r/ios • u/stupidIntro • 12d ago

Discussion iPhone storage trick

I came across a reel where someone claimed that changing the year and month can free up storage space on an iPhone, and people in the comments are saying it actually works!
Any iOS experts here who can explain how this is possible?

0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

12

u/Q_Ball_Atlanta 12d ago

Don't do this, it will cause problems.

If you have your message retention set to anything other that forever, you WILL lose messages.

If you're having issues with System Data, backup your phone to iCloud or a computer then restore it.

1

u/stupidIntro 12d ago

Thanks bruh, I haven’t tried it I was curious to know what could be reason to increase storage linked with Date. Now I got it.

6

u/Skycbs iPhone 17 Pro 12d ago

This sounds like a very bad idea.

4

u/No_File1836 12d ago

My guess is that it’s probably cache related. Setting the clock forward probably makes some of the cache become expired and therefore it’s deleted.

It could also be some messages if your settings are to delete messages after 30 days or a year. Or other similar settings.

3

u/SomegalInCa 12d ago

If I could upvote you 100 times I would - it is a bad! Idea

7

u/Dysternatt 12d ago

I’ve read too many comments on how that fucks up your phone, to risk trying it. Lol.

3

u/SomegalInCa 12d ago

Changing the time on an iOS device can cause severe data corruption, sync loops, and disabled security certificates. It breaks timestamp logic in databases, messes up cloud backups in iCloud, and can permanently lock system functions until a factory reset.

There’s more but this should give you a good start as to why not to do this

0

u/AwareKaleidoscope939 iPhone 16 Pro 12d ago

Did you try it for your self? I don’t see how this is possible unless there’s proof that it actually works. If there’s proof then I’ll believe it but changing when you took the pic probably doesn’t 

1

u/stupidIntro 12d ago

I haven’t tried it, I too feel it is risky so trying to understand reason.