Solve iPhone/Android Storage Shortage! 5 Ways to Free Up Space and Back Up Photos

Have you ever seen warning screens like "Out of storage space" or "System memory is running low" while using your smartphone? If you take many photos and videos or keep installing convenient apps, your phone's capacity will be full in no time.

If you continue to use your smartphone with insufficient storage, not only will you be unable to save new photos, but apps will run slower, and in the worst case, your phone might suddenly force quit and fail to start (boot loop issues). In this article, we explain 5 concrete steps to free up storage on both iPhone and Android, and backup methods to prevent losing precious data.

Step 1: Check Current Storage Usage Accurately

First, let's check what is taking up your phone's space. Taking action without knowing the cause may be ineffective.

  • For iPhone:Tap "Settings" > "General" > "iPhone Storage". A graph will show the breakdown of photos, apps, system, etc., and you can check which apps consume the most storage in a list.
  • For Android:Tap "Settings" > "Storage" (or "Device Care" > "Storage"). The capacity will be shown by category such as images, videos, system, and apps.

If there are apps or file formats occupying a large capacity of several GBs or more, they will be the highest priority target for this cleanup.

Step 2: Delete Unused Apps and Clean Up "Temporary Cache"

While uninstalling unused apps is the basic rule, there are many cases where temporary data called "cache" builds up even in apps you use daily.

  • Delete cache in LINE and SNS apps:In LINE, the cache of photos and videos sent and received in chats can swell to several GBs or tens of GBs. You can safely delete expired cache data from "Settings" > "Photos & Videos" > "Delete Data" in the LINE app.
  • Delete browser (Safari/Chrome) history and cache:You can free up hundreds of MBs to several GBs of space by deleting cache: for Safari (iPhone), go to "Settings" > "Safari" > "Clear History and Website Data"; for Chrome (Android/PC), select "Clear browsing data" in the app settings.
  • Offload unused apps (iPhone feature):iPhone has a feature called "Offload Unused Apps". This allows you to delete only the app itself while keeping its data and settings to save storage.

Step 3: Empty the "Trash" of Photos and Videos Completely

Simply "deleting" unwanted photos and videos actually doesn't free up storage. This is because on many smartphones, deleted files are temporarily moved to a folder like "Trash" or "Recently Deleted" and kept for 30 days.

If you want to free up space immediately, open the photos app and:Open the "Recently Deleted" (iPhone) or "Trash" (Android) folder and execute "Delete All"Doing so will completely erase the selected data from the device and immediately create free space.

Step 4: Review Video Recording Settings (Preventive Measure)

Compared to photos, videos have an overwhelmingly larger file size. Especially on recent smartphones, shooting for just a few minutes in high-quality settings like "4K / 60fps" can easily consume several GBs of space.

For daily recording, we recommend lowering the settings to a standard quality like "1080p HD / 30fps". You can change the quality from "Settings" > "Camera" > "Record Video" on iPhone, or from the camera app settings on Android. This alone can significantly slow down storage consumption.

Step 5: Move/Back Up Photos to Cloud Storage or PC

If you do not want to delete data from the device but want to free up space, you need to move (offload) the data externally.

  • Use cloud services:Use services like iCloud (Apple), Google Photos, or OneDrive to back up photos to the cloud automatically. After backup is complete, you can dramatically reduce the phone's storage usage by deleting original photos from the device (or changing them to an optimized smaller size).
  • Transfer data to PC:If you have a PC, regularly move your smartphone data to the PC's hard drive or an external SSD via cable or Wi-Fi.

Use "FS!QR" to Send Photos Quickly from Smartphone to PC Without Cables

When "cloud storage has monthly fees and finding a cable to connect to a PC is annoying...", a free file-sharing service that requires no registration is extremely convenient.「FS!QR」It is

Simply access FS!QR from your smartphone browser, select and upload the photos or videos you want to back up, and a download QR code will be displayed on the screen. Then, just scan the QR code with your PC camera, or enter the displayed shortened URL in your PC browser to save the data to your PC in an instant. Since no account registration or app installation is required, you can immediately offload data to your PC on the spot when your phone storage is in a pinch, leaving your device refreshed. Please use this for your daily storage management.

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