How to Add More Storage to Your iPhone with/without Paying

Storage space on an iPhone can fill up pretty quickly. Photos, videos, applications, and documents can begin to pile up, and then might come a time when you realize that there’s little to no space left on your phone. Luckily, there are ways to add storage to an iPhone (even without paying).

In this article, we’ll cover how to check the storage capacity on your iPhone and describe the best ways to increase it.

How to Check iPhone Storage Capacity and Free Space

While the About menu in the Settings app can tell you how many gigabytes of storage space you have left, iOS actually provides a much more comprehensive view of how your storage space is distributed. We recommend you follow this short guide for a more efficient approach to storage monitoring:

Step 1. Open the Settings app.

Step 2. Tap General.

Step 3. Tap iPhone Storage.

You should see this bar, which provides a breakdown of how your device’s local storage space is allocated. It can help you quickly determine what types of data are taking up the most space.

Here’s what you should do with it:

• Identify what to delete. Identify what files or apps take up the most space while providing the least value. This helps you systematically determine “where you need to clean.”
• Validate the need for storage expansion. If you determine that everything on your device is genuinely valuable, then you need to increase your storage space to accommodate your files.

You can also do both! Keeping a healthy amount of free storage space is not only good for data, but it’s also helpful for maintaining your device’s performance. In this guide, we’ll cover both approaches to storage management.

Can You Add More GB to an iPhone?

Yes, you can add more GB to an iPhone, but your options are somewhat limited depending on whether cloud storage is suitable enough for you or you need more space on the device itself (locally).

That said, there are two strategies for increasing an iPhone’s storage capacity: (1) acquiring more free space, and (2) reclaiming wasted storage space. Given the huge file sizes of photos, videos, apps, etc. – you might be surprised at how much storage space you can free up.

In the guides below, we’ll demonstrate different methods of accomplishing both. We also made sure to include both free and paid methods.

How to Add More Storage Space to Your iPhone for Free

iOS provides many intuitive ways to manage your data and your storage space. Here are the 4 most impactful methods to clean up your iPhone using tools that already come with your device or are free to download and use:

Option 1: Get Rid of All the Clutter

The first way to gain more storage space on your device is to clean up your unwanted data. iPhone apps, photos, and attachments are prone to getting cluttered and being forgotten — yet they make a huge impact on your storage due to their file sizes. While not immediately obvious, iOS provides ample ways to efficiently identify and eliminate the worst offenders.

• Apps. To efficiently clean up your apps, open the iPhone Storage menu (Settings app > General > iPhone Storage). If you scroll down, you’ll find a convenient list of all the apps on your device, ordered according to file size. Tapping on any of these items will open an individual menu that lets you delete or offload the selected app.
  
• Attachments. Attachments can be made of photos, videos, and thick document files. Not only can they take up a lot of space, but they’re easily forgotten. Fortunately, you can conveniently review and delete your attachments in the messaging app by opening any conversation and tapping the contact photo at the top of the screen.
  
• Photos. Photos can also take up a lot of storage space, especially if you’re using the highest capture settings available on your device. They are also prone to cluttering due to duplicates typically caused by human error, bugs, third-party apps, or the Burst Mode feature (or a combination of all). We recommend using an app like Clever Cleaner for iPhone (which is completely free) – it can automatically find and delete duplicates, Live photos, screenshots and photos with large file sizes.
  

Option 2: Utilize iCloud Storage

iCloud is Apple’s cloud storage service. You can enable it on your iPhone to access 5 GB of online storage space. But the real advantage of enabling iCloud is the Optimize iPhone Storage setting.

This feature allows you to store the original high-resolution versions of your photos and videos in iCloud while only keeping lower-resolution (but still amazing-looking) versions on your device.

Step 1. Open the Settings app and tap your Apple ID.

Step 2. Tap iCloud.

Step 3. Select the data type you want to save to iCloud. We recommend prioritizing Photos, Drive, and Messages, depending on your usage.

Step 4. Tap the toggle beside Sync this iPhone until it slides to the green position. Then, tap Optimize iPhone Storage.

Once you’ve enabled these settings, iOS will take some time to upload your files to the cloud and assess your device’s local storage (up to an hour or more depending on how much data you have).

Option 3: Utilize Other Cloud Storage Services

Aside from iCloud, there are other cloud storage services that you can utilize that offer limited free cloud space for your files. 2 out of the 3 apps we’ll be recommending also have a storage optimization feature for photos.

