Are you a digital nomad?
Imagine going on a trip to a breathtaking destination and realizing that your iPhone has run out of space so you cannot store your travel photos. Your first reaction to this frustrating situation may be to uninstall apps and delete previous photos, but there are more efficient methods of freeing up storage space in your iOS devices.
When you make your travel planning checklist, remember to check how your storage situation looks for your iPad or iPhone prior to your departure. You can accomplish this by tapping Settings, followed by General and Storage.
Pay attention to the top two metrics, which reflect local Storage: Used and Available. The bottom figures reflect iCloud storage, which will come in handy later. For now, you should tap on Manage Storage and look at the installed apps and the space they occupy. If you can connect your iPhone or iPad to a desktop or laptop running iTunes, you can click on Settings to view your storage situation.
Moving Files to the Cloud
If your iCloud available storage quota shows a good amount of free space, you may want to activate the option to store your Camera Rolls here by tapping on Settings, iCloud, Photos, and finally Optimize iPhone Storage. By doing this, your pictures and videos you made on the road will be reduced in terms of file size locally and sent to iCloud in full resolution.
You may also wish to use another cloud service such as Dropbox or Google Photos. If you have time to purchase a subscription before your trip, install the cloud storage app and activate the option make an immediate backup of all files and delete local files. If you use your iPhone or iPad for work, you may have lots of documents taking up storage; in this case, you can install a dedicated cloud app such as CometDocs.
Deleting Old Messages
Most iOS versions store text and multimedia messages indefinitely. You can override this feature by tapping Settings, Messages, and Keep Messages. Choose the option to store them for 30 days to delete the backlog.
Managing Offline Data
Whilst traveling it is not always sure to have reliable WiFi and mobile data plans but as long as you can enjoy some, you may want to disable the offline podcast and reading list option in Safari.
Clearing the Browser Cache
Safari is known to be a hog in terms of caching items for improving browsing experience. Clearing this cache is easy; tap Settings, Safari and Clear History and Website Data.
Resetting the Device
If you do not usually reset your iPhone or iPad, doing so could free up quite a few megabytes of RAM and iOS cache. You can do this by pressing down on the power and home buttons simultaneously for longer than 10 seconds. Once you see the Apple logo on the touchscreen, you will know that your device will reset.
