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The safest way to free up storage space on your iPhone or iPad

Running out of space on your iPhone or iPad? Here's how to free up space on your device without losing files and data that you need.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor

Running out of space on your iPhone or iPad? You could run out and buy a new one with more storage -- and a bigger price tag -- or you could take some time to free up some space for the things that you want to carry with you.

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Before you start going hog-wild and deleting stuff apps from your home screen, I suggest you take a few breaths and slow down. Indiscriminately deleting stuff is a fast track to losing data that's important to you.

Rather than deleting apps from the home screen, I suggest you head over to Settings > General > iPhone/iPad Storage and from there take a look at the apps you have installed, how much space they take, and when you last used that app.

iOS storage

Tapping on an app gives you options. Some apps, such as Music, allow you to delete specific data.

iOS storage

Other apps are more of a blunt instrument.

iOS storage

You can also use Offload App, which deletes the app but keeps the documents and data. This can be handy for large apps such as games that you might want to delete temporarily but keep the data so you can revisit it.  

Another option is to use the Recommendations that iOS offers. Again, go to Settings > General > iPhone/iPad Storage and scroll down to Recommendations. Here you will be offered one-click space-saving tips that can be useful in finding caches of detritus.

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How much free space do you have on your smartphone or tablet? Let me know!  

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