Every year, the cameras on phones get bigger and better. It’s not uncommon for today’s flagship models to come with 48-megapixel sensors or more.
Unfortunately, though, storage capacity hasn’t increased at the same rate. In fact, it’s been lagging behind significantly.
Because of this, many users are wondering whether there’s a fix. Is there a way of preventing photos from taking up so much space on your phone?
Fortunately, there is. Here’s what you need to do:
Reduce The Resolution
First, you can try reducing the resolution for regular shots. You don’t need to take a 48-megapixel photo of a bar code or train sign. 2MP or less should be enough.
Finding resolution settings is pretty easy on most phones. You just go into the camera app, hit the settings icon and there’s almost always a setting where you can choose that adjusts the size of the photos.
Things work slightly differently on Apple and Android devices. If you use Google’s camera app, go to the app and then click More settings>>Camera photo resolution. You can then bring down the resolution significantly, depending on your needs.
On iOS, you can try going to Camera>>Formats>>High Efficiency. If you choose the latter rather than Most Compatible, the phone will prefer smaller resolutions over big ones, reducing the space each photo takes up.
Outsource Storage
Another option is to outsource storage to a third-party cloud-based platform. Learning how to view your iCloud or Google Drive photos can be an excellent way to cut down on the use of memory on your device.
Outsourcing storage is actually significantly easier than you might think. Apple gives you the option on the iPhone on all handsets that you buy. Google does the same on its phones, as do most handset manufacturers.
How much you pay per GB depends on which you use. Most services give you a small amount of storage for free and then ask you to pay for the rest. Don’t worry, though: monthly subscriptions are pretty small, even if you need up to a TB of extra space.
Delete Your Recently Deleted Folder
When you delete your photos on most phones, they’re not actually deleted. Instead, phones move them to different folders where they remain for 30 days before being finally deleted once and for all.
You can understand why phones do this: they don’t want people deleting their photos forever by accident. But it also means that when you do come to delete your photos, you’re not actually freeing up any extra space.
The trick here is to delete them in the deleted folder, too. Look for “deleted photos” and “recycle bins” on your phone and empty them (as long as you’re happy for the photos to disappear forever).
Delete Third-Party Photos On Messaging Apps
Lastly, delete all the photos on third-party messaging apps that are being stored elsewhere (such as on a friend’s phone). You don’t need to keep these stored on your device indefinitely. Delete them by going into app media and selecting all the photos you no longer want to keep.
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- Lisa has been blogging since 2013, and loves sharing resources and ideas for living a simple life. To get free printables, bonus words, and more - sign up for the newsletter.
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i have this problem
Thanks for sharing this post I am so doing this.
Great tips! I have this problem with WAAAAY too much storage being used up by my photos