Space can be a pretty desirable commodity on the iPhone, especially if you take a lot of pictures or videos and are often struggling to manage storage.
Effectively managing iPhone storage is something that people have been dealing with for years, and Apple has introduced some options that can make it a little easier.
But one of these options will automatically delete some apps every now and then, which you may not like.
Our tutorial below will show you how to stop your iPhone from offloading unused apps on the device.
How to Disable the Offload Unused Apps Option on an iPhone 13
- Open Settings.
- Choose App Store.
- Disable Offload Unused Apps.
Our guide continues below with additional information on how to stop your iPhone 13 from uninstalling apps on its own, including pictures of these steps.
The App Store on your iPhone has an incredible amount of different apps that you can install on your device.
While some of these apps cost money, many of them can be downloaded for free, and you can try them out to see if they can help you.
You are bound to find some apps that you really enjoy and are likely to use on a regular basis.
But some of these apps aren’t ones that you will use all the time, or even ever again.
While you may eventually go through and manually delete these apps when you run low on space, your iPhone has a setting where it can get rid of these apps for you automatically.
If you find that it is deleting apps that you actually wanted to keep, however, then you may want to follow our steps below so that you can learn how to stop your iPhone 13 from automatically uninstalling apps that you haven’t used in a while.
Need ot take a picture without the flash? Our guide on how to disable the iPhone camera flash can show you how to do it.
How to Stop an iPhone from Uninstalling Apps on Its Own (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 13 in the iOS 15.6.1 operating system. These steps will also work on other iPhone models using iOS 15, as well as many other recent versions of the iOS operating system.
These steps will show you how to change the Offload Unused Apps setting on your iPhone 13.
Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Touch the gray gear Settings app icon.
Step 2: Scroll down and select the App Store option.
Choose the App Store from the list of menu options.
Step 3: Scroll down and tap the button to the right of Offload Unused Apps to disable the setting.
Turn off the Offload Unused Apps option.
Now that you know how to stop your iPhone 13 from uninstalling apps on its own you will be able to use this option to either help you manage your storage automatically, or you can turn it off if you would rather have control over which apps are uninstalled.
More Information on Turning Off the iPhone’s Unused App Option
When your iPhone uninstalls an app via this method, it doesn’t delete the app data. It only deletes the app file itself.
You can always re-download an app from the App Store and access the app’s data. You also won’t need to re-purchase an app if it cost money, as long as you are using the same Apple ID that you were using when you originally purchased the app.
You can still manually uninstall iPhone 13 apps, regardless of whether or not this setting is enabled. Simply find the app that you would like ot remove, then tap and hold on it.
You can then select the Remove App option, then tap the Delete App button.
For additional information about your iPhone’s available storage and suggestions on ways to manage it, you can go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
At the top of that menu, you will see a summary of the used space and the available space. You will also see suggestions about ways you can save space, such as deleting pictures and videos from text messages or deleting TV show episodes or movies that you downloaded to the device.
Mike Adams has been writing about smartphones since the iPhone first came out. He has published hundreds of articles about iPhone and Android devices on multiple websites.