Beiruting News

If you're planning to update your iPhone or iPad to the latest iOS 8 software, you may be in for a shock.

Although the update files themselves take up less than 1GB of space, the total software needs between 3GB and 5GB of storage to complete the install, depending on how up-to-date the device is.

This means that if you don't have enough space on your device, you may need to get rid of photos, videos, files and apps just to make room.

Apple unveiled iOS 8 in June and released it worldwide on Wednesday, and although the size may seem substantial, it is average for mobile software of this kind.

Design-wise, iOS 8 looks similar to iOS 7, with flat icons and menus.

The search function on Apple's Photos app has been improved to make it easier to find photos, based on location, dates, or album name.

The Messages app in iOS 8 now lets users capture sounds to send in conversations, including voice notes, ambient sounds and music.

The new Messages app also takes on Whatsapp by additionally letting users send videos, start group conversations and enable Do Not Disturb to hide group notifications until a later time.

Elsewhere, users can send their location to friends, which appear on an interactive map, and send multiple photos and videos from the Camera Roll.

These new features need room on the device, but during the install, Apple also needs somewhere to temporarily store iOS 7 while it is being replaced.

It also needs room to unpack software files, before compressing them, which means that although the update may need a certain amount of space, the final space it occupies should be less.

Users can upgrade to the software by opening Settings, General, and selecting Software Update.

If users need to clear space on the device, they can begin by uploading their photos and files to iCloud.

If the Photo Stream feature is enabled, there may be duplicate photos in the Camera Roll and iCloud.

Once the photos are backed up, these duplicates can be removed from the Camera Roll.

Backups automatically take place when the features is enabled - in Settings, iCloud, Storage & Backup - and the device is plugged into the mains, and connected to Wi-Fi.

Files can also be transferred to a laptop or PC by connecting the phone or tablet, and dragging the photos and contacts, for example, over.

Users can also delete apps, by pressing and holding them from the homescreen and clicking the cross.

Many apps will be removed from the device, but are still accessible from iCloud.

Once the software is installed, if there is enough room, users can then re-download any apps they removed.

Be aware that when apps are deleted, typically their data is removed as well, which won't be recoverable.

In addition to deleting photos and videos, messages equally take up storage space and full, unwanted conversations should be removed to make room.

Clearing cookies used to store data on Apple's Safari browser will also make space. This can be done in Settings, Safari, Clear Cookies and select Data.