Always running out of storage space on your iPhone? Here's what you can do

Gone are the days of using cellphones primarily for phone calls.

Today, users rely on their handheld devices for a variety of everyday tasks, from sending texts and checking emails to taking high-quality photos and browsing the internet.

With such a diverse array of options available, modern iPhones have more storage space than ever before. But that storage eventually runs low, prompting an alert to clear space in order to accommodate additional data.

Fortunately, there are several easy ways for users to make more room on their phones without permanently losing those urgent work emails, cherished family photos or meaningful old texts. Below are some suggestions to create space on iPhones without sacrificing anything important.

How much data do I have?

Before getting rid of anything unnecessarily, users should check the amount of space available on the phone. They can do this by tapping the "Settings" icon, then clicking "General" and "iPhone Storage."

There, the phone displays a color-coded analysis of how much data is taken up by each category. The white space at the end is the amount of remaining data for additional apps and other phone features.

Phone recommendations

The "iPhone Storage" tab will show some of the apps that use the most space. After tapping on each, a user can choose to offload it — which creates storage space the app previously occupied but keeps its documents and data — or delete it, which gets rid of the data along with the app.

Expert tips for clearing space on iPhone

One of the easiest ways to free up space is through a section of M\messages called "Review Large Attachments," which stores photos, videos and attachments from conversations. Deleting any of these items from text messages will not affect them in their respective app, so it can quickly create available data when needed.

Since photos often have the most significant impact on storage, an article from software company MacPaw suggests going through the photo gallery to determine which ones do not need to be saved. There may be duplicate photos, similar shots of the same subject matter or screenshots that are no longer needed, and getting rid of them would quickly free up large amounts of space.

Cellphone users who are frequently online can have a large cache of data they do not need in browsers like Chrome and Safari. Clearing the history periodically will create more room to store other more relevant data.

Similarly, many phones today likely have a considerable amount of offline content — music, podcasts and shows downloaded for a flight or other area without internet access. Check apps like Netflix and Spotify to remove such content if it is no longer relevant.

iCloud+

Users can also purchase iCloud+ for more storage. But it costs extra depending on how much more space you want.