It’s all too easy to fill your iPhone’s storage to the brim with apps, photos, and video, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should. How full is too full? We put our iOS devices through the paces to get to the bottom of things.
Recently, we tackled the topic of how much free space your should leave on your Windows PC, but these days storage constraints on mobile devices are the pinch people feel more acutely.
When you search for information about free space and iOS, nearly every search result you come across is focused on how to get more free space on your iOS devices. Little to nothing is written about how much free space you should aim for, however.That’s due largely lack of information. First, and most importantly, there’s no real official word from Apple regarding what fixed amount or percentage of your storage you should keep free for optimum use. Other than posting free space requirements for over-the-air iOS updates (e.g. in order to OTA update to iOS 11 you’ll need X amount of free space) they don’t talk much about the matter. Second, iOS is very efficient at caching things (and then wiping those caches when needed), so sometimes what looks like a lack of space is really a more efficient use of space by iOS.
Last year, for example, there was a ridiculous tip repeated all over the internet about how you could free up space on your iPhone by going to the iTunes movie rental section, starting to rent a big film, and then cancelling the process before actually paying for the rental. The trick appeared to free up space on your iPhone but in reality all it was doing was prompting iOS to dump some cache files to make room for the big incoming movie file.
Ironically, in doing so, it may have dumped files out of the cache that were actually speeding up your phone. For those readers old enough to remember the “RAM Cleaners” of yesteryear, we’re sure you’re feeling a familiar vibe.So, there’s no official word on how much free space is ideal. But, as anyone who’s ever filled up their iPhone to the bursting point can attest, very full storage…
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