Managing 16 GB?

[Jack426]

Thinking about getting a 16 GB iPhone 6+. How hard is it to manage 16 GB as a daily driver?

I think 16gb is still an acceptable amount of storage for most users. (If someone tells you it's not, it's likely because they have hundreds of songs, apps, photos, videos, or a combination of each. It's also likely that they never delete... anything.)

At one point my phone had approximately 100 songs, 200 photos, and about 12 non-Apple apps (including a couple of games.) I still had around 2-3gb free. Hopefully this gives you a good estimate to aid in your descision.

However, I will likely upgrade to the 32gb/64gb version for the next iPhone I get, depending on which model(s) they have. I'm just one of those users who constantly monitor everything, data, storage, etc. Having more storage would likely keep me from monitoring it as much.

I think iCloud Photo Library is terrible, have ended up switching it off because it went mental a couple of weeks ago and kept putting 2 or 3 copies of the same pictures on my phone. Also when I was deleting images they were reappearing by themselves from iCloud just as fast as I was deleting them! I think I may use Dropbox or Flickr apps to manage my photo backups. At least that way you can delete them on your phone and they STAY in the cloud unlike iCloud Photo Library.

I couldn't agree more. I've started using Dropbox, and I occasionally upload my photos to my Mac. Doing this saves the most space on my 16gb iPhone, and keeps me from dealing with the iCloud Photo Library's buggy tendencies. I've also started taking less photos with my iPhone and more with my actual DSLR.

The hardest part was deleting all my photos off my phone (after uploading to Dropbox) it was a nerve-racking moment...

 

[ET iPhone Home]

Thinking about getting a 16 GB iPhone 6+. How hard is it to manage 16 GB as a daily driver?

Don't! Stop! Think! I still have my 5S and I'm managing under 7GB of 16GB. I purchased a 64GB 6+ exactly for this reason. And I'm not a heavy user of apps, music, or photos. I had to recently backup to iTunes and I'm under 7GB left. I guess you can always use iCloud.

 

[C DM]

Don't! Stop! Think! I still have my 5S and I'm managing under 7GB of 16GB. I purchased a 64GB 6+ exactly for this reason. And I'm not a heavy user of apps, music, or photos. I had to recently backup to iTunes and I'm under 7GB left. I guess you can always use iCloud.

As various others have pointed out, depending on your usage it can be quite manageable and often without much work.

 

[XTheLancerX]

My phone is mostly used for safari, social media, YouTube, and occasional games, but they aren't large games at all. Largest app on my entire phone (besides photos) is Crossy Road at 144MB, and half of that is cache too. I reinstall Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to clear the cache on those because those take up a lot. Just cleared up a whole GB of space by doing that today, actually. I get by with 16GB PERFECTLY well and I hate when people say it's lame, or "I'm cheap" because I only get this storage model. There's no point in spending another $100 on storage I'm not gonna use.

I would be happy however if they made the models 32GB at $199 ($649), 64GB at $299 ($749) and 128GB at $499 ($849) because I wouldn't mind having more storage. I would have more extravagant games just in case I leave wifi/cellular and have nothing to do, and I would be able to have a bit more stuff like video or music if I so pleased. The extra wiggle room is nice to have even if you don't necessarily need it because you never know what you might want to get that uses a lot of space. My friend in fact offered to load a bunch of Doctor Who episodes onto my iPad or iPhone recently and I turned it down because I didn't want to suck up all my space with those. Oh well. Was thinking of getting a Netflix subscription anyway.

Also, running 16GB is pretty easy if you actually "clean up" your phone every so often. When I take a lot of pictures, I go back and delete the ones that turned out bad or seemed unnecessary. I delete apps pretty frequently when I find that I don't use them or need them. Even when I used 32GB on my iPod touch awhile back I was the same way. I hate when I feel that I'm wasting space, even if I have a lot of total storage available.

Anyway, if you take TONS of pics, or play lots of games, have lots of media, or foresee yourself doing any of these in the future, I would get the larger storage option. I don't personally use my phone like this, so I don't need the extra space.

