The Apple iPhone is a great smartphone: it is a versatile mobile tool that is capable of handling almost any task. Furthermore, it can be used for taking pictures, recording videos, installing a variety of apps… But if you are running low on storage, you may face a recurrent warning message from Apple telling you that your storage is almost full.
There is no easy way out of an iPhone that is using almost all of the disk space. All iPhones are sold with a fixed capacity for storing files. There is no way to physically upgrade the internal storage space on an iPhone because the storage drive is part of the motherboard.
Why is my iPhone storage almost full?
You may be wondering how it is possible your iPhone storage is almost full. There can be plenty of reasons; and here are a short list of some common causes.
- You installed the latest updates, which will require typically more space with every new update of your iOS operating system
- Pictures and videos are taking up a lot of storage space. The newer iPhone models have better camera’s, yet this comes with a cost as these pictures and videos are also requiring more space
- Some apps, especially games, will require a lot of storage on your device. If you have a lot of apps, changes are they are eating away your precious disk space.
Here are some options in case your iPhone capacity is almost fully taking:
Ways to increase the storage on an iPhone
Option 1: take an iCloud subscription
A common problem with (especially newer iPhone models) is the space taken up by photo/video material. Especially long videos will take a big chunk of the storage on your devices.
An iCloud subscription will solve this, because your Photos content will be pushed to the cloud. In other words: all of your precious pictures will be safe, but they will be pushed from the device into the cloud.
In order to upgrade from the 5GB free storage to a higher tier, you must follow these steps:
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone
- Tap on your name (at the top of the settings screen)
- Choose iCloud, then click on Manage storage
- Select a storage plan
You will need to pay for a higher storage plan, but this can be far more cost-effective than purchasing a whole new phone. The prices (per month) are the following in the US and may differ per country:
- 50GB: $0.99
- 200GB: $2.99
- 1TB: $9.99
Attach an external storage device to your iPhone
It was already mentioned here that there is no way to upgrade the storage on your iPhone’s internal drive. But another option you have left is to attach an external drive to your device! Just like with a USB key on a laptop, you can attach a USB flash drive or external hard drive to your iPhone via its lightening port.
At this point, you will need to choose between brand and storage options. This will depend on your personal preferences and needs.
