If you’re an iPhone or iPad user running low on storage, you’ve likely noticed certain apps occupying a large amount of space labelled as “Documents & Data.” This part of iOS storage can be surprisingly large, sometimes even exceeding the app’s size. In this guide, we’ll explain what Documents & Data means, why it matters, and how to delete it to free up valuable space on your device

Before you go ahead and clear up space on your device, let’s briefly talk about Documents and Data on iPhone.

how to Delete Documents and Data on an iPhone

What Are Documents & Data on iPhone and iPad?

Apple stores two main types of Documents & Data on iOS devices:

App-Specific Data – These include cached files, app preferences, login info, media previews, and other temporary files created during app usage. They often account for the bulk of the storage burden and are usually safe to delete.
iCloud-Associated Data – These are files and documents saved to iCloud Drive. They’re essential for app synchronization across devices but still take up both cloud and device storage.

Although they share the same name, these data types serve different purposes and are found in different parts of iOS Settings, which can be confusing.

Why Does Documents & Data Take Up So Much Space?

Apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook accumulate a lot of cached content and background data that significantly increase their Documents & Data footprint. Over time, especially with frequent usage, these can balloon in size.

As noted by trusted sources like Apple Community, these files can make up more than half of an app’s total size—especially for messaging, streaming, and social media apps.

According to Macworld, Documents & Data can make up over 50% of an app’s total size. Similarly, CNET and Wired have reported on how cache-heavy apps can drastically slow down performance and occupy unnecessary space.

**Steps to Delete Documents and Data On Your iPhone/iPad**

iOS allows you to determine the amount of storage space each app’s data has taken on your phone. Once you’ve had a quick glance at the space eaten up by applications, you now have multiple options to delete their associated data.

It is possible to offload unused apps without the need to delete their data. And after reinstalling them, their data gets restored automatically. As a result, you can utilize this great option in freeing up a lot of space on your phone without necessarily cleaning up the crucial data. Take the following steps for a complete cleanup — to delete the app in addition to its entire documents as well as data.

Step 1: Launch your Settings app on the iPhone and press General.

Step 2: Then, tap iPhone or iPad Storage and select the concerned app

Step 3: You now have the options to Offload App & Delete App.

If you would prefer to delete the application but keep its data, you should go for the Offload option. As stated above, you’ll be able to have the associated file reinstated on reinstalling the mobile app.

However, if you choose to wipe out the whole data, tap the Delete option, and press Confirm.

Clearing Documents & Data of Specific Applications from iCloud on Your iPhone/iPad

Delete Documents and Data on an iPhone — Photo Credit

Here, we’ll show you how to remove saved data from specific mobile apps from iCloud. Removing redundant files helps prevent your precious iCloud storage from getting cluttered. But do bear in mind that it’ll wipe out the entire data from the cloud as well as connected devices, and the process cannot be undone.

Here is how to go about it:

Step 1: Launch your Settings app on the iPhone and select your profile.

Step 2: Hit the iCloud option and press Manage Storage.

Step 3: Then, select the app whose data is to be deleted from the cloud and tap Delete Data and hit the Delete button to confirm.

Using this method, you can get rid of cache of individual apps from every one of your devices that are synced with a single iCloud account.

You should let only selected mobile applications store their data in iCloud since this will help you manage your storage better.

Clearing out Movies & TV Shows, Music, and Thumbnail Cache

Every one of your purchases via iTunes, which are either made on the iPhone or iPad or synced from your laptop, is contained in the media. It is typically grouped under the Audio/Video section in the storage; some of it, however, is in Documents & Data, which could be thumbnail cache or associated files.

One of the smartest steps you can take in clearing the cache is getting rid of
all music from the iPhone. After which, you will re-sync it via your computer. With this done, you’ll be getting rid of all cache on your iPhone, and since these are not created when a re-sync takes place, you will be able to get some space freed up.

Cleaning up Safari History & Site Data

It is better to clean up Safari browser history and site data routinely to make sure that your web browser keeps running smoothly and does not accumulate too much cache.

Clearing out Your Old Emails & Attachments

If your default email app is the stock Mail software, loads of caches will get piled up around this. All the synced email, which you have access to via the application, gets stored on the iPhone to ensure instant access. And there is data build-up over time, coupled with all the attachments you load on your phone.

Here’s a simple method to use for cleaning up all mail cache and data:

Step 1: Launch your Settings app on the iPhone and select Accounts & Passwords.

Step 2: Select your Email account.

Step 3: Then, hit the Delete account option and tap
on Confirm. You can now tap Add New to re-add your email account.

How to Prevent Your iMessage App from Getting Cluttered up

If you’re a frequent user of the iMessage app, the software may have eaten up a lot of your storage. Fortunately, iOS makes it quite easy to check the amount of storage space that videos, photos, GIFs have consumed, respectively. Thus, you can decide on keeping or getting rid of data depending on your needs.

Follow the steps below to do so:

Step 1: Launch your Settings app on the iPhone and select
General.

Step 2: Head to iPhone/iPad Storage and hit the Messages button.

Step 3: In the Documents & Data section, go to the relevant section to Edit.

Step 4: In this last step, you should hit the Radio button and press the Trash icon to get rid of things you are not interested in keeping any longer.

How to Clean up Photos in Your Device

If you notice that there are some unnecessary photos in your iPhone Camera Roll, you can also delete to reclaim some valuable storage space.

Do this as follows:

Step 1: Launch your Photos app and hit the Select feature that you’ll see at the top right corner of your screen.

Step 2: Choose the photos you would like to delete and press the Trash icon in the bottom-right corner.

Step 3: Press Delete to confirm the action.

How about Deleting All Voicemail?

Yes, you can also remove all your voicemail. As it turns out, all of your Voicemail occupies some space in the “Documents and Data” section of your Phone app. This is the reason it is important that you regularly delete unwanted voicemails, so they do not clutter your iPhone or iPad for storage space.

This is what you need to:

Step 1: Head to the Phone app and select Voicemail

Step 2: Tap on the voicemail to be deleted, or you can swipe right → left across it so as to bring up the Delete button.

Step 3: Hit the Delete option.

If you have multiple voicemails to delete, launch the Phone app > Voicemails > press Edit > choose the voicemails to be deleted > hit Delete.

More iPhone Optimization Guides

Want to further optimize your device? Check out these helpful guides on PhoneCorridor:

Closing Thoughts

One of the most straightforward methods for preventing your mobile device storage space from getting used is, consistently clearing out the cache as well as other redundant data of applications. The majority of apps, such as Safari, WhatsApp, Dropbox, and Twitter, allow you to eliminate such data, easily. And this capability stops them from consuming plenty of your storage.

It could be tedious and time-demanding to manually delete cache files, particularly when you’ve several apps to deal with. In that case, the fastest method is to look for a good iPhone cleaning app. There are tons of such software on the App Store you can try out, including Cleaner Pro, Slidebox, Gemini Photos, etc.

For more expert tutorials and iPhone tips, visit PhoneCorridor.com.

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How to Delete Documents and Data on an iPhone or iPad