When your iPhone goes low on storage, the first thing you’ll probably do is to open the settings app and look for a way to clear up some space. When you visit the settings app, you’ll be surprised to discover a huge “Documents and Data” item that is inordinately taking up the remaining space on your device.
The documents and data come from sources like stock apps and third-party apps. There is also an iCloud documents and data file. If you are wondering how to get rid of documents and data on iPhone, this guide is meant for you. But before that, you need to know what counts as documents and data on the iPhone.
Read Also: Do this to free up more space on your iPhone instantly!
What is Documents and Data on iPhone
Most apps on the iPhone store cache and sign in information so that when you use third party apps on your iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPhone 7, or any other iPhone for that matter. While these apps are in use, extra data like the sign in information and caches and cookies are created by the apps and stored in a folder labeled “Document and Data”.
For instance, if you run Facebook on iPhone 7 and input your username and password, the Facebook icon and the information you typed shall be stored in the “Documents and Data” in your Facebook folder i.e. Facebook documents and data folder could take up to 80MB but the Snapchat documents and data file is huge and can easily take up 393MB of space.
Therefore, if any third-party app creates many huge file and data cache, its ‘documents and data, will be large. This also applies to iPhone 5, 6 and 6s
How to delete “Documents and Data” on iPhone
Getting rid of documents and data and other on iPhone is simple whether using iPhone 4 or iPhone 7 or later models. Follow these simple methods steps:
Method 1: Uninstall and reinstall app
The easiest way to delete documents and data is to uninstall the app by deleting it and then reinstalling it on your device.
- Open Setting app
- Go to General and then iPhone storage/Storage & iCloud Usage option
- Under the storage section select the Manage Storage option
- Find and select the app which contains the ‘Documents & Data’
- Delete it by tapping on Delete App and confirm it.
- Go to App Store and re-download the app to reinstall it.
When you go back to the storage screen you will find that the app now consumes much less space.
Method 2: How to delete “Documents and Data” from iCloud on iPhone
- Open Settings App on your device
- Tap on your Apple ID profile picture and click on iCloud
- Click on the Manage Storage option
- Click on the app whose documents and data you want to remove from the list of apps.
- Click the Delete Documents and Data option
- Click on delete to confirm
- This process will delete documents and data from iCloud on any specific app.
Read Also: Need to clear your iPhone’s RAM? Here’s a guide
You’ve now removed documents and data from your iPhone…
If you’ve followed the steps above carefully, then you have known have to successfully get rid of documents and data on the iPhone. If you encounter other problems with your iPhone’s storage, you can check out our storage guides and tutorials.
Alex is an IT technician who shares his experiences with Apple devices occasionally. He has a collection of Apple devices (from iPhone 4) and has recently started trying out Android.
IG: @I M_Alex