Tips for Helping You Survive on an iPhone with Only 16GB Storage

Now we are going to introduce some useful tips to help you maximize your device space and survive on an iPhone with only 16GB storage.

Updated Jun 22,2016 | by Niko

Many People choose to buy 16GB iPhone for saving budget, indeed, a 64GB iPhone is $100 cheaper than its 16GB counterpart. However, majority of people who hold this thought will regret after they finally buy themselves 16GB iPhone devices.

A 16GB iPhone usually comes with 12GB free space, and then it will be filled up with photos, music, videos and apps rapidly. Maybe people just misjudged how much storage they really need, at the very beginning. But after all, it is not necessary to buy a new 64GB iPhone if the current 16GB iPhone still works. In the following article, we will introduce some useful tips to help you maximize device space and survive on an iPhone with only 16GB storage.

Restrict the Size of Photos and Videos

With each new release of iPhone, Apple offers higher-resolution sensors for taking photos and videos with higher quality. It’s bittersweet for you if you are 16GB iPhone users. On the one hand, you must want to take full advantage of iPhone’s camera feature and take great photos and videos. On the other hand, you have to worry about the storage.

Firstly, you need to avoid using the HDR mode when taking photos, because HDR-mode photo produces larger file than normal photo. Besides, if you use iPhone SE, iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus supporting Live Photo, you can disable this feature by taping the three concentric circles at the top of the screen. Actually, Live Photo is a three second video, instead of a photo. So, if your iPhone has only 16GB storage, we suggest you disable Live Photo.

In terms of videos, just try downshifting to 1080p/30fps or 720p if you are used to record 4k or slow-motion video. You will not see much difference, even better, you can save a lot of storage space.

Stream or Transfer Your Music & Movies

Music & movie is another main part that will largely occupy the storage if you download them onto your iPhone. As 16GB iPhone users, you can make full use of streaming service like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Video, HBO and etc. to reduce storage consumption. Keep a very close watch on data usage or try to use Wi-Fi connection as possible as you can if you use those streaming services when you are out and about.

If you have already downloaded many songs and movies onto your iPhone, and you do not want to delete them, then you can consider transferring them to your PC or other devices. An iPhone transfer software may offer you an ultra-fast and simple solution to transfer every song and video. As the result, you not only keep all your music & videos, but also get more storage space released.

Keep the Most Used Apps Only

Go to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage, and you will see what apps are eating up most of the storage space. Among these apps, you will always find one or two apps that have not been used for a long time. One of the best ways is to uninstall those apps and keep the most used apps only.

For the most used apps, you can also see how much storage is associated with Documents & Data. For example, browsers always allow you to clear history and website data. If you cannot clean them up in the app program, so you need to uninstall and reinstall them regularly. Just in case, you can backup all your files and data to cloud or PC before removing the old messages, apps and files.

Consider Restoring Your iPhone

Apart from photos, videos, music tracks, movies and apps, there exists “Other” data that occupy your iPhone storage, actually. If you are still short of storage after trying all above steps, you may consider remove the “Other” data by restoring your iPhone. Follow these steps:

1. Backup your iPhone via iTunes or IOTransfer

2. Go to Settings > iCloud, and disable Find My iPhone

3. Connect you iPhone to iTunes and select your iPhone

4. Click Restore in the Summary Panel

Now, your iPhone is restored as a total new one, and the final step is to restore your previous backup.

Related readings:

Manage iPhone Storage and Avoid Shortage of Space

How to Free Up Storage on iPhone on iPhone 4/4s/5/5s/5c/6