Among the technologically advanced features of the Apple iPhone XR handset are its various memory capacity tiers. Depending on your needs, you may opt to own an iPhone XR with 64GB, 128GB or 256GB built-in memory storage. For those who are into streaming music, videos, and TV shows, take and save unlimited photos and videos, choosing the largest possible storage capacity which is the 256GB would be the ideal option.
For light users, the lower memory capacity variants would suffice. On top of the built-in capacity storage is the 5GB of free cloud storage upon signing up for iCloud. The iOS 12 also has a lot of space saving features that automatically free up the iPhone XR’s memory whenever it’s running low. In addition, iPhones also utilize HEIF (High Efficiency Image File) and HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) formats for both photos and videos respectively, which consume lesser memory storage space compared to that of Android’s JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files.
Therefore, saving unlimited photos and videos won’t be a bother to your phone’s memory usage. But just like any other high-tiered devices, the iPhone storage will eventually deteriorate with constant usage or wear-and-tear. While wear-and-tear symptoms are inevitable among smartphones, there are a few ways that will help keep your iPhone’s internal memory optimized.
Regular checking of the available memory of your device is imperative to keep track of its memory status and overall performance.
How to check the available memory on your iPhone XR
If you’re new to the iOS 12 platform, performing these subsequent steps will get you to the iPhone storage menu wherein you can view more details of how much storage of your iPhone XR is used up by your apps and services and how much is left. Just follow these steps whenever you’re all set to check your phone’s memory status:
- From the Home screen of your iPhone XR, tap the Settings app.
- Then, select General.
- Tap the iPhone Storage. Under this section, you will be provided with various recommendations to optimize your device storage. It also shows the listing of all your installed apps with their corresponding memory usage.
If necessary, you can delete all unwanted apps and files from the iPhone storage menu.
Utilizing iCloud storage for your iPhone XR contents
Aside from the built-in phone storage, there is also an allocated free 5GB of iCloud storage for your iCloud account. You can use this as alternative for backups and other critical contents from your iPhone XR.
Normally, the photos and videos are saved on your iPhone device with their original high-resolution. That said, a large amount of space of your phone’s built-in memory will be used. This is where you can make use of your iCloud storage allocation. But also note that your cloud storage is limited. Unless you would opt to buy more storage for your iCloud account, you will need to manage and optimize your free iCloud storage. The following steps will help you get started in viewing and managing your iCloud storage on your iPhone XR:
- From the Home screen of your iPhone XR, tap the Settings app.
- Scroll down to and tap Passwords & Accounts, then select iCloud.
- Tap Storage. The Total and Available storage of the device will be displayed.
- Tap Manage Storage to view the apps on your phone with their corresponding used memory storage.
- Tap to select an app to see its detailed storage usage information.
- If you want to free-up your phone storage, select Documents & Data.
You can choose which apps you would like to delete together with their associated contents. However, there are some apps that can’t be deleted or removed. For apps that cannot be deleted or uninstalled, you can select the option to offload the application instead. Doing so will refresh the apps memory and clear out its temporary data.
When you removed contents such as Music, Messages, Pictures and Videos, the deleted contents will be moved to Recently Deleted album and should be cleared out manually to free up the iPhone’s memory storage. On the contrary, contents such as cached and temporary files will be automatically deleted whenever your phone needs more space. Cached files are the streamed and viewed contents such as music, videos and photos.
If you have purchased an additional iCloud storage plan on top of the 5GB free storage, then you can save innumerable photos and videos from your iPhone XR to your iCloud account.
Using iTunes as alternative storage for your iPhone XR contents
Aside from iCloud, you can also use iTunes to view and manage your iPhone storage on a computer. To get this done, you will need to connect your iPhone to the computer via USB cable and sync it to iTunes. Once connected, you can view and access your iPhone storage, manage or transfer files, if needed.
The following steps will help you get started in using iTunes to manage your iPhone XR’s internal memory and files:
- On your computer, open iTunes. Be sure to use the latest version of iTunes app to avoid bumping into system conflicts.
- Then, connect your iPhone XR to your computer.
- Wait until your iPhone appears in iTunes.
- Select your iPhone XR’s device name. You will then see a bar showing the memory usage of your device, and the contents are being split into content type. These types include Audio, Video, Photos, Apps, Books, Documents & Data, and Other.
- Follow the onscreen commands and use the given controls to manage your contents so as to optimize your iPhone XR memory.
Need to free up more storage space on your iPhone XR?
As explicated earlier, iPhone devices have this iconic feature which spontaneously free up space whenever the memory storage is almost full. However, if it occurs that you’re often prompted with the ‘Storage Almost Full’ message, then that’s when you have to consider freeing up space by deleting unwanted contents. You can also refer to your iPhone storage recommendations.
To check recommendations, go to Settings-> General-> iPhone Storage-> Recommendations menu. A list of options will be shown, and you can select which recommendations you will enable.
Moving some of your iPhone files to other storage media like a computer drive can also be considered among other options, especially if deleting files or uninstalling apps aren’t applicable.
And that covers everything in this content. For more information and official recommendations on how to increase or upgrade your iCloud storage, contact your service provider or Apple Support for further assistance.
I hope that we’ve been able to help you fix the problem with your device. We would appreciate it if you helped us spread the word so please share this post if you found it helpful. Thank you so much for reading!