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If your iPhone is running out of space, go to the Settings app to see what you can get rid of to free up some space. Here, under the General menu, you can look at your iPhone’s Storage screen to see a detailed list of what it has. But you might be annoyed to see that some of your Delete iPhone Other storage is being used by files that are just labeled “Other.”
(It may also be called “System Data” on devices with the iOS 15 update.) In this guide, we’ll talk about what might be in the Other/System Data storage category and how to clear it out to make room.
How to Delete iPhone Other Storage
Clear Safari cache
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Safari.
- Scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data.
- In the popup, tap Clear History and Data.
- Tap Close Tabs or Keep Tabs.
Auto-delete messages
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Messages.
- Scroll down to the Message History section and tap Keep Messages.
- Choose a time period to keep messages, such as 1 Year or 30 Days.
Offload apps
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap General.
- Tap iPhone Storage.
- Wait for the list of installed apps on your phone to load and tap on the one you want to offload.
- Tap Offload App.
- In the pop-up, tap Offload App.
Delete social media app cache
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap General.
- Tap iPhone Storage.
- Wait for the list of apps you’ve installed to load. Apps like Music and Photos store your personal files, so don’t use them.
- You can compare that to what the App Store says about the real size of the app.
- If the app’s cache is very big, you can delete it by going back to the Settings app and tapping “Delete app.”
What Is System Data in iPhone Storage?
On your iPhone or iPad, the System Data category is where your caches, settings, saved messages, voice memos, and, well, any other random data is kept. Apple used to call this “Other storage” in older versions of iOS. Most of the time, these files are too small to have their own folders, so your iPhone or iPad puts them all in the System Data or Other folder.
Renaming Other to System Data makes it clearer what’s in the folder, so it’s better and less mysterious. Even so, there is no easy way to find the files in the folder and delete them because they are all in the same category. But don’t fret; difficult does not mean impossible. We’ll give you some ideas on how to deal with this problem.
What is iPhone Other Storage?
Before we talk about how to clear or delete Other Storage on an iPhone, let’s first talk about what it is. Because these files are too small to have their own folders on your phone, they are all put in the Other Storage folder.
In the latest version of iOS, “Other Storage” is now called “System Data,” which makes more sense and makes it clearer what the folder is for. But even after that, you might still find it hard to find the files in your iPhone’s Other Storage and delete them.