When you get a new phone, it can seem like there’s no way you’ll be able to fill what appears to be an endless amount of storage. But eventually, you’ll likely get a notification saying you’re about to run out of space. When that happens, you might not be able to download any more apps or take more photos.
  

The good news is there are ways to make room on an iPhone or Android smartphone without sacrificing the items you want to keep. Here are 5 ways to maximize your phone storage.
  

    

KNOW HOW MUCH STORAGE YOU’RE USING AND HOW YOU'RE USING IT

On an iPhone, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. On an Android, go to Settings > Storage. There, you’ll see how much space you’re using, how much is available, and how much is being devoted to categories like apps, photos, videos, etc.
  

Tapping these categories provides more details, such as which apps are using the most space. In most cases, photos and videos are the culprits.
  

    

OPTIMIZE YOUR PHOTOS 

One option for cleaning up storage space is to go through your photos and delete ones that are out of focus, duplicates, or won’t be used for anything.
   

Another option is to use Google Photos, which provides the option to back up your photos on your Google account. There are other cloud storage services, such as Dropbox and iCloud Drive, where you can configure settings to offload photos and videos to the cloud, thereby freeing up space on your phone.
  

You can also configure the settings on your smartphone's camera app to use lower resolution and a smaller file size. You’ll still have nice crisp photos, but they won’t take up as much space.


    

CLEAR YOUR CACHE

On an Android phone, when you select specific apps in the “Storage” settings, you have the option to clear cache or delete data, including temporary files and other information stored in the app.
   

IPhone users can clear their history and website data in the Safari browser, which can free up at least a little bit of space. You can do this in other browsers as well.
  

DELETE OLD FILES

You can free up storage by periodically deleting old files, including: 

• Notes
• Music libraries
• iMessages or text messages
• Downloaded podcasts, books, files, etc.

Some phones allow you to change your settings to save items for a specific period of time—such as 30 days or 12 months—instead of forever.
   

Your iPhone storage allows you to review large attachments, which gives you a list of the biggest attachments on your phone so you can remove what you no longer need. Google Pixel phones have a smart-storage option which automatically removes backed up photos and videos that are more than 60 days old.
  

You can also manually clear out your downloads by going through your download directory and deleting files you no longer need.
  

REMOVE UNUSED APPS

If you go through your list of apps, you’re sure to find some that you no longer use or that aren’t worth the space. You can delete the app, or “offload” it, which means you're deleting the app but keeping the documents/data related to it. This can free up more than half the space taken up by the app.