How to Free Up Space on Apple Watch (Fast & Easy)

Why You Need to Free Up Space on Your Apple Watch

Aside from rendering you unable to add more apps, running out of space will prevent you from downloading a new version of the watchOS software.

Your Apple Watch also needs some overhead space to run optimally. And if that is not available, the existing apps will compete for resources, such as space for cached data, slowing everything down. 

For this reason, it is important to install apps you regularly use and not overwhelm your watch by stuffing it with as many different functions as possible.

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Checking Apple Watch Storage Space

If you suspect your Apple Watch is running out of space, there can be several indicators, such as warning messages or noticing that your watch is running slower.

To determine if this is the case, you can check how much free storage space you have on your Apple Watch using the steps below.

1. Launch the Watch app from your paired iPhone.

2. Go to My Watch, and tap on the General tab.

3. Select the About option.

4. After a few moments, the app will calculate how much space you’ve used. It’ll also provide you with the number of songs, apps, and photos that your watch currently stores.

You can also check the space capacity from the watch itself.

1. Open the Settings app (the gear icon) on your Apple Watch.

2. Tap on General.

2. Scroll down and tap on Storage at the bottom of the screen.

3. After a few seconds, this will display how much space apps, songs, and images are currently occupying on your Apple Watch.

You will want to pay particular attention to the number associated with Capacity (total storage possible for your device) and Available (how much space remains unused).

Next, you will need to drill down to see which items are taking up the most space, and which ones you can remove from your watch.

Remove Unnecessary Apps

The most likely reason why your Apple Watch doesn’t have enough space is the sheer amount of apps.

Many people install a lot of apps that they think they will use or intend to check out, then leave them on the device.

Because your Apple Watch syncs with your iPhone, many apps also appear on the watch simply because you’ve installed them on your iPhone. 

We’ve put together a helpful guide on how to delete apps on Apple Watch. Check it out.

Remove Music on Your Apple Watch

In the Music section of the Watch app, you will see songs and albums that have been stored on your device.

The app has a Recent Music option which automatically appends music you heard recently to your device.

While each song by itself does not take up much room, an entire album, or several, can certainly eat up space quickly. Simply toggling this option off will prevent this storage from taking place.

Once you’ve tweaked that setting, click Edit next to a recent album and hit the icon to delete the album or playlist located next to the album you want to delete. 

You can also do this from the Apple Watch itself by swiping down through the thumbnails of the albums and reaching the option for On iPhone and Library.

If you tap Library, then you can see the albums which you can remove. Simply choose the album to remove and swipe it to the left. Then, tap the Remove option from the menu that comes up.

You will be asked for confirmation about removing the album from the watch or the music library. Since you only want to free up room on the device, select Remove Download, then tap Done.

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Remove Audiobooks and Podcasts

From a size perspective, audiobooks and podcasts are very heavy on space consumption. So deleting a few episodes or books that you have already heard will get back good chunks of space.

Simply find the Audiobooks section on the Watch app, and decide which of them you want to keep synced to your Watch.

You can put the switch to Reading Now to only keep the books you are actively reading synched to your Watch.

If you are done with the book and do not want it on the Watch, you can simply swipe to the left on its title and select Delete.

Similarly, in the Podcasts section, you can disable the automatic download of podcast episodes from the top 10 podcast option (called Up Next) or select Custom to add three episodes from the particular podcast series you select.

Once you are done with the podcast episode, simply remove it, and it will reload with the next three.

Control Photo Synching

Photos are another big space dominator on the Apple Watch. While you take pictures with your phone, if your watch is set up to sync them all to the watch, they will take up much-needed space on your watch.

From the Watch app on the iPhone find the Photos section and see if the Mirror My iPhone setting is turned on. This setting will sync any new pictures from the phone to the device.

This is generally unnecessary, so by choosing Custom instead, you can control which albums do get to sync, and which do not. This will be a big factor in lessening the Watch’s space consumption.

Delete Old Messages on Apple Watch

Any messages that come to your iPhone also transfer to your Watch. And while these messages do not take up much room individually, a particularly long conversation thread can certainly take up more than its fair share.

Simply open the Messages app on your Apple Watch. Find a conversation you do not need or want on your watch, swipe left, and choose Delete to wipe that conversation. And the space it occupies cleans off your Watch.

Delete Health Data on Your Apple Watch

Since your watch monitors various health metrics, you can free up a bit more space by deleting some of the old stored health data.

While this may not give you much space back, it will be a good supplement to the other methods discussed, especially if you do not anticipate using the data again.

Final Thoughts on Free Up Space on Apple Watch

By applying some combination of the methods described above, you will be able to clean up the space on your Apple Watch easily and efficiently.

Clearing music, podcasts, audiobooks, and apps will gain you more space than you expect, while the other methods can supplement to squeeze out a bit more.

There is no doubt that by increasing space, you will notice an immediate improvement in your Apple Watch’s performance.