 

[Acronyc]

Like others said, it all depends on your usage. My wife has always had a 16GB iPhone (starting with the 4) and has gotten by fine 99% of the time. The only time she had to offload things to her computer was when she took so many videos of newborn puppies every day. Then she went through her storage after a few months of puppy videos. For me I had a 32GB 4s and now a 64GB 6, but I have over 30GB free. Anyway, if you see yourself keeping a lot of large media files on your device, 64GB would probably be better. Otherwise 16GB can be fine.

 

[Xiroteus]

Even though I think 32GB should be the standard entry level storage at the current 16GB price point I do okay with 16GB at the moment.

A little bit of music, couple dozen apps, no videos, photos (that I move and backup within a day) does not take up too much room.

 

[9646829]

Still got 6.2GB left on mine lol.

 

[bransoj]

I've been running a 16GB iPhone 5 since launch day and never had any issues with space really and currently running at 2gb free and never really gets below 1gb. What i've got on the phone can be seen in the attached screenshot with the Music i have the biggest user of my storage at 5.9gb. In terms of photos and videos i dont take loads but what i do every few weeks i use the OneDrive app to upload them then delete off my phone.

I'm lucky that i have unlimited data with 3 in the UK so i do use a few different cloud drives for doing different things all on free plans plus i use Plex for streaming TV\Films from home whilst i'm out etc.

 

[Savor]

16 GB is quite livable.

Photos is only the last four years (1500).
Songs is only 40.
Videos is10 in 720p.
Apps is about 50 (default included) with only 3 games.

I have only used up 7 GB out of 12 avail.

Never go 85% full to keep things fast. Remove junk files (common thing on Android).

Before, I had about 20 GB overall of media files with 5 GB of music and 3 GB of photos and the rest videos. Now it has risen to 87 GB but I plan to keep downloading videos. So before 32 GB was more than enough but now I need 128 GB or 32 (base) + 64 (micro SD) to be safe. A 64 GB won't cut it for me if I plan carrying all my media files around. But since videos take up the most space and I don't always rewatch it and better viewed on a bigger screen, I leave it in the storage drive. The bare minimum of storage is rising because OSes, apps, and files (higher res) is rising.

 

[rui no onna]

The bare minimum of storage is rising because OSes, apps, and files (higher res) is rising.

This is true. I had no problems with storage on an iPhone 2G 16GB even though I stored a couple of thousand songs on there. Nowadays, the OS and apps are much bigger. Storage's an even bigger issue on the iPad where even something like Angry Birds takes up like 250MB. And let's not forget the OTA update to iOS 8 required 3-5GB of free space depending on the device model. Sure, you can update via iTunes but that's a bit of a throwback and not exactly in keeping with Apple's "It just works" slogan.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I am suing 85gb out of my 128. Can not imagine getting by but then I carry all of my music and do download images to DropBox but still want them on my phone.

 

[C DM]

I am suing 85gb out of my 128. Can not imagine getting by but then I carry all of my music and do download images to DropBox but still want them on my phone.

Out of curiosity, how often do you go back to look at photos from a year ago or a few years ago?

 

[Newtons Apple]

Out of curiosity, how often do you go back to look at photos from a year ago or a few years ago?

Most of my images are for workin my company and I both look at and email images taken two or more years ago when suggesting a way of dealing with a customers problem. Believe me, I have over 400GB of images on Dropbox for my company.

 

[cr2]

I believe apps are bigger with more data than the original iPhone 3G. I used to have a lot of space with 8Gb but 16Gb on 5S was too tight (just a few videos and few pictures). OS upgrades also need a lot more space than before.

With 64Gb upgrade is just a little more (in percentage terms) I would go for 64Gb.

64 Gb will have more usable life and a better resale (if it matters to you).

 

[cmichaelb]

Thinking about getting a 16 GB iPhone 6+. How hard is it to manage 16 GB as a daily driver?

It really depends on how you use your phone. IMO go for the 64 gb one

getting a 16GB 6+ was a bad move at my end. i regret it now. i should have spent $100 more to get the 64Gig :/

64GB minimum. Apps sizes, video, photos all keep getting bigger and taking up more space. If you're like me and hate mp3s, lossless music takes up a ton of room.

Just stream your music and videos. Delete games you no longer play. Use cloud and streaming services. Keep apps you really need and delete ones you rarely use. If you love storing videos and playing games, then 16 GB wouldn't be enough for you.

