How to Clear System Data on iPhone? 7 Ways!

Is your iPhone running low on storage? How to clear system data on your iPhone?

System data, including cache files, logs, and temporary data, accumulates as you use it and takes up much of your device’s storage space.

If you’re looking for effective ways to free up space and improve iPhone performance, this guide will walk you through the practical steps to clear system data.

7 Ways to Clear System Data on iPhone

Way 1: Restart Your iPhone

If your iPhone’s system data takes up too much space, one simple and effective method is restarting your device. A quick restart can help clear temporary system files and free up storage. Here’s how to do it:

• Press and hold the Power button.
• When the “Slide to power off” option appears, swipe to turn off your iPhone.
• Wait a minute, then turn your iPhone back on by pressing the Power button again.

This refreshes system processes and removes unnecessary background data.

Way 2: Clear Safari Cache & Website Data

While restarting your device can quickly free up some system data, it’s not very effective. If your iPhone’s system data takes up too much space, try clearing Safari’s cache and website data.

Safari stores cached data to speed up browsing, but over time, this can take up a lot of space. Here’s how:

• Open Settings on your iPhone.
• Scroll down and tap Safari.
• Scroll to the bottom and select Clear History and Website Data.
• Tap Clear History and Data in the pop-up window to confirm.

If you want more control over the website data stored: In Safari settings, tap Advanced > Website Data. Tap Delete All Website Data to clear everything or delete specific websites individually.

This process will delete temporary files Safari stores and help free up system storage space.

Read more: How to Clear Cache and Cookies on Chrome: Step-by-Step Guide

Way 3: Delete Unused Apps

If you download many apps, they take up your phone’s memory. You can effectively clean up system data by deleting useless apps (apps that have not been used in the past 3 months).

• Open “Settings” > “General” > “iPhone Storage.”
• Scroll through the list of apps.
• Tap on the app you no longer need.
• Select “Delete App” to completely delete it.

If you want to free up space but keep the app data for future use, you can uninstall the app:

• Go to “Settings” > “General” > “iPhone Storage”.
• Tap on an app and select “Offload App.”

Way 4: Clear Unused Messages & Photos/Videos

In addition to the above three methods, you can also try to delete old messages, photos, and videos to free up system data. These files will accumulate over time and take up a lot of space.

1. Set the message retention time: Open “Settings” and tap “Messages.” Scroll to “Keep Messages” and select “30 Days” or “1 Year.” This automatically deletes old messages that exceed the set time.
2. Delete large attachments: Go to “Settings” > “General” > “iPhone Storage.” Scroll down and select “Messages.” Under “Large Attachments,” manually delete unnecessary photos, videos, or files.
3. Clear useless photos and videos: Open the “Photos” app. Browse your albums, select unnecessary files, and tap the trash can icon to delete them.
4. Empty the “Recently Deleted” folder: Deleted photos will be kept in the “Recently Deleted” album for 30 days. Open “Photos” > “Albums” > “Recently Deleted.” Tap “Delete All” to permanently delete them.
5. Use optimized storage: Open “Settings” > “Photos.” Enable “Optimize iPhone Storage”. This stores high-resolution photos in iCloud while keeping smaller versions on your device.

Regularly managing your messages, photos, and videos can help free up space and improve your iPhone’s overall performance.

Way 5: Clear App Cache

The apps you download continuously store cache data that can take up a lot of space and slow down your iPhone. While iOS doesn’t offer a universal cache-clearing option, you can manually clear the cache of some apps.

Some apps, like Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, and Disney Plus, allow you to delete cache directly from their settings. For example, to clear the cache on Spotify:

• Open the Spotify app.
• Tap your profile icon in the top-left corner.
• Select Settings & Privacy > Storage.
• Tap Clear Cache to delete the stored data.

Way 6: Delete iOS Update Files

If your iPhone has automatically downloaded an iOS update but you haven’t installed it yet, the update file may be taking up valuable storage space. You can delete it to free up space.

• Open Settings
• Go to General Settings
• Select iPhone Storage to see a breakdown of storage usage.
• Find the iOS update file
• Tap it and select Delete Update.

Rest assured that this process will only delete the downloaded update file, not the current iOS version on your iPhone.

Way 7: Use Third-Party Storage Cleaner Apps

Third-party storage cleaning apps can help manage iPhone storage, but due to iOS limitations, they cannot delete system files, caches, or logs. However, they can identify and delete duplicate photos and large files, clean junk files, unused documents, etc.

• iPhone Phone Cleaner: Find duplicate photos and large files
• Cleaner Pro: Helps delete unnecessary files
• Gemini Photos: Organize and clean up photo storage

How to Prevent iPhone from Storing Useless System Data?

We’ve already provided 7 ways to clean up system data, but before you do, some settings can prevent your iPhone from storing unnecessary system data:

1. Set messages to automatically delete: Old messages and attachments will accumulate over time. You can set your iPhone to delete them automatically: Go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages, and select 30 days or 1 year to delete old messages.
2. Clear app cache regularly: Some apps allow you to clear the cache in their settings.
3. Monitor storage usage: Monitoring storage space can help you understand what’s taking up space. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, check which apps and files take up the most space, and delete unnecessary apps and files.
4. Limit background app refresh: Many apps store extra data in the background. To limit this, Turn on Settings > General > Background App Refresh. Select “Off” or “On Wi-Fi Only” to prevent unnecessary data usage.

What is System Data on iPhone?

System data on your iPhone refers to the storage space used by cache files, system logs, and temporary data generated by iOS. These files help speed up processes and improve performance but can accumulate over time and take up a lot of space.

System data includes the following:

• Cache files: Stored by apps and iOS to load commonly used data faster.
• System logs: Track system activity and errors to help troubleshoot problems.
• Software update files: Temporary files left behind by iOS updates.
• Downloaded Siri voices and fonts: Extra system features you install.
• CloudKit database files: Data for non-Apple apps that sync with iCloud.

You can’t delete system data with a single click. However, managing storage by clearing the cache and deleting unnecessary files can help you control your iPhone’s system data.

Why is My iPhone System Data So High?

If you’re wondering why your iPhone’s system data takes up so much storage space, here are some answers:

• Cached files: Your iPhone stores temporary files to help apps and the internet run faster. This includes everything from data in Safari to files from other apps.
• Message attachments: If you constantly send or receive photos, videos, and GIFs, the attachments can pile up, even if you delete conversations. Some data stays in the system, taking up storage space.
• Failed updates and logs: When an iOS update doesn’t go as planned, temporary files are left on your device. Additionally, system logs that track performance or errors can add to the storage load.
• Streaming content: If you frequently stream music or videos, your device will store content and cached data from those services.
• Bugs in iOS: Occasionally, bugs in iOS can cause system data to grow unexpectedly.

FAQs About Clearing System Data

1. How to Check System Data Usage on iPhone?

Open the Settings app from the home screen, scroll down, and tap General. Then, go to iPhone Storage to view the storage details. Scroll to the bottom to find System Data, which includes system files, cached data, and other background resources.

2. How do I stop my iPhone system services using data?

To stop iPhone system services from using data, you can follow these steps:

• Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn off apps that don’t need to use data.
• Go to Settings > Cellular, scroll down, and turn off cellular data for apps and services that don’t need to use data.
• Go to Settings > App Store, turn off Automatic Downloads and Use Cellular Data for apps and updates.
• Go to Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive and disable Use Cellular Data if you don’t need iCloud syncing over mobile data.

These steps can help reduce the amount of data system services used on your iPhone.