Have you used up all the storage space on your iPhone or iPad?  If so, you may start to have all sorts of problems that can cause baffling behavior.  It’s hard to delete things from the phone unless you use iTunes , but it can be difficult to use and iTunes won’t do anything about the temporary files that the phone stores.

There are some tools on the market to help you manage your phone’s storage, but they can be fairly complex to use. While noodling around earlier this week I ran across a free, easy to use tool that will solve the problem for you! It is called PhoneExpander and can be found at http://www.phoneexpander.com/

The following is from their website:

Is your iOS device running out of space? It’s a very common problem! Apps, Photos and Music take up a ton of space, and after a while your phone can become unusable. It’s not easy to clean out space, most people just resort to deleting their favorite apps. But now there’s a new way: PhoneExpander can clear out the temporary files that are secretly filling up your phone. In about ten minutes, PhoneExpander can make your old phone feel like new again. It’s easy enough for your parents to use, so why not give it a try?

All the apps on your device leave behind a residue of temporary files, which PhoneExpander can help clear away. It’s got other tricks too, which make it easy to free up gigabytes of room so you can take more photos and download more apps.

I downloaded this onto my Mac (It only works on a Mac.  They say that a Windows version will come at some point) and gave it a whirl.  True to their claim, it found nearly a gig of Temporary files.  Given that my phone only holds 16 gigs, this was a significant saving.  I let the app run and within minutes I had reclaimed the space.

It will also safely delete unwanted apps from your phone.  In the process it lists all the apps that you have on the phone and tells you the size of each.  You may discover that some of the apps you installed a long time ago and forgot are space hogs!  You can easily pick and choose which ones to delete.

Finally, it will download pictures and videos to your desktop and allow you to delete them from the phone.

Here is s screen shot of the app when it is running…simple to use, free and very useful.  What’s not to like?