Does your iPhone, iCloud, or Gmail or Google Drive tell you to ‘upgrade’ your storage monthly? Instead you should adopt/create your own personal file management system.
To do so is simple.
There are countless external hard drives today that will help you store your files offline and provide you with excess hardware storage for less than monthly subscriptions for additional ‘cloud storage’. I recommend purchasing a SSD (Solid State Drive) with the latest USB 3.2+ 10GB/s transfer speeds. Apple iPhone 13 Pro devices can go up to 512GB/1TB of hardware storage. Check Apple Specs for your device if you are unsure.
If you have a laptop or a Macbook, you can check your hardware storage under Mac > About this Mac > Storage:
To increase your storage you should purchase an external SSD and I recommend at least 1TB in size. Today you should be able to find a 5TB external hard drive for under $200.
Here are some good ones in doing a quick search on dealnews.com for some recent deals:
Make sure if you have a Mac that they include a USB-C connector or that the external hard drive is compatible with Mac.
Once you receive the Hard Drive, plug it in to setup and many will come with software to install or pre-installed. You can use this if lightweight (not a lot of setup) and easy to use!
My recommendation on cleaning up file storage is to determine what is causing you to use a lot of storage (Apps, Photos, PDF’s, or large file formats for gaming, system files, or other documents).
You can then create a folder for offloading any large files for future reference and I suggest using a naming convention of YEAR-MONTH-DATE and type of files. Typically I will backup my Desktop and Downloads as a way to clear up space every few months.
You could also apply this to iPhone photos by dragging photos, iCloud files to your folder. This will then allow you to fill up space on your hard drive and then free up your laptop, or mobile devices!
Feel free to leave any comments below if you have used this strategy or another one to clear up space. Let me know if you run into any issues in your personal storage management journey!