Spring cleaning tips: Spruce up your iOS device

Don’t stop with your garage, our digital devices need the occasional cleanup too. Here are a few tips to keep your iPhone or iPad running smoothly.

Every spring, households around America partake in some form of spring cleaning. Traditionally, the honey-do list is usually only limited to getting junk out of the garage, and getting the cobwebs off the house.

This year, add tidying up your iOS device to the list– it’s worth the extra work.

Device storage space

As time goes on, it’s really easy to accumulate apps. I’m talking about the apps you have downloaded, placed in a folder, and completely forgotten about. Those single-serving apps take up precious space on your device, and over time can add up to a substantial amount of space. But, not only do they take up space on your device, but they also take up space on the computer you use to sync your device with. To kick off spring cleaning on your iOS device, start with deleting apps.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET)

 

 

Instead of deleting apps off of your device, launch iTunes on your computer and delete unused apps from your iTunes library. Matt Elliot wrote about the process of deleting apps in iTunes awhile back; it’s worth a read. Go through each app, one by one, and really debate if each app adds any value to you, and your day-to-day life. You’ll find, an overwhelming majority of the time, the answer is no.

Though you’ve deleted apps from your iTunes library, they are still on your device, taking up space. So now what? The answer lies ahead.

Improve performance

To get the apps installed off your iOS device, restore and set it up as new. That’s right. Doing a fresh install of iOS and setting up your device as a brand-new device will not only get rid of all the apps you have installed, it will also clear any underlying issues on your device. Think about it, when was the last time you have set up an iOS device as brand new?      More