iPhones are probably the most trusted smartphones in 2024, but most users face a problem: these phones come with limited storage. Unlike Android phones, iOS devices do not have the option to add external storage cards, such as SD or TF card. This means you have to keep the device’s default storage space.
iPhones are available with bigger capacity versions, such as 1TB, but they are extremely pricey compared to the base models, which typically come with 64GB of storage space; therefore, most customers prefer cheaper variants.
Once your storage space is full, using your iPhone may not be easy since you cannot receive messages, media material, or downloads. Now, the most popular and widely used remedy to this problem is deleting existing content from the device, which we believe is not optimal.
If you don’t want to destroy your precious memories but want extra storage space, follow this guide. Here, we have explained how you can buy more iPhone storage instead of deleting stuff or buying another model with more storage.
How to Buy More Storage? – Can I Expand?
The fact is, you cannot increase the local storage on your iPhone. If you want to increase your phone’s storage space, you need to buy internal (cloud-based) storage. You must know that every iPhone is built with a dedicated physical storage space, which you cannot modify, no matter your technical expertise.
If you want excessive physical storage space, you must always buy the upper variants, but if you want to stick with your existing device, you can buy more iCloud storage. This would allow you to store all your important data in the cloud and free up your physical memory.
The process of buying storage is quite easy, and we will discuss the steps later in this guide.
What to Consider When Buying Extra Storage for an iPhone?
Before you buy more storage for your iPhone, you need to make sure that you consider your individual needs. You need to check if you have large media files stored on your phone that you also want to keep on it. In this kind of situation, you have to buy iCloud storage.
But if you don’t need the files on your mobile, but they are important, you can always consider buying an external storage drive to transfer your data. You can transfer those files to your personal computer and store them there, or you can share them on an external hard drive, USB, or whatever medium you find suitable and affordable.
How to Buy More Storage on an iPhone with iCloud+?
If you have decided that you need more storage on your iPhone and don’t want to carry the responsibility of an external drive, you must buy storage with iCloud. Here, we have explained the process in detail, following which you can easily buy more storage on your phone.
- Open your iPhone Settings
First, you have to open up the settings on your iPhone. You need to access your iCloud account to buy storage. You will find the iCloud option at the top of the settings menu.
- Tap on Your Name
You will find your name at the top of the settings menu. You have to click or tap on your name at the top, open the account center, and access the additional options on the iCloud.
- Tap on iCloud
By tapping on iCloud, the settings will appear on your screen. Here, your phone would tell you how much storage space you have consumed and how much space remains.
- Scroll Down to Upgrade to iCloud+
You must upgrade your account if you haven’t tried iCloud+ and want excessive storage. You will find this option at the end of the iCloud settings menu. Click on the iCloud+ option to update your storage plan.
- Choose an iCloud+ Subscription
If you are willing to pay a premium price to get more storage for your phone, you must ensure you get the best iCloud+ plans.
By choosing the large storage space and cloud server plans, you would no longer have to worry about losing your precious photos or videos.
You can shift all your data to the cloud; this way, you would not have to worry about losing it even if your physical device gets damaged or lost.
Below, we have mentioned some of the plans for iCloud.
| iCloud+ Storage Packages | |||
| Free | $0.99/Month | $2.99/Month | $9.99/Month |
| 5 GB | 50 GB | 200 GB | 2 TB |
| – | Hide my email | Hide my email | Hide my email |
| – | iCloud private relay | iCloud private relay | iCloud private relay |
| – | Custom domain | Custom domain | Custom domain |
You can also get additional storage space of 200GB if you subscribe to the Apple One plan. By subscribing to the iCloud+ storage plans, you don’t only get more storage, but you also get ad-on services such as Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV. You can also get these services by paying for a monthly subscription.
How Do I Buy More Storage on an iPhone, not iCloud?
As mentioned earlier, every iPhone built out of the factory comes with a set storage space under the category or variant. You cannot increase its storage space by adding a storage drive, as you can with Android phones. The only way to increase storage on your iPhone is by buying more virtual memory from iCloud. Besides this, there is no other alternative or solution to get more storage.
An important point you need to note is that there is one other option you can avail of to increase the virtual storage on your iPhone device. If you have an account on OneDrive, you can easily buy more storage for up to 1TB by paying for an annual subscription that costs around $100! You can save your multimedia content on one drive and enable regular backups.
What’s the Difference Between Device Storage and Cloud Storage?
Device storage, also known as internal storage, is the amount of memory space you get on your device from the factory. As an iPhone user, you would know that these devices come in different storage variants, such as 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and even 1TB. All data on your phone, including contacts, images, videos, and other stuff, is saved on your device’s local storage. Once it gets full, you cannot increase it. The only way to save new stuff is by deleting old ones or getting cloud storage.
Cloud storage, on the other hand, is digital or virtual storage. This is the storage you get on the private cloud servers developed by iOS. You can get this storage by subscribing to the iCloud+ packages. Cloud storage allows you to buy cheaper variants with less storage and make up for it by providing virtual space.
Note that cloud storage can be increased, whereas there is no way to increase the physical storage of your iPhone.
How Can I Avoid Paying for More Storage?
If you don’t want to pay for more storage and are looking for an alternative solution if your physical storage is full, you can delete any unnecessary data you saved in your gallery. Along with clearing out your gallery, you can also go through the apps you have installed on your iPhone and get rid of any you don’t use.
Another way to avoid paying for storage is by transferring all your gallery data to your PC or a hard drive. After shifting your data to your computer, you can delete it from your phone and make ample space. This is probably one of the easiest ways to avoid paying for more storage.
You can also get free storage space from iCloud if you don’t want to pay for premium subscriptions. You can get 5 GB of free space and shift pictures or video files.
If you have already availed of free storage and still want more space, you can also use online image compressor and video compressor tools to reduce the size of your existing media content. This way, you can keep your data, but at a compromised quality.
Last Words
This was all from our side. If you want to buy more storage space for your iPhone, the easiest way is to subscribe to iCloud and pay for virtual storage. This guide explains the process to help you buy additional storage. Buying a new phone for more storage is not smart, so we suggest you stick to your current iPhone and claim cloud storage by paying a monthly or annual fee. If you don’t want to pay for storage, you can also follow some of the expert strategies discussed in this guide. After reading this blog post, we hope you know how to get more storage for your iPhone. For more details and interesting information about iOS devices, stay tuned with Strategy Finders!
