How to Free Up Space on Apple Watch 9 (WatchOS 10)

Unlike iPhone, iPad, while buying the Apple Watch, we don’t have Storage variants to choose from, just the GPS and GPS + Cellular options are available. Therefore, whatever, Apple decides, we have to accept it by heart. To remind you, the Apple Watch Series 5 comes with 32GB Storage, while the Apple Watch Series 4 has only 16GB and Series 3(GPS+Cellular) with 16GB and the Series 3 GPS model comes with only 8GB. That is not enough if you’re mirroring every single entity of iPhone to the Apple Watch.

Usually while updating the Apple Watch, you may get the Low Storage error message, or downloading a stack of applications in the Apple Watch can be a reason behind storage issues. Whatever the situation is, here are few workarounds to free up space on your Apple Watch.

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How to Free Storage on Apple Watch

Check Storage of Apple Watch from Watch App

Your Apple Watch is incomplete without Watch App, you can control and change settings of the entire Apple Watch from the Watch App. Using the same settings, you should verify the remaining Storage on the Apple Watch. Thereafter, we’ll see how to deal with the low storage issues on Apple Watch.

Launch the Watch App on the paired iPhone.
Tap on My Watch
Open General.
Next, tap on About.
Wait for a few seconds, all the details will appear.
There you should see the number of Songs, Applications, Photos, and remaining Storage.

Check Storage Space from Apple Watch

You can also check the available Storage of the Apple Watch from the Watch itself if you don’t have iPhone nearby. The Apple Watch will give the complete overview of the storage consumed by the applications.

Unlock the Apple Watch.
Press the Digital Crown button.
Locate and open the Settings
Tap General.
Scroll down and tap Usage.
Now, you can see the Available and Used storage along with the applications.

Remove Third-Party Apps from Apple Watch using iPhone

I presume you’ve analyzed the Apple Watch Usage section and Watch App on iPhone, regarding what items are taking up the most storage and are useless. It’s time to come into action. Start with deleting the applications from the Apple Watch that you no longer need or barely use.

Note: You cannot delete the Native Applications like Podcast, Walkie-Talkie, etc using Watch App. For that jump to next section.

Go to the Watch app on the paired iPhone.
Tap on My Watch tab.
Scroll down to the Installed Applications section.
Select the app that you wish to delete from Apple Watch.
Turn Off Show App on Apple Watch
There is no shortcut to delete multiple applications; you’ve to remove the apps one by one manually.

Besides, if you want to install that app again, follow the same steps, and under Available Apps, tap on Install to reinstall the app on Apple Watch.

Delete Native Apps from Apple Watch

Luckily there is no limitation when it comes to deleting the applications using the Apple Watch itself. Using this trick, Apple Watch lets you delete the native applications as well as third-party applications.

Press the Digital Crown on Apple Watch to get to the home screen.
Now press and hold any app icon until they start jiggling.
Tap on the (x) to delete the applications.
In addition, if your Apple Watch’s home screen appears in List View, then swipe the app from left to right and tap Delete.

Delete Music from Watch App

Apple Watch can do a bunch of stuff, one of them is playing the Music. Just like the iPhone, Apple Watch can also store your favorite tracks and albums. Which means, a good amount of storage would be taken by the Songs and Albums? Delete them, if you don’t need them.

Go to the Watch app on the iPhone.
Tap on My Watch tab.
Tap on Music.
On the top-right corner do you see Edit? Tap on it.
Start deleting the songs that you don’t want.
Furthermore, on the same screen, you will see the Heavy Rotation option, which automatically downloads the Songs and Playlists you listen to.
Disable the Heavy Rotation button too.

Also, it is possible to delete the Songs and Playlists from the Apple Watch.

Go to the Music app on the Apple Watch.
Find the Playlist/Album/Song that you wish to remove.
Swipe left to right, and tap on three-dots.
Choose Remove.
Confirm, Remove Download.

Limit Synced Album from Watch App

Synced Album setting allows you to access the number of photos from the Apple Watch, even though when the iPhone is not paired or out of range with the Apple Watch. Up to 500 Photos can be synced with the Apple Watch. Limit them to 25 or 100 Photos, and choose the album that you want to see on Apple Watch.

Navigate to the Watch app on the paired iPhone.
Make sure My Watch tab is selected.
Scroll down and tap Photos
Tap on Synced Album.
Choose the Album.
Then, set the Photos Limit as per your requirement.

Delete Audiobooks from Apple Watch

Audiobooks aren’t that important, you can listen anytime when iPhone is nearby. So remove the Audiobooks from Apple Watch if there is any.

Go to the Watch App on the iPhone.
Select the My Watch tab.
Locate the Audiobooks, and tap on it.
Toggle Off Reading Now.
Toggle Off Want to Read.
Under From Library, start deleting the Audiobooks, to do so, swipe right on the Audiobook, and tap Delete.
To delete Multiple Audiobooks, tap on Edit on the upper-right corner, and delete them.

Delete Podcasts from Apple Watch

Likewise, delete the Podcasts from the Watch app. There are two options, one that Automatically Downloads the Podcasts that are in Listen Now queue and Custom option using which you can choose a particular episode to store on the Apple Watch.

Open the Watch app on iPhone.
Tap on the My Watch tab.
Swipe down and tap on Podcasts
Choose Custom under ADD EPISODES FROM.
And now choose the episodes you wish to listen to.

Delete the Messages from Apple Watch

Your Messages App contains hundreds of threads, some are useful while others are just occupying the storage of the Apple Watch. Delete the Messages from the Apple Watch that you don’t require.

Go to the Messages app on the Apple Watch.
Swipe left to right on the conversation and tap Delete.

Remove Health Data from the Apple Watch

All the Health and Fitness Data from the iPhone is mirrored to the Apple Watch. Whatever activity you do, will be transmitted to the iPhone’s Health App and vice versa. If you’re just removing the Health data for the sake of freeing up the Apple Watch storage, then I’d not recommend this action, as it will wipe out the entire health and fitness record from the Apple Watch.

Go to the Health App on the iPhone.
Tap Sources.
Open the Apple Watch from there.
Swipe down to the “Delete All Data from (Watch Name)”, tap on it.
Lastly, tap Delete.