How to Live with Just a 16GB iPhone

Well, folks, it’s 2015 — as if that reality weren’t evident already. What’s perhaps most surprising about it being 2015, however, is that most smartphones still feature 16 GB of base storage — this includes both Apple’s base-model iPhone, as well as other Android and Windows Phone handsets. I mean, come on, right?

When you factor in all the preloaded software and operating system files — which usually take up about 33 percent of inbuilt storage — that doesn’t leave you with very much room to actually enjoy your phone, now does it?

Maybe you like to take lots of photos, for example, download apps or store digital content such as music and videos. Who knows? But one thing’s for certain: you’re likely not going to get very far with just a 16GB iPhone, and, suffice it to say, that’s what the majority of users are sporting nowadays. Seriously though, who wants to pay an additional $50-$200 for more storage when there exist plenty of work arounds to make the most of your 16GB capacity? Like, hello! Earth to Apple.

And so, with that sentiment in mind, we’ve gone ahead and created a list of tips and tricks to maximize the storage capacity of your 16GB device.

Get Photos off Your Phone!

Photos and videos are perhaps the most likely digital media to take up vast amounts of space on your smartphone, especially in today’s selfie-centric culture. Yikes! And, although reducing the photos to a lower resolution would definitely help, there actually exist a number of ways that you can get photos off your phone and up into the cloud today.

Apps like Google Photos and Flickr, for example — both of which include auto-upload features that will upload every photo and video you take — make this easier today than ever before. Additionally, both apps will automatically organize your photos by identifying what’s in them.

The downside, as you might imagine, is that you won’t have access to your photos if you’re somewhere off the grid, meaning that you have little or no data service. However, once you do have service, you can easily access every photo you’ve ever taken!

Stream Your Music

Music, perhaps obviously, is another gigabyte guzzling form of digital media. In today’s day and age, however, most people have caught on to the trend of just listening to music on a dedicated streaming app, such as Spotify, Pandora, or even the new Apple Music.

Of course, it goes without saying that you’d probably want to keep a short playlist installed on your phone, even if only for those times when you’re unable to connect to 4G or WiFi; but for the most part, you should really be deleting almost every MP3 from your device, seeing as how almost any song can be accessed online or through one of these aforementioned streaming services.

Use the Web Wherever You Can

A sizable number of apps feature content from the web that can easily be accessed online. For example, anything you can search on the Wikipedia, Craigslist, or dictionary.com apps can easily be found by doing a Google search through Safari.

Moreover, this web-based content can easily be saved to your browser’s home screen, almost as if it were its own, dedicated application.

Only Keep Your Most Repayable Games

You’ll definitely want to keep a few games stored on your phone, especially to use during those times when you’re stuck somewhere without an internet connection or have nothing else to do.

We recommend picking a few titles that you can play over and over without getting bored. 1010! is one of my personal favorites, as well as any one of the Grand Theft Auto titles for iOS. But you should pick your favorites and get rid of the rest is basically all we’re saying.

Watch Your Reading List

I mean, it sure is cool to think that you can carry around almost an entire library in your pocket, right? “Hmm, what should I read today?” you might think to yourself, sitting on an airplane or stuck on a rush-hour subway car. But that’s probably not the best idea when it comes to maximizing your storage.

Therefore, we suggest, only keep books that you’re currently reading in your iBooks or Google Books library, because any other titles that you’ve downloaded in the past will be saved to your account, on the off chance you ever decide to go back and re-read down the road.

Get Rid of Extra Files

You can easily clear up some storage space by deleting old apps that perhaps you’re just not using any longer. Some apps can take up a lot of space, while others don’t, but either way, you should definitely clear out what you’re not using.

Both iPhone and Android operating systems also feature the ability to access and manage storage, enabling you to view a comprehensive list of what’s taking up how much space on your device, and thus, allowing you to sweep away the excess lickety-split.