I can manage with only 16 GB (12 GB avail) because I just store my files in a flash drive and recently bought a slim 500 GB Toshiba portable drive at Best Buy for only $35. Get any portable hard drive for under $50 at half a terabyte or more and you should be good. I still have 5 GB left on my phone and just transfer it to that Toshiba Canvio Slim II.

Since I love videos, I know even 64 GB isn't enough for me. I already filled up about 87 GB with 370 GB downloading a ton of YouTube videos including nearly 100 music videos in HD. Luckily, my phone can do OTG and I have a TV that can read most memory storages. Getting a 64 GB for $100 can be a waste of money especially if 720p videos can eat up so much space and most expandable memory cards or flash drives are under $35 with 500 GB-1 TB portable hard drives offering even better value. When you own a portable drive with 500 GB/1 TB, even videos at 1-4 GB start to feel small. At 64 GB or 128 GB, it isn't.

Streaming is okay when at home, but what about those of us that travel a lot?

 

[C DM]

Most of my images are for workin my company and I both look at and email images taken two or more years ago when suggesting a way of dealing with a customers problem. Believe me, I have over 400GB of images on Dropbox for my company.

In that case it makes sense. I think that's likely not the case for many users who won't need something like that, so in many of those instances 16 GB would do just fine.

 

[richwoodrocket]

Get a 64. Don't bother with 16GB.

 

[HeyKatie]

I stupidly got another 16gb this time around because it's what I had the money for! So when I upgrade to the 6s in 2yrs it's going to be 64gb but right now my phone looks like

songs: 3.93gbs at 128 ACC
pics/vids: 138..5 mbs
apps: 1.8 gb
books: 472 kb
documents and data: 146.6 mb
other: 1.22 gb

 

[Newtons Apple]

In that case it makes sense. I think that's likely not the case for many users who won't need something like that, so in many of those instances 16 GB would do just fine.

With a 16GB iPhone you will be always optimizing what you keep and what you do not keep. I would not recommend it unless funds were the limiting factor. A 64GB iPhone is a more viable solution for most!

 

[C DM]

With a 16GB iPhone you will be always optimizing what you keep and what you do not keep. I would not recommend it unless funds were the limiting factor. A 64GB iPhone is a more viable solution for most!

Again, it depends on what you do with the phone. There are plenty of people that mainly would use the phone for calls, some mesaaging, some email, some internet, some photos here and there, and maybe a few apps like some sports scores or weather or even some social networking. In many instances like that even after a year or two of usage they still easily have a few gigs free without ever doing any optimizing or management of anything.

 

[Cayden]

I always had a 16 GB before the 6, and I'd for sure recommend getting the 64. It's only $100 more and gives you 4x the amount of storage. I was fine constantly keeping my storage in check with the 16 and it will be okay to have, but it's far better to have the 64 because there is no need to check storage left, back anything up elsewhere, or delete things you could possibly use later

 

[Newtons Apple]

Again, it depends on what you do with the phone. There are plenty of people that mainly would use the phone for calls, some mesaaging, some email, some internet, some photos here and there, and maybe a few apps like some sports scores or weather or even some social networking. In many instances like that even after a year or two of usage they still easily have a few gigs free without ever doing any optimizing or management of anything.

For the extra money the 64GB midel is STILL the best choice. Most others think so, too.

 

[pooleman]

I currently have the iPhone 6 Plus 64GB. If I could do it over I would have gotten the 16GB model and just spent $200 extra on a 2 TB wireless hard drive. Then I could have my entire movie, music and picture library that I could stream right to the phone when needed and still have 16 GB of music on the phone for when I'm jogging or whatever.

 

[C DM]

For the extra money the 64GB midel is STILL the best choice. Most others think so, too.

That's certainly worthwhile advice for many. Just as saving $100 can be worthwhile for others who have been and could be just fine with 16 GB depending on their use. There isn't just one paricular advice that fits everyone. indeed

 

[Newtons Apple]

I currently have the iPhone 6 Plus 64GB. If I could do it over I would have gotten the 16GB model and just spent $200 extra on a 2 TB wireless hard drive. Then I could have my entire movie, music and picture library that I could stream right to the phone when needed and still have 16 GB of music on the phone for when I'm jogging or whatever.

Hard to get 16GB of music on a 16GB iPhone.

I do not wish to carry a wireless drive as I use DropBox.

What is great here is we all have choices.