How to Empty Trash on iPhone to Make It Faster

You might not know how cluttered your iPhone is with unwanted data. It can occupy a large amount of space on your device, maybe up to several GB. ‘they start facing performance issues like slow speed, freezing or crashing apps, iPhone restarts automatically and more.

Although the iOS system is smart to monitor storage and automatically clean unwanted data from your device, it also has some limitations. A few things need to be deleted manually, including temporary files, cache collected by apps, trash items, and more. In this article, we will look at several ways to empty the Trash on your iPhone or iPad. Apart from making your device faster, it will also free up space.

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1. Delete Recently Deleted Photos

One of the best ways to empty Trash on iPhone is to delete all photos and videos in the Recently Deleted album. This is where all your deleted media is stored. They can remain there for up to 40 days until they are manually deleted or restored.

If you don’t erase this album once in a while, it can fill your iPhone with a lot of junk that will take up unnecessary space otherwise. Follow this step by step guide to delete recently deleted photos from your iPhone –

Launch the Photos app on your iOS device.
Faucet Albums basically.
Scroll down and click Recently Deleted under Utilities. If you’re using iOS 16 or later, you’ll be prompted to use FaceID to unlock the album.
You will now see all the photos and videos that you have deleted in the last 40 days. To empty the entire Trash at once, tap Select button in the upper right corner, then choose Delete all basically.
A confirmation window will appear where you will be asked to choose between Delete or Cancel option. If you are sure to delete all media, press Delete X items. Note that you cannot Recover deleted photos so be sure to review them before confirming.

2. Clear your iPhone’s RAM

Over time, your iPhone’s RAM accumulates a lot of unwanted data called cached data. These are the frequently used files and data that are stored on your device to help apps load faster. If you don’t clear this Trash for a long time, it may slow down your iPhone performance and also lead to other issues like app crashing and freezing. Although iPhone does not provide a direct way to clear RAM, there is a secret method you can use.

Method 1: For newer iPhone models that support FaceID. This includes iPhone X series, iPhone 11 series, iPhone 12 range, iPhone 13 models and the latest iPhone 14 series. Here is what you need to do –

Open the Settings app and go to Accessibility > Touch. Here you will find the AssistiveTouch option. Tap it, then enable the toggle button at the top. You will now see a big black dot button on your screen. We will be using AssistiveTouch’s virtual home button in our next steps.

Press and release the volume up button. Right after that press and release the volume down button. Now press and hold the side button on your iPhone until you see the shutdown screen. Next. press the AssistiveTouch button, then long press the virtual home button. After that, your iPhone will automatically clear all Trash from its RAM and you will be asked to enter your passcode to unlock it.

Method 2: This is for older iPhone models that have a home button, such as the iPhone 6s. Press and release the volume up button, then press and release the volume down button. Next, press and hold the side/power button until the shutdown screen appears. After that hold down the home button until your iPhone is locked. Enter your password to unlock. That’s it! You have successfully removed all junk from your iPhone RAM.

3. Empty the Trash of the Files app

You will likely have trash data saved in your Files app. Erasing recently deleted folder Free up space on your iPhone. This folder contains files that you have deleted within the last 40 days. From this folder, iPhone gives you the option to recover all the files that you have accidentally deleted. Since you no longer need the files you deleted, it is best to delete them from the Recently Deleted folder as well. Follow these simple steps to empty your Files app’s trash –

Open the Files app on your iPhone or iPad.
Go to main Browse page.
Faucet Recently Deleted under Locations.
Faucet three points in the upper right corner and choose the Select option.
Click now Select all then press Wipe off option.
You will get a pop-up box on your screen. Press the Delete button again to continue. That’s it!

Examine the files to see if there is anything important before deleting them.

4. Clear Emails from Mail Trash

Another way to empty your iPhone’s Trash is to clear emails from the Trash in the Mail app. You have already deleted these messages, but they remain in the Bin folder until the end of their recovery period. Keeping the Trash empty regularly will free up more memory on your iPhone. Here is how you can delete emails from trash from Mail app –

Launch the Mail app on your iOS device.
Go to the Mail boxes menu. If you are on the Inbox page, tap the Back option in the top left corner.
Expand the email address whose messages you want to delete from the trash. After that select Trash can case.
Click now Edit option in the upper right corner. You can either select specific emails or tap Select all option.
Click on Wipe off in the lower right corner. This will delete all selected emails from your iPhone. Note that deleted emails can no longer be recovered.

5. Clear app cache data

Third-party apps can also store individually cached data in a separate location. Some apps are smart enough to wipe out this data from time to time, while others don’t, which can lead to your iPhone storage being cluttered with lots of cache. Unfortunately, the iPhone does not provide a direct way to Clear cached data from apps like Android. However, you can try these workarounds –

Some apps provide built-in functionality in their settings to manually clear cached data. So you can search for this feature in the settings page.
Delete and reinstall the app.
Restart your iPhone.
Delete unnecessary files from WhatsApp.

6. Delete Recently Deleted Notes

Besides text, Notes includes photos, videos, Scanned documents, and sketches so they can also take up a lot of space on your iPhone. You should review your notes periodically and delete any that you don’t need. Just like photos and videos, deleted notes are moved to the Trash folder where they remain for 30 days unless they are manually deleted. Here is how you can erase notes from your iPhone Trash –

Open the Notes app.
Go to the Folders menu.
Picking out Recently Deleted under iCloud.
Faucet Edit then click Delete all. In the pop-up confirmation window, tap Delete X Notes where X is the number of notes you are removing.

Make your iPhone run faster

So here are some ways to empty the Trash on your iOS device. It can save you a lot of free space that would otherwise be wasted. Removing these unwanted items will also boost your iPhone’s performance and make it work faster like a new device. You need to clear the cache once in a while whenever you need free space or feel like your iPhone is lagging or slowing down. We hope you found this guide helpful and learned something new today.