How To Manage App Offloading And Prevent Your iPhone From Self-Deleting Apps

offloaded apps to free up storage space

Offloaded iOS apps to free up storage space.

Starting with iOS 11 Apple has introduced a new feature called “Offload Unused Apps” which allows your iPhone to self-delete apps in order to free-up storage. This option isn’t enabled by default but it could automatically kick-in when your iOS device runs out of storage space. Especially when you’re attempting to install a software update and there isn’t enough space for the upgrade to be downloaded.

The App Offloading option comes in handy especially to those iPhone owners that haven’t upgraded from the 16 GB versions, but I have to admit that it just happened to my 64 GB iPhone X just a few days ago. Of course, that offloading unused apps is a temporary fix and you’ll have to delete media, apps or any other files that you don’t use in order to be able to install new software or snap more photos.

Tip: You can use one ore more from these 20 tips that help you free up storage space on your iPhone and iPad.

How To Recognize An Offloaded App
Apps that have been self-deleted by your iPhone for storage space optimization, don’t disappear from the Home Screen. They do display a special icon, on the left side, alongside the app’s name. The icon depicts an arrow pointing downwards, a similar symbol with the one you see in the App Store when you attempt to download an app that has been previously downloaded on your device. Check the above print-screen for more details!

Enable/Disable iOS App Offloading
how to enable-disable app offloading This new iOS 11 feature can be activated or turned off from the Settings app:
1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll for iTunes & App Store.
3. Scroll again until you reach the “Offload Unused Apps” option.
4. Tap the knob to enable or disable it.
Fact: Unused apps will be automatically removed but the data and documents are saved. Whenever you reinstall the app the saved data will be restored, as long as the app is still available in the App Store!

How To Manually Offload An Apps
how to manually offload apps from iPhoneYou can also manually identify apps that you don’t use too often and temporarily remove them. Here is what you have to do:
1. Open Settings and tap on General.
2. Next, choose iPhone Storage.
3. Now, you can enable the “Offload Unused Apps” option.
4. Or do it manually by scrolling for the list of apps that occupy the most storage on your device. Below the name you can also check when the app was last used, or if you ever accessed it!
5. If you choose to offload an app manually, tap on its label and hit the Offload App option.
Tip: Notice the Reinstall App option, in case you reconsider and want to get the software back on your device!