How To: Clean out your iPhone’s memory

Lucy Hattersley shows how to remove unwanted junk from iPhone and give your handset a speed boost

The iPhone and iPad are pretty user-friendly devices, but iOS still gets clogged up over time with unwanted file and memory hogs. This can slow your iPhone down. In this article, we’re going to look at how to clean iOS junk files and get the iPhone to run a little faster.

Giving your iPhone (or iPad) a spring clean and removing unwanted files will improve its performance: especially if it is an older model. But spring-cleaning also helps you get more out of iOS by enabling you to focus on the things you do need

and use. Apple iOS devices may not need the same level of maintenance as Mac OS X), but they still need some attention to run at optimum speed.

Delete the Safari cache

We’re going to start by cleaning out the caches on our iPhone. Note that this will mean you’re logged out of any websites you’ve signed into, though. Follow these steps to clear out the Safari cache:

Press Settings > Safari. Scroll down and tap Clear History and Website Data.

Tap Clear History and Data.

Remove file data

Data stored by other apps can be cleaned using the Usage option in settings. Follow these steps to clean out unwanted data from iOS:

Tap Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage. Tap Manage Storage.

Tap an item in Documents and Data. Slide unwanted items to the left and tap Delete.

Tap Edit > Delete All to remove all the app’s data.

Clean iOS junk using PhoneClean

PhoneClean (imobie.com) can be used to remove junk files from iOS. Follow these steps:

Attach the iPhone to your Mac using the USB cable.

Open Phone Clean and click Scan.

Once the scan is complete, click Clean.

Some PhoneClean features are only available in the Pro version, including Photo Caches, which costs from $19.99 per year.

Clean iOS junk using iMyFone Umate

Much like PhoneClean by iMobie, iMyFone Umate for Windows and Mac can be used to remove temporary and junk files from your iOS device quickly and easily.

Connect your iPhone to your PC or Mac using the supplied Lightning cable.

Open iMyFone Umate and click Scan on the Home tab.

Clear Junk files and Temporary files to clear up a lot of space on your iPhone. You can also clear out any large files (videos, and so on) and see, at a glance, apps that take up a

lot of space on your iOS device. These can also be deleted easy using iMyFone Umate.

There’s a free version of iMyFone Umate (imyfone.com) available for Windows and Mac along with a paid version which sets you back $19.99 (around £15), allowing access to the more advanced features of the app.

Recover memory

Apple iOS should manage your memory effectively. And apps that are running in the background should not take up memory. Having said that, we do find that restarting an iPhone clears all the memory and ensures that the apps we need have enough to use. Here is how to restart your iPhone:

Hold down the Sleep/Wake button until ‘slide to power off ’ appears.

Slide the power off switch and turn off the iPhone. Wait until it has fully powered down then press the Sleep/Wake button to turn on the iPhone.

Doing this on a regular basis used to be vital on an iPhone, and it’s still useful on older models.

Clear iOS files and memory using Battery Doctor

There are several apps on the App Store that enable you to clean out junk files. One popular option is Battery Doctor (tinyurl.com/La3o6bd), which provides information about your battery but also clears out junk files. Follow these steps:

Open Battery Doctor and select the Junk tab.

Tap Clean Up Cache, then Clean.

Wait for Battery Doctor to scan your files. Tap Memory and then Boost.

Battery Doctor will show you how much memory has been released.