What Does Offload App Mean and How to use it on iPhone and iPad?

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If you own an iPhone or an iPad and looking for different ways to manage your device’s storage, then you may come across this term – “offload apps”. Yes, it is one of the ways that help users clean the storage space.

In this article, we will be taking a look at What does offload apps mean, How to offload an app on iPhone or iPad, and more details.

Let’s begin.

What Does Offload App Mean?

Offloading an app essentially means removing the app from the device while retaining the app’s data as well as settings. Apple introduced it first with iOS 11 and is available in later versions too. The useful tool helps users quickly make some free space by offloading unused apps. Indeed, you don’t have to delete your favorite photos or videos; simply use Apple’s offloading tool.

One of the best things about this storage manager – Offload Apps is, when you reinstall the app, it works as it was working before offloading. Yes, suppose you offload the Word app which stores all your documents, when you reinstall it, it will bring all your documents and settings available before offloading.

When you offload an app, the app’s icon will still appear in the app library as well as on the home screen; a little download icon will also appear before the app’s name, which you can tap to install it.

what does offload apps mean

So, yes, there’s no need to install any third-party application to manage storage. The Offload app tool is available right in General Settings.

Let’s take a look at how you can use it on your device to offload useless applications.

How to Offload an App on iPhone and iPad [Manually]

Offload Apps isn’t enabled by default, but you can turn it on in a few taps and clean up the storage. There are two different ways to offload apps on iPhone and iPad – Automatic and Manual. Here’s how you can offload apps manually on your Apple device.

how to use offload apps on iPhone
  1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap General Settings.
  3. Select iPhone Storage or iPad Storage.
  4. Select the app which you want to offload.
  5. Now tap Offload App option.
  6. That’s it.

This simple step saves around 563MB of storage on my iPhone! You can do the same to make some room on your device.

How to Offload an App on iPhone and iPad [Automatically]

It is a pretty useful feature and you can enable automatic offloading as well, the feature will only offload the apps which are not in use. Here’s how you can enable it.

how to use offload apps on iPhone
  1. Open Settings.
  2. Scroll down and select App Store.
  3. Find Offload Unused Apps.
  4. Turn the toggle on for Offload Unused Apps.
  5. That’s it.

How to Delete Offloaded Apps

Offloaded apps are those which are not been in use in recent times. Indeed, you may want to remove it completely in near future, so, if you want to completely remove offloaded apps, you can follow these steps.

how to use offload apps on iPhone
  1. Open Settings.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Select iPhone Storage.
  4. Find the app, then select Delete App.
  5. That’s it.

Obviously, you can also delete the app by simply holding the app icon on the home screen or app library, then selecting the Delete App option.

How to Stop Offloading Apps

If you have offload apps enabled on your iPhone and you find apps are getting offloaded automatically and want to stop it, then here’s how you can do it.

how to use offload apps on iPhone
  1. Open Settings.
  2. Scroll down till you find App Store.
  3. Tap on App Store.
  4. Find Offload Unused Apps and then turn the toggle off ahead of it.
  5. That’s it.

How to Reinstall Offloaded Apps

If you manage to clean the storage on your iPhone or iPad and want to reinstall the offloaded apps, then you can do it pretty easily. There are two different ways to do it.

As I said earlier, a download icon will appear in front of the app’s name, you can tap on it for quick installation, else, follow the below steps to reinstall offloaded apps.

how to use offload apps on iPhone
  1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Select iPhone Storage or iPad Storage.
  4. Select the offloaded app.
  5. Tap the Reinstall App option.
  6. That’s it.

Can I Offload All Apps?

Offloading Apps works seamlessly with third-party apps as well as some first-party Apple apps. Talking about the list of default Apple apps, then you can offload apps such as the Apple TV app, Music, Mail, Files, Maps, Freeform, Apple Music Classical, Books, Reminders, Podcasts, Contacts, Calendar, Shortcuts, GarageBand, Measure, Home, Compass, Stocks, FaceTime, Tips, Testflight, iTunes Store, Notes, Translate, Apple Developer app, Calculator, Weather, Voice Memos, Apple Connect, Magnifier, iMovie, Numbers, Pages, Apple Store, KeyNote, and Apple Support.

Basically, the apps listed on the Apple Store can get offloaded, but the essential apps like Phone, Messages, Photos, Safari, Wallet, and Health apps can not be offloaded.

If you still have any queries related to offloading apps, then you can leave a comment. Also, share this article with your friends.

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AUTHOR.

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Haneet Singh

Haneet is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of YTECHB. He has a huge passion for tinkering with latest smartphones, wearables, smart home devices, smart TVs, and more. As an avid Apple Ecosystem user, he loves customizing his iPhone and iPad to suit his needs. For tips, you can connect Haneet at haneetsingh@outlook.com In 2019, Haneet and the YTECHB team exclusively shared the wallpapers of iPhone 11 right before the launch event. In 2020, Haneet alongside his team members shared exclusive renders and official photos of two Samsung Galaxy smartphones - the Galaxy M11, and Galaxy M21. Later, the YTECHB team leaks information about Motorola's feature phones and Razr 3. In the last few months, our team shared Galaxy S24 Ultra leaks and more. You may come across with our work getting mentioned in The Times of India, India Today, Hindustan Times, NDTV, TechRadar, Digital Trends, Yahoo News, GSMArena, Android Authority, Android Central, Android Headlines, SamMobile, XDA, 9to5Google, and many other publications. He works across news, updates, features, guides, and more. If YTECHB writes about it, you can expect him to be involved in some way.

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