Has your Apple Watch run low on space and now you can’t install watchOS updates, add more files, or get the best user experience from the smartwatch? It’s time to free up storage by deleting content you no longer need.
To free up storage on your Apple Watch:
- Check how much storage you have left.
- Delete unnecessary apps.
- Disable automatic app installs
- Remove music.
- Change photo sync settings.
- Delete stored audiobooks.
- Remove podcasts.
- Unpair your Apple Watch.
By removing content you longer need from your Apple Watch, you speed up the performance of the smartwatch and worry less about the common problems caused by low storage.
Check How Much Storage You Have Left
The first thing I’d like you to do before you delete or tweak settings to free up storage on your watch is to check how much space used and free space you have on your Apple Watch.
Open the Watch app on your iPhone, select General under My Watch tab, and tap About. Wait for a few seconds for the Watch app to calculate the available and used space.
Alternatively, press the Digital Crown, open Settings, and tap General. Select Storage to see the free space left and the space used by watchOS, media, apps, books, messages, and so on.
Delete Unnecessary Apps
Third-party Apple Watch apps allow you to extend the functionality of your smartwatch.
However, too many installs can take up a lot of space, clutter the home screen, and cause an overall bad user experience.
So here’s what I need you to do:
- Press the Digital Crown to open the home screen.
- Go through the list of apps and identify the ones you hardly use.
- Delete the apps via your iPhone or directly from the watch itself.
By deleting the apps you don’t find useful or hardly ever use, you free up storage and give your Apple Watch a performance boost.
Disable Automatic App Installs
By turning off automatic app install, the watchOS version of all app won’t install on your Apple Watch when you add it to your iPhone.
- Open Watch app on your iPhone.
- Select General under My Watch.
- Toggle Automatic App Install off.
Alternatively, open Settings on the watch, open App Store, and toggle the “Automatic Downloads” option to gray. This should keep unnecessary apps from taking up storage on your Apple Watch.
Remove Music
If you’ve spent the last couple of months adding music to your Apple Watch, there’s a high chance you have a list of playlists and albums you no longer play.
Remove these from your Apple Watch to free up some storage.
To delete music from your Apple Watch via your iPhone, open Watch app, tap Music under My Watch, and switch off Recent Music to remove recent albums. Then, tap Edit at the top right corner to remove a playlist or album from your smartwatch.
Alternatively, open the Music app on your Apple Watch, swipe down on the current screen, tap library, and look for an album you would like to remove. Swipe the album to the left, tap the three dots, and then tap Remove Download to delete the album from your watch.
Change Photo Sync Settings
This option reduces the number of photos your iPhone syncs to your Apple Watch, thus saving some space.
Apple lets you sync up to 500 photos from your iPhone to your watch. However, I suggest you need the photo limit to 25, which is currently the lowest value the Watch app allows you to set.
Alternatively, just toggle off photo syncing so that you don’t have to worry about pictures, memories, and featured photos from your iPhone taking up extra space on your watch.
However, don’t disable photo syncing if you would like to use your photos as custom watch faces for your Apple Watch.
Remove Podcasts
You don’t have to keep podcasts on your Apple Watch if you’ve already listened to them if you’re currently pressed for space. Simply remove them and see how much storage you can free up instantly.
Open Watch app and tap Podcasts.
Select Up Next to tweak the number of episodes to download, which is anywhere from 1 to 10. Choose a lower number or turn this option off entirely. Go back previous screen and do the same for the Saved podcast episodes.
Underneath Shows is a list of podcasts available on your Apple Watch. Select a podcast and tap Remove Show to delete all the episodes.
Delete Stored Audiobooks
Does your Apple Watch have audiobook you’ve already read? Remove them to create more space on your device.
Open Watch app, tap Audiobooks, and then toggle Reading Now and Want to Read switches to keep audiobooks from automatically synchronizing from your iPhone to your watch.
Next, look at your current list of synced audiobooks, identify what you don’t need, swipe it to the left, and tap the Delete button.
Unpair Your Apple Watch
I suggest you unpair your Apple Watch if you’ve come this far but still don’t have enough space on the watch. Doing so erases all content and settings and frees up space on the smartwatch.
To be clear, you should unpair the watch from your iPhone, not via the watch itself. This process automatically creates a backup of your Apple Watch to your iCloud account via your iPhone, so you don’t lose your data.
- Open the Watch app.
- Select All Watches.
- Tap the info icon for your watch.
- Select Unpair Apple Watch.
The next step is to pair your Apple Watch again to the same iPhone by following the onscreen instructions on the Watch app.
Make sure you select the option to restore from backup so that you complete the set up process in the shortest time possible.
