'Crazy good' iPhone trick upgrades phone with extra storage in three taps
A POWERFUL feature instantly frees up massive amounts of storage space on your iPhone.
You'll find it tucked away in your settings – it only takes three taps to get to the feature.
Storage on your iPhone is extremely valuable and determines what you can keep on the handset.
It's not always easy to free up space, and figuring out what to delete can be a big challenge.
But a Reddit user has shared a clever feature you may have overlooked.
The post was titled “how crazy well iPhone Storage Optimization Works.”
And the user wrote: “About 44 GB of photos and videos (~15,000 items) in iCloud now take up only 8 MB (!!!) on my device.
They added: “I was blown away by how small it was.”
Another user said: “Actually a pretty great service. For reference, I have 42k photos and 2.6k videos. Takes up 9 GB on device and 654 GB in iCloud.”
What is Optimize iPhone Storage?
Optimize iPhone Storage is a special setting that allows you to transfer your photos and videos to iCloud.
And it keeps lower-resolution versions of those files on your device, so you can only access the full versions when you need them.
“By default, your photos and videos on your device are saved in the original, high-resolution version,” Apple explains.
“This means they take up a lot of space on your iPhone and iPad.
“With iCloud Photos, you can free up more space on your device and still access your entire collection in full resolution, wherever you are.”
Go to Settings > to set up iCloud Photos [Your Name] > iCloud > Photos.
Then tap Sync This iPhone, choose to enable iCloud Photos, and then select Optimize iPhone Storage.
“When Optimize Storage is turned on, full-resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud and, if necessary, space-saving copies on your device,” Apple said.
“And as long as you have enough space in iCloud, you can store as many photos and videos as you want.”
The biggest problem you may encounter is a lack of space.
iCloud comes with 5GB of free storage by default, but you have to pay to unlock more.
In the US, iCloud+ pricing is as follows:
- 50GB: $0.99
- 200GB: $2.99
- 2TB: $9.99
- 6TB: $29.99
- 12TB: $59.99
And in the UK, this is how much iCloud+ will cost you:
- 50GB: £0.99
- 200GB: £2.99
- 2TB: £8.99
- 6TB: £26.99
- 12TB: £54.99
You're unlikely to need the highest levels unless you're an extreme file collector.
But if you still want to take endless photos, iCloud+ with Optimize iPhone Storage is an easy way to make sure you always have enough space available.