What means offloading unused applications on iPhone
“Offload Unused Apps” option on the iPhone is necessary so that the users can give their smartphones the ability to automatically determine which applications need to be kept downloaded to the device permanently and which apps can be deleted. The peculiarity of this option, in contrast to the complete removal of the application, is that only the program itself is removed. In this case, all documents and data stored in it (including accounts authorization) will remain saved on the mobile device.
Applications that have been offloaded are not staying in the iPhone memory. However, they remain on the desktop. An icon with a cloud appears next to their name, which means that the application is not actually installed on the phone.
If you click on offloaded application icon on the iPhone, the standard installation process will begin again.
Important note: The application can only be installed if there is a network connection. Therefore, it is not recommended to offload unused applications that are essential.
How to manually offload an unused app on iPhone
The iPhone user can independently determine which applications he wants to offload so that they do not take up too much memory on the device. For example, you can quickly free up memory to temporarily install a specific application. And then, when there is free space available, return the offloaded programs back to the phone.
To offload the app on your iPhone, open settings and go to the “General” section.
Next, select “iPhone Storage”.
Wait for the device to analyze the memory usage by applications and other data. Then select the program you would like to offload.
Please note: In this section, applications are sorted by the amount of memory they use on the device. However, the memory that the application is using will be indicated along with all its data and documents. So if you offload the program itself, space that is freed up will be less than stated in the section that the program takes up in the “iPhone Storage”.
Click “Offload App”.
Now the app has been offloaded from the iPhone’s memory and space has been freed up.
Please note: Here you can also uninstall the application completely. In this case all the data associated with it will be deleted, which will free up more space on the device.
How to make the iPhone to offload applications by itself
Apple smartphones can independently determine which applications to offload in order to have enough memory for other apps to run smoothly. This option can be activated from the “iPhone Storage”. The offer to enable this function will be displayed in the list of recommendations, just click “Enable”.
It is worth noting that many users complain about the low efficiency of this function in terms of freeing up space on a smartphone.
How to prevent offloading of unused applications on iPhone
If you need to disable the automatic offloading of unused apps, you cannot do this in the “iPhone Storage” section, where it has been activated. To do this, you need to go to the “App Store” section in settings.
At the bottom, deactivate the “Offload Unused Apps” switch.
Please note: Here you can also activate this function in manual mode, if the device does not give such a recommendation in the “iPhone Storage” section.