iPhone users can reduce storage space by optimizing photos via iCloud and uninstalling rarely used apps without losing personal data.

High-quality photos, videos, and rarely used apps can cause your iPhone's memory to fill up quickly. When the device reports running out of space, users often have to delete photos or applications. However, the iPhone has two built-in features that help free up memory while still retaining important data.

Optimize photo storage capacity

High-resolution photos and videos are one of the reasons why iPhone memory fills up quickly. In particular, videos recorded in 4K resolution can take up nearly 500 MB after just one minute of recording.

Instead of deleting photos and videos, users can enable storage optimization. At that time, the iPhone kept smaller versions on the device, while the original with full resolution was saved on iCloud. When you need to view or edit the original, the device will download the data from iCloud.

To enable this feature, users go to Settings > Apps > Photos, turn on iCloud Photos, then select Optimize iPhone Storage.

This method helps reduce the size of photos and videos stored on your phone without having to delete them from the library. However, users need enough iCloud storage to save the original. If iCloud storage is full, new photos and videos may not sync fully.

Uninstall rarely used apps without losing data

Some apps are only used on certain occasions, such as apps for booking airline tickets, finding parking, or games that haven't been opened in a while. Even though they are rarely used, they still take up a portion of the device's memory.

Instead of completely deleting, users can choose the Offload App feature. This feature removes the app from your iPhone but keeps the documents and related data. When reinstalling, users can continue to use the previously saved data.

To do this, users go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. Here, the device displays a list of applications and the amount of space each application is using. The user selects the application he wants to remove, clicks Unload App and confirms.

When you want to use it again, users click on the cloud icon next to the application on the home screen to download it. Saved data is retained, as long as the app and associated data have not been individually deleted.

These two features help free up iPhone memory without deleting photos or application data. However, optimizing photos requires enough iCloud storage, and removing the application only frees up the memory the application occupies on the device.