It seems as though our phones are always running low on storage space. Whether it’s getting a new app or taking photos of your pets or family, your phone storage seems suddenly filled to the brim. Luckily, you don’t have to buy a whole new device to upgrade on storage space. Instead, there a few low-cost storage solutions that can go a long way in allowing you to store more on your device.
Cloud Storage Solutions
Before we go into specifics, we want to be sure you’re familiar with the cloud. Your devices have a hard drive, an internal device with limited storage capacity. At some point, your hard drive fills up and is unable to hold more information. Cloud storage allows you to store and access data over the internet instead of on your hard drive.
iCloud
For those with an iPhone or Apple device, iCloud is a great storage solution. iCloud allows you to store pictures, videos, documents, music, and app data across all of your Apple devices, all in one place. Every iCloud account gets 5GB of storage for mail, documents, photos, videos, and device backups. If you need more than 5GB of storage, for only 99 cents a month you can upgrade to 50GB. For 200GB it’s $2.99/month and for 2TB it’s $9.99/month. Most people will have more than enough storage at the cheapest option with 50GB.
Dropbox
If you do not have an Apple device or do not want to use iCloud for storage, another great storage solution is DropBox. DropBox is also a cloud storage device, so you can copy files from your device to the cloud and access it later, even if you are on a different device. DropBox can be used on any device, and it is also a great way to share documents or photos with other people. The free version of DropBox is likely all you will need, but there are paid versions as well that offer additional features and more storage. The free version of DropBox includes 2GB of storage, and you can sign up on dropbox.com by clicking “Get DropBox Basic.”
OneDrive
OneDrive is another cloud storage device operated through Microsoft, which offers 5GB of free storage to anyone with a Microsoft account. For just $2 a month, you can update to 50GB. You can store and access files through OneDrive from a web browser, Windows 10, or the OneDrive app that is available on iOS and Android.
Google Drive
Another free option for saving documents, photos, and more is through Google Drive. Google Drive can be accessed through the creation of a free Google account, and you can access Google Drive through a web browser or through the app. Google also has a storage space specifically for photos called Google Photos, which helps free up much needed space in your camera roll. Photos can eat up storage fast, and Google Photos is a great way to store your photos on your phone or online without depleting your storage.
If you’re looking for more great ways to store photos, check out our “Preserving and Storing Photos” blog!
Internal Storage
Besides using outside storage solutions, you can clear up storage on your phone’s hard drive by simply getting rid of old messages, photos, videos, notes, and apps. You can set up your phone to automatically delete old text messages, which can free up a surprising amount of space. Apps take up large chunks of space as well, so deleting apps that you don’t use often would be a great way to create more storage. You can check to see how much data each app takes up by going to the settings on your phone and looking up data usage. On iPhones there is also an option to offload unused apps, which automatically deletes apps you don’t use when you are low on storage, but saves the data on it if/when you redownload it later.
You don’t need to buy a new phone to make the most of your phone’s storage space. There are free and low-cost storage solutions to expand the amount of storage you have so you don’t have to worry about filling up your camera roll or running low on app space. Get to know each option and find out what storage solution works the best for you!