Your iPhone is slowing down, there is not enough space for new photos or apps, and you can’t download even the simplest online roulette game? It’s time to clear your smartphone’s memory. Here’s how to clear memory on an iPhone and what happens if you don’t.
When to Clear iPhone Memory
Before dealing with the question of how to clear iPhone phone memory, you need to understand what factors can prompt you to do this.
- Memory shortage. A trivial but one of the most common reasons to clear iPhone memory.
- Slow performance. If apps take longer than usual to load.
- App crashes. Frequent app crashes or freezes can be caused by insufficient memory.
- Rapid battery drain. The iPhone battery drains quickly due to background processes and apps consuming excessive amounts of memory.
- Overheating. If your iPhone has started to warm up, it could be because it’s working too hard due to a lack of memory.
- OS update problems. The iPhone can’t download an update if there’s not enough storage space.
- Problems with the responsiveness of the device. The iPhone may stop responding to touches or button presses due to an abundance of processes and attempts to allocate memory for user actions.
Clearing memory is a useful practice to keep your iPhone in good condition and prevent long-term performance issues. It can and should be done regularly.
What Problems Can Occur if You Don’t Free up Space on Your iPhone
Problems associated with the lack of free space can be both minor and quite serious. Here are the possible consequences of clogged memory.
- Inability to download new apps or media files.
- Data loss.
- Inability to use iCloud.
- Limited functionality.
To avoid all these problems and ensure smooth operation of the iPhone, it’s important to regularly clean the storage of the device. But first, you need to understand what exactly is taking up a lot of space in your smartphone’s memory.
How to Determine What’s Taking up iPhone Memory
To determine what exactly is taking up your iPhone’s memory, you can use the built-in iOS tools. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to the Settings app.
- Select the “General” section.
- Tap on “Using [your device].” You’ll see a list of apps and data taking up memory on your iPhone.
- Click on “iPhone Storage.” There you will see a chart showing which categories of data take up the most space on your device.
- Browse by category: you can choose different categories such as Music, Apps, Photos.
How to Clear Memory on iPhone Properly
If you are convinced that the memory on your iPhone is full, how to clean it should be decided immediately.
Uninstalling Unnecessary Apps
Several ways will help you delete an unwanted app.
Uninstalling an app from the home screen:
- Locate the app you want to delete on one of your device’s home screens.
- Tap and hold the app icon for a second.
- A menu will appear where you need to select “Uninstall app”.
You can also bring up the uninstall icon on all the apps on your homescreen. To do this, tap on the icon of any app, hold for about 3 seconds. After that, all the icons will start shaking and a “-” icon will appear above them. Tap on it to uninstall the app.
Uninstalling an app from settings:
- Open the Settings app.
- Go to the “Basic” section.
- Select “iPhone Storage” or iPhone/iPad Storage (depending on your iOS version).
- Under “Storage,” you’ll see a list of installed apps. Tap on the app you want to delete.
- Tap on the menu item “Uninstall” the app.
Uninstalling an app using Spotlight:
- On the Home screen, swipe down or open the notification center and type the name of the app in the Spotlight search box.
- Find the app in the search results.
- Tap and hold the app icon that appears in the search results.
- Select “Uninstall app.”
When uninstalling apps from the Home screen, the iPhone may only prompt you to remove the app icon from the Home screen, not the app itself. To bypass this restriction, you need to:
- Go to Settings ? Screen Time ? Content & Privacy ? iTunes Store and App Store purchases.
- From the menu, find “Uninstall apps” and tap “Yes”.
Clearing Cache
Your iPhone lets you clear the cache of individual apps, such as the Safari browser and individual programs. How to clear the Safari cache?
- Open Settings on your device.
- Scroll down and find the Safari section.
- Scroll down and select “Clear history and site data”.
You can also clear the cache of individual apps using Safari as an example. An easier way to remove an app’s cache is to uninstall and reinstall it. This will remove all data associated with that app, including the cache. Rebooting your device may also help.
