Apple didn’t increase basic storage space on new entry-level iPhones this year, which means the 16GB iPhone 6s is the cheapest new iPhone you can buy. It also means that you might run into storage issues on the handset regardless of Apple’s new iOS 9 features that are supposed to make more storage available to the user.
However, careful management of personal data could prevent any storage issues whatsoever on the handset, and there are some clever tricks tohelp you free up precious storage without losing actual your photos and videos.
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The trick involves deleting large media files from your messages that take up space long after you’ve read them. As 9to5Mac explains, all you have to do is head to the Messages app, and then remove unwanted media files from each conversation. To do so, tap on a chat that has plenty of pictures and then press Details in the upper right corner and scroll down to Attachments. In there, tap and hold on one of the images until the Copy, Delete More menu appears. Tap more and then select the images you want to delete – then press delete, and they will be removed.
All the text from those chats remains there, with only the images being deleted. This trick works on any iOS 9 device and should be performed on a regular basis if you happen to share lots of pictures and videos with your friends and family.
Obviously you should also backup all your pictures, including the ones you may download from iMessage chats you’re about to clean up, and you should periodically remove unwanted images and videos from the Photos app to get additional free storage.
Of course, if you don’t want to hold on to any of these chats, just go ahead and delete your messages or set them to self-destruct. To do this, go to Settings, then Messages and scroll down until you see the Message History option. Tap on it and select 30 Days rather than Forever so all your messages will be deleted after a month.
