This Genius Trick Frees Up Space On Your Phone For More Travel Photos

When you’re enjoying the perfect vacation, you want to capture those one-of-a-kind memories to enjoy when you’re back home, and that means being snap happy on your camera or, more likely, your phone. But with that comes one major fear: running out of space. Here are some hacks to make sure that doesn’t happen on your next adventure.

In the Cloud

If you haven’t backed up your photos on the cloud already, you should. And you can also use online storage to save space on your device. On the iPhone, there’s a simple setting which ensures your phone optimizes the space in the cloud and minimizes the space taken up on your phone. Just go to settings, then iCloud, hit photos, and choose “optimize storage”.

It’s also worth checking you’re not double saving your iPhone photos. If you use the HDR mode or take photos on Instagram, there’s a chance you’re doubling up on your images. To stop HDR photos saving twice, go to settings, photos & camera, scroll to the bottom and uncheck “keep normal photo”. To stop this happening on Instagram, go to settings in the app and untick the “save original photos” box.

If you’re using an Android, the Google Photos app is your friend here. Simply open the app and go to settings, then turn on “back up & sync”. Now you can delete the images from your device while enjoying unlimited space with Google Photos.

Morning photos on Instagram can double up on your phone

Clean up your data

There are numerous things you can do to get rid of unnecessary data on your phone. If you get all of these are covered, you’ll have much more space for those precious photos.

Firstly, on the iPhone, you should be making sure text messages aren’t being stored forever. You can avoid this by going to settings > messages > message history and selecting “keep messages”. The default setting is forever, but by changing it to one year or less, you’ll ensure no old messages are taking up space.

You also need to clear your cache. On the iPhone browser, this is really easy to do. Go to settings and select Safari, scroll down and hit “clear history and website data”. If you use Chrome, you can delete the browsing data in the app by clicking the triple dot button in the top right and hitting history and then “clear browsing data”.

Organize your apps

It sounds obvious but one of the easiest ways to free up some space is to delete those apps you’ve barely used. That means the fitness tracking app you’re too guilty to open, the video game you never worked out how to play, and that magical-sounding organizer that was supposed to sort your life out. And if you’ve already deleted all the apps you don’t need, you can also delete the data created by those you do use. An easy way to do this is to uninstall the app and then reinstall it.

Now you have the space, you can take as many travel photos as you want

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.