Reducing the amount of storage size used by Messages and other apps?

[kat.hayes]

My iPhone shows that Messages is using 2.8GB of data, Safari is using 715MB, Facebook 657MB.

1. How is Messages using that much space? Is this amount based on every photo and video sent to me? Do I need to delete all of my Messages to free this space up? OR is there some other way of doing this?

2. Anyone know if Safari using 715MB and Facebook using 657MB sounds about right? Is that the size of the apps?

Thanks.

 

[Mlrollin91]

My iPhone shows that Messages is using 2.8GB of data, Safari is using 715MB, Facebook 657MB.

1. How is Messages using that much space? Is this amount based on every photo and video sent to me? Do I need to delete all of my Messages to free this space up? OR is there some other way of doing this?

2. Anyone know if Safari using 715MB and Facebook using 657MB sounds about right? Is that the size of the apps?

Thanks.

1) Messages is that big because of attachments. Delete your message threads and you will get the space back. Or, you could go through each strand and delete all the attachments. I keep limited message threads and my space used for Messages is typically under 10MB.
2) Safari and Facebook are caching a lot of information. For Safari go to: Settings -> Safari -> Clear History and Caches. Also, make sure you empty out your offline reading list. My Safari is 2.2MB. For Facebook, delete the app and reinstall.

 

[kat.hayes]

What is the offline reading list and how do you empty it?

Thank you.

 

[Mlrollin91]

What is the offline reading list and how do you empty it?

Thank you.

Go to Settings. General. Storage. Manage Storage. Safari. Offline Reading List.

You can empty them there. Sometimes you can accidentally click "add to reading list" on both your Mac and or iOS device and it saves the article in storage.