Every time Apple releases a new version of iOS, the chorus of complaints about the update’s huge file size flows like a river of First World Problems. This was the scene on Wednesday afternoon following the release of iOS 8.
Apple really has me messed up if I’m finna delete my whole damn life to make room for this update.
— Chels. (@ChelseaMonAmour) September 17, 2014
Got to delete half the stuff on my phone to make room for this update
— Cretin. (@Sean_Oliver_96) September 17, 2014
The entire western world embarks on an agonising 24hrs, where they’ll decide which Snapchat videos to delete to make room for #iOS8
— Jodie O’Rourke (@jodieorourke) September 17, 2014
While this ritual digital purging might seem stressful at first, it’s better to look at it as a periodic housecleaning exercise. Here are some of the things you should delete first when you’re preparing your phone for iOS 8.
Selfies
Me trying to make room for iOS 8 pic.twitter.com/y4ZxUYAOGO
— ange (@angela_marie123) September 17, 2014
delete all your selfies and then you’ll have enough room to download — Amber (@missambear) September 17, 2014
Do you really need fifteen photos of yourself holding a forkful of that delicious pie up to your mouth?
Offline app storage
Whether it’s months of old emails, archived digital issues of the New York Times, or gigabytes of Spotify tracks, your iPhone amasses quite the pile of offline material if you don’t regularly clean out your apps. If you’re chooing between updating to iOS 8 and preserving your ability to listen to “Rude” wherever you go, is it really a choice?
Games
Why are you still playing FarmVille anyway? Stop that.
Screenshots of news articles
You’ve already tweeted that really hot take from the New Yorker. You don’t need a picture of your cursor selecting the killer paragraph anymore.
Religious books?
Gotta make room for iOS8 #ForgiveMe pic.twitter.com/EsZXF75m0t
— satchmo (@Mo_iB) September 17, 2014
Lord forgive me, but I gotta make room for this update…🙇 pic.twitter.com/cua8uRATmY
— Dev ▪️ (@JustDev__) September 17, 2014
How can any just god blame you for doing this?
Duplicate apps
Every little bit of space counts. You have seven different messaging apps, none of your friends even use Telegram or WhatsApp, and you only downloaded them to test them out. (OK, you probably have that one friend who insists on actually using WhatsApp. But you can still text her. She’s not disabling text messages. She’s not crazy.) Take this opportunity to delete apps that you find redundant.
Once you’re done deleting everything on your phone, install iOS 8 and bask in the feeling of the fresh start that Apple just forced you to make.
Photo via Jeff Turner/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
