There's a huge storage hog on the 16GB iPhone that Apple won't let you delete

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Skye Gould/Tech Insider

Photos, videos, apps, and even text messages. These are the usual suspects to blame when you get the "Storage Full" alert on your 16GB iPhone's storage.

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It's actually possible to manage all those suspects to avoid the dreaded alert, especially if you follow our handy iPhone storage-saving tips.

Yet, there's another culprit that can take up a huge amount of your iPhone's storage. Most of your apps are storing a bunch of data on top of the apps themselves, and there's no good solution to deal with it.

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For example, the Facebook app on my iPhone is only 116 megabytes, but the app is also storing over 400 megabytes of cached data, which revs up the total to more than 500 megabytes. I've even seen reports of the Facebook app taking up 6GB of storage.

And other apps take up more space than their original size, too. Snapchat, an 80-megabyte app, is taking up nearly 500 megabytes of my iPhone. And Twitter is using up 290 megabytes when the app itself is only 71 megabytes.

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All that cached data includes things like webpages, data, and other content from links you clicked within the app, and it's designed so you can access those linked websites or content faster, even when you're offline. For other apps, it could be similar kinds of data, too.

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At the same time, I've personally never felt the benefits of all that cached data. I can safely say that my experience with all these apps that cache a ton of data is just as good when I first install them as it is after they've built up all this extra data.

You're expecting me to naysay the app makers for allowing their apps to store so much data on our phones, even when we don't want it.

Not so. The problem is with iOS, the 16GB iPhone, and the fact that Apple doesn't let you manage/delete that extra app data.

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Why? Because Android lets you ditch that extra data, which means it isn't a necessary component for your apps, and there's no good reason why Apple doesn't let you do the same on your iPhone.

It's not a requirement by any means, nor does Android prompt you that you need to do so. But the fact that Android users have the choice is part of the reason why Android is a better operating system, in my opinion.

fbook android cache app data

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Aaaaand it's gone.

Unfortunately for iOS users, there's no good way to clear that seemingly unnecessary data to make space for other things like photos, videos, and other apps. Y'know, things you actually want.

The only way to delete that extra app data in iOS is to delete the app entirely and reinstall it, which is not a good or realistic solution. Who wants to constantly delete their apps every so often? All it takes is 30 seconds in the Android settings to clear an app's data cache.

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That brings me to the 16GB iPhone. It's commonly frowned upon by the tech media, myself included, that Apple keeps selling it, especially when its users don't have decent control over the already limited storage. Yet, no matter how loudly we moan, most people who want an iPhone will still get the 16GB iPhone because it is the cheapest option of the most desirable gadget on the planet.

If $650 is the most you're willing to pay for a smartphone, and you're fed up with your iPhone running out space, my advice is to get an Android phone. Namely, get the Google Nexus 5X or Nexus 6P.

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