Reclaiming space iOS7 took from your iPhone

WASHINGTON – Techies everywhere are talking about iOS7, the newest operating system for Apple’s mobile devices.

But many may not realize when they upgraded their iPhones they lost 3.1 gigabytes of space. So if you’re an iPhone user, it’ll soon be time to clean out the cobwebs.

Here are some ideas about what to clean out first.

The website Mashable suggests starting with the major space suckers. On the device, go to General, then settings Settings and finally click Usage. The tool allows users to see what takes up the most space on their phone. Chances are it’s not apps. The larger culprits are photos, music and photos.

Videos and photos

The site suggests backing up any videos on a computer or uploading them to a cloud storage site like Dropbox. HD videos can take up to 78 megabites per minute, the site says — so deleting them off the phone should reclaim some space. Same goes for photos.

Make an album of older photos to keep on the phone and back up and delete the rest.

Music

Each MP3 takes up about 3MBs of space, according to the Mashable article, so chances are if you’re storing all your music on your phone, it takes up a good amount of room. Try music streaming apps like Pandora or Spotify to listen to your favorite artists and save a few playlists on your phone. The rest needs to hit the dusty trail.

Apps

Most apps don’t use that much space, but if you’ve downloaded some you never use, it’s not a bad idea to clear some space. Hold down the app until it starts moving and hit the black x to delete it.

Cache clearing

If you use your phone for browsing, clearing out the cache might get rid of extra information your phone is holding onto. In your General Settings, click Usage to see if the data can be deleted.

Little things

A few tweaks might help make your phone run minimally faster — including deleting old contacts, completed reminders, old notes and text messages.

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