I’ve always wondered what the iPhone data labeled “other” was when I looked at how much storage I had left to use. Recently I learned just what that “other” data on my phone might be: Among other things, it could be attachments from your SMS and iMessages, visual voicemails or even your Safari web cache.
Here are some tips to help free up some space on your device!
The first way to clear up some serious space is to delete old visual voicemails. To do this, simply open Phone (no, not your sweet flip phone — the Phone app on your iPhone). You may see a list of voicemails that you haven’t already deleted under the Voicemail section of the Phone app; in that list there will also be “deleted voicemails.” That is basically the trash can for all of the voicemails you’ve already deleted and that folder will need to be emptied (just like you would need to with the trash on your Mac). Those end up taking up quite a bit of room on your device and can quickly eat away at your storage.
Another way to clear up some space is to delete some of the attachments you receive from friends via text message. Just go into Messages and delete what you don’t want. Another big user of data is the cache in Safari. Every few months, clear out the cache by opening Settings > Safari > Clear cookies and data. This will empty out the local cache and webpages you frequently access.
If all else fails, you can restore your device to factory settings to restore all of your storage; just make sure you do a backup first. About 800MB of storage will always be reserved for storing the operating system and the built-in apps, but the rest of it is yours to do with what you please!