December is drawing to a close and 2023 will be upon us in just a couple of weeks. With the holidays and holiday breaks approaching, the end of the month is a great time to sit down and do some iPhone maintenance to get you ready for the new year.
If you’re like many of us here at MacRumors, you have a lot of problems in the form of photos that need to be cleaned up, old apps that need to be removed, contacts that need to be deleted, and more, so we thought we’d put together some helpful tips on organizing and optimizing your iPhone that can save space and make your device feel less cluttered.
delete old photos
I bought a house this year and have about a thousand photos of peeling paint on the ceiling, marks on the floor, fallen trees, blooming crawlspace, overflowing rain gutters, and dozens of other little household problems that you photograph. If you find yourself in the same situation, now is a good time to organize those pictures into albums, move them off the iPhone to a dedicated album on your Mac or other device, or delete them.
On iPhone, just open the Photos app, select everything you don’t need, and add it to an album with Share Sheet or delete it. You can also move it to something like the Files app to keep a copy that doesn’t clutter up your Photos app, which is what I’m going to do.
iOS 16 added a useful feature to merge contacts if you have duplicates. Just open the Contacts app and it will let you know at the top if there are duplicates, which can be merged with a tap.
If you have old contacts that you no longer talk to, this is also a good time to go through and delete anything irrelevant to clean up your contact list.
Delete unused apps
Apple gives you several ways to get rid of apps you no longer use, but perhaps the most efficient way is to simply open the Settings app, go to General, and choose iPhone Storage. From there, you can see what’s taking up a lot of space, and you can get rid of what you’re no longer using to save home screen space on your iPhone and storage space.
delete old messages
Old iMessages, especially those with a lot of images, can take up a surprising amount of space. While deleting apps, check Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Messages to see what is taking up the most space in the app. From there, tap on a category like photos or videos to remove old content.
Please note that it may take some time to upload your photos and videos.
Clean up old reminders and notes
While you’re going through photos, messages, and unused apps, it’s probably a good idea to delete old Notes and Reminders from those apps, too, respectively.
I’m not good at keeping up with Notes in particular, and it can get cluttered with content I no longer need. It’s not a big deal, but it feels refreshing to empty it once in a while. Deleting notes is as simple as opening the Notes app and swiping to the left, and the same goes for Reminders.
Check your notification settings
Throughout the year, it’s easy to download apps, forget about them, and remove the excess notifications you start getting that you don’t really need. Deleting apps solves the problem, but you may have apps you want to keep that you don’t need notifications from.
In Settings > Notifications, you can manage all your apps and decide which ones can send notifications and which ones can’t. Clearing notifications can lead to fewer distractions, and it’s also helpful to add apps to the App Summary so you only hear from them once a day.
Check battery usage
It’s a good idea to check your battery usage from time to time so you can see which apps are consuming your battery and where you’re spending your time to see if there are any areas where changes can be made.
In Settings > Battery, you can see the last 24 hours and the last 10 days of app usage, with a breakdown of which apps used the most battery. It lets you know if your battery has been drained due to active use or background activity, which can be useful if you’re looking to maximize battery life.
If you have apps like Photos or Weather that update in the background when you don’t really need them, you can turn off background updates. Go to General > Background App Refresh to turn on per-app background refresh.
More tips
There are many more management categories you can delve into, with some tips for organizing and updating below.
Check your files in iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Box, or any other cloud service you use. Clean up your email inbox, deleting old emails to save space and get to inbox zero. Check 1Password or your password manager app to update old passwords, close old accounts, or get rid of data you no longer need. Rearrange apps into folders for a more organized Home Screen. Review the Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets to make sure everything is still relevant and nothing isn’t in use. Update locations in the Weather app to clear old vacation spots or other weather information you don’t need. Update your Favorites in Maps. Update your Apple Music playlists. Update all your apps and make sure software updates are installed on all your devices. Install HomeKit firmware updates on any device that needs to be updated.
Do you have a suggestion?
What’s on your end-of-year iPhone maintenance and upgrade list? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: news.google.com