Confined to barracks because of an unusually heavy snow fall, I started working through some of the hint and tips I have stored for a rainy (or snowy) day. One such gem was PhoneClean which I found on the insanelyi blog. It is a simple but effective Mac or Windows application that will ferret out redundant files on any iOS device. It looks at temporary and junk files, caches and off-line stuff, cookie and script files and any orphaned sync-failed media.
Simply install the free application to your Mac or PC from imobile.com and then plug in your iDevice using the sync cable. PhoneClean analyses the storage, recommends files for deletion and then cleans up the disk. As you see, I saved just under 500MB on my iPhone and I reckon it’s worth running this utility monthly to keep things nice and tidy.
Results on the iPad mini were even better. I found that the applications for The Times and The Sunday Times had between them squirrelled away around 1GB of cache files. Now they are all gone and, in total, I cleared 1.58GB from the iPad. If you are using a basic 16GB phone or tablet, this app is essential.
by Mike Evans, 20 January 2013