runs low on space, you can make room for new data. Just make sure iCloud is set up on your phone.

• Go to Settings, tap [your name] > iCloud > Photos, then turn on iCloud Photos.

iCloud keeps your entire message history updated and available on all your devices, even when you set up a new one. And since your attachments are stored in iCloud, you can save storage space on your phone. Here's how to turn on Messages in iCloud:

• Open Settings, tap [your name] > iCloud, then turn on Messages

Use an external device that increases overall iPhone storage capacity

If you still don't have enough storage on your iPhone, try using an external storage device.

Devices that plug into iPhones:

Just like for your computer, you can plug a flash drive into your iPhone to get more storage—but you'll either need a flash drive with a Lightning® connector or a Lightning adapter to connect the device to your phone.

Wireless Storage Devices:

If you don't want to plug anything into your phone, keep a wireless hard drive in your pocket or purse instead.