Roger Fingas
In Apple's newly released iOS 11, people needing a quick way of freeing up space on an iPhone or iPad can receive suggested options that can give more storage on your device, often immediately.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in June when iOS 11 was in beta. It has been updated and republished following the public release of the software.
Within a new "iPhone/iPad Storage" menu in the Settings app, iOS 11 includes a "Recommendations" section highlighting options like offloading photos and videos to the iCloud Photo Library, or wiping the Photos app's "Recently Deleted" album. Another common solution will automatically remove unused apps when a device is running low on room, while preserving connected data and files.
Toggles are included with many suggestions, eliminating the need to hunt around Settings for them.
The Messages app alone has a few recommendations, namely deleting large attachments and conversations, or setting old content to delete after a year. Later this fall, iOS 11 will be updated to allow storing and syncing of iCloud messages and attachments in the cloud.
It's not clear what criteria Apple is using to label an app "unused," distinguishing from one that's just rarely opened. Regardless people can choose to reinstall apps, which will automatically have matching data restored.
Some other iOS 11 upgrades include a Files app, a new Control Center, person-to-person Apple Pay transfers, and iPad-oriented upgrades like drag-and-drop and a Mac-style dock.
Andrew Orr
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Wesley Hilliard
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Amber Neely
6 Comments
Still waiting for the ability to purge individual application caches .. why hasn't anyone thought of or implemented this yet? Some caches border on ridiculous ..
Yeah, I have gotten in a habit of going in and deleting then reinstalling an app. It's two-fold for me, since I usually have forgotten my password at that point to log back in. So I use that time to change my password (and yes I then copy it into my pword storage app). I could just retrieve the password, but always a good idea to keep changing them anyhow.
It's been great so far on my 16GB phone, I always seem to have 3gb free as opposed to 0.5-1gb free now. I've been caught out once already though with the "offload app" thing...
I was in a shop who accepted Nectar cards and thought, oh I have the Nectar app, I'll load it up and scan my card for the points... Nope, the app was "offloaded" because I rarely use it - typically I was in a store that had no wifi and inside a large busy shopping mall that prevented me using mobile data so I couldn't re-download the app to use it.
I've not seen if this is possible but it would be nice to checkbox certain apps that you DON'T want to be offloaded for instances like this.