• Google One. Offers 15 GB free storage space for Google Photos, Drive, and Gmail. Google Photos (part of the Google One suite) provides the optimization feature, which lets you offload the high-resolution copies of your pictures to the cloud.
• Dropbox. Like Google Photos and iCloud, Dropbox can also upload high-resolution copies of your photos to its cloud storage. It offers 2 GB of free storage space.
• No Optimize: OneDrive. Unfortunately, the optimization feature is not available for OneDrive’s iOS version. However, you can still upload your files manually and delete them from your device.

Option 4: Transfer Photos to Mac (Airdrop without iCloud)

If you have no clutter left to get rid of and you’ve maxed out all free cloud storage options, an easy way to instantly reclaim storage space quickly is to transfer your photos to your Mac. You can do this easily using AirDrop between your Mac and your iPhone.

Step 1. On your Mac’s menu bar, click the Control Center icon > tap the AirDrop icon (it should turn blue). You can specify whether you want to open AirDrop for a specific contact or for everyone by clicking the arrow button.

Step 2. On your iPhone, open the Control Center (swipe down or tap the back twice) and tap the AirDrop icon to turn it on (it should also turn blue).

Step 3. Open the Photos app and navigate to your camera roll or open any album with the photos you want to save. Then, tap the Select button in the top-right corner of the screen.

Step 4. Tap the photos to select them. If you’re in an album, you can tap the Select All button that should have appeared in the top-left corner. If you’re choosing photos in your camera roll, you can tap each photo or swipe to select multiple images.

Step 5. Then, click the share button.

Step 6. If your Mac doesn’t automatically appear, tap AirDrop.

Step 7. Finally, tap your Mac’s icon to initiate the transfer (you may have to accept the transfer on your Mac so pay attention to that).

AirDropped photos are usually saved in your Mac’s Downloads folder by default. After confirming that all your photos have been saved, delete them from your iPhone.

How to Buy More Storage Space for Your iPhone

If the free storage management solutions for iOS aren’t enough for your needs, you have two more options if you’re willing to pay (bar purchasing a second device to use alongside your current iPhone):

Option 1: Expand iCloud Storage

iCloud’s free plan that comes with every Apple account offers 5 GB of storage space but you can expand it by paying for a monthly subscription. The options are 50 GB, 200 GB, 2 TB, 6 TB, and 12 TB – the higher you go, the more you pay. This feature is extra useful for users who own multiple devices in the Apple ecosystem.

Note: This tip applies to any cloud storage service that offers more space for money. However, we recommend subscribing to services that offer device storage optimization options like iCloud, Google Photos, and Dropbox.

Step 1. Open the Settings app and tap your Apple ID.

Step 2. Tap iCloud.

Step 3. Scroll down to the iCloud+ Features section. Then, tap Manage Plan.

You’ll see several options for iCloud+ for your local currency. Tapping one will immediately take you to a purchasing wizard, allowing you to proceed with the upgrade.

Option 2: Purchase an Upgraded Device or Storage Accessories

It’s possible that even the highest plans of iCloud+ is unsuitable for some users, especially those who store more apps than files on their iPhones. If you want to expand your *local* storage, you’ll need to purchase hardware.

There are really only 2 ways to you can approach it:

• Upgraded iPhone. Purchase a new iPhone with more local storage space. iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max models can go up to 1 TB as of this writing (while the rest can store up to 512 GB of data). Make sure to trade in your current iPhone for a hefty discount.
• Lightning USB drive. There are flash drives designed to fit iPhone thunderbolt ports and some even have iOS-friendly functionality built in. For example, SanDisk’s iXpand Mini Flash Drive allows you to quickly move files between your iPhone and other devices, automatically back up photos and videos, and even capture footage directly to the drive.

Tip: Next Time, Optimize Your Files From the Start

Depending on what type of data usually gets cluttered on your iPhone, there are ways to avoid build-up so you keep more storage space free for longer. For example, if you tend to get loads of message attachments that you always forget to delete, you can limit your message history to 30 days. If you take a lot of photos, limit the use of high-resolution settings unless you really need it. You probably don’t need the Live Photos feature to take a quick pic of a menu for tonight’s dinner.

In other words, observe the behavior that causes you to use up your storage space quickly – so if you do attempt to expand your storage space, it’s not wasted on clutter.

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