How to Delete Game Data on iPhone

Need to delete game data on your iPhone? Maybe it ballooned in size and started clogging your storage. Or you just need a fresh start in a game. No matter your exact reason, you’ll find several solutions here—well, 3 to be precise. Let’s get started.

Backup Considerations Before Deletion

Before removing game data, consider creating a backup, particularly for games that don’t automatically save to iCloud. This guarantees that you can restore your progress if needed in the future. It’s especially important for games with significant time investment or in-app purchases.

For games with iCloud sync:

Verify if the game data syncs with iCloud and use any in-game manual backup options available. This could include saving progress to an external storage solution.

For games not synced with iCloud:

Use iTunes or Finder to create a complete backup of your iPhone, which includes all local game data. Additionally, check the game’s support or FAQ section for any game-specific cloud backup solutions or account-based progress saving methods.

Method 1: Erase Data from the Game Itself

Looking to reset your gaming experience on iPhone? Keep in mind, deleting data in-game only removes game progress and preferences; it doesn’t uninstall the game itself.

1. Navigate to Game Settings: Open the game and head to its settings. Search for options like ‘Storage’, ‘Manage Data’, or ‘Game Reset’.
2. Select Data Deletion Option: Within these settings, you’ll find the option to delete or reset your game data. Note that this action is irreversible but won’t affect your Game Center achievements, which are stored separately.
3. For a complete data removal, including the game application, you’ll need to uninstall the game from your iPhone.

Method 2: Delete the Game Along with Its Data

When in-app options to delete game data are not available, the most effective solution is to uninstall the game entirely from your iPhone. This method completely removes all associated data, including game progress and settings, as long as they were stored locally on your device.

1. Locate the Game on Your iPhone: Find the game icon on your home screen or app library.
2. Uninstall the Game: Press and hold the game icon until a menu appears. Choose ‘Remove App’ and confirm to delete the game and its data.

Remember, uninstalling the game will also remove all game data stored on your device.

Method 3: Disconnect Game from Social Media

Disconnecting your game from social media is important for those looking to completely reset game progress on their iPhones. Some games use social media accounts to save progress, which can persist even after the game is deleted from the device. Removing these connections gives you a full reset.

1. Open Game Settings: Locate the settings in the game to access social media connections.
2. Find Social Media Connections: Search for options like ‘Connected Accounts’ or ‘Social Media’.
3. Disconnect Social Media Accounts: Select your social media accounts linked with the game and opt to ‘Disconnect’ or ‘Unlink’. This will prevent the game from saving progress on these platforms, enabling a more thorough data removal from your iPhone.

Delete Game Data from iCloud

When you delete game data from iCloud, you erase all your progress on all your devices connected to your iCloud account. Just know that this mainly clears iCloud storage, not space on your iPhone.

1. Access iCloud Settings: Open your iPhone’s settings, tap on your Apple ID, and then select ‘iCloud’.
2. Manage iCloud Storage: Tap on ‘Storage’, then find and select the game whose data you want to delete.
3. Delete Game Data: Choose ‘Delete from iCloud’ for the game. Confirm the deletion when prompted. This action will remove the game data from iCloud and cannot be undone.

What You Can Clean on iPhone Besides Game Data

Besides game data, there are plenty of ways to free up space on your iPhone. Like apps—there might be those you no longer need. Some apps, like messengers, also build up a lot of cached data over time, which you can clear to reclaim storage.

The best way to start is to go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and see what’s taking up your space. For most people, Photos is the biggest space hog. This includes all your pictures, screenshots, Live Photos, and large videos. You can manually scroll through your library and delete anything you don’t need or, if you haven’t already, enable “Optimize iPhone Storage” if you use iCloud.

But If you don’t want to spend time on manual cleaning and don’t want to dig through your library to find the largest files (since the Photos app doesn’t let you sort by size), there’s a faster way. If you need to free up space right this moment—whether for a new app or something else—you can just download a free cleaner app. These apps can automatically clear a lot of storage with just a couple of taps.

One of the best cleaning apps we got our hands on was Clever Cleaner: Free Cleaner for iPhone. We ranked it #1 in our list of the best iPhone cleaner apps, and for good reason. Unlike most apps, it’s 100% free to use, with zero ads or in-app purchases.

Despite its free status, it uses capable high-end AI algorithms, that rival even some of the biggest paid apps, and It comes with 4 cleaning tools that can automatically clear gigabytes of storage in seconds:

• Similars – Detects and groups all duplicate and visually similar images in your library. You can either let it delete them all automatically or decide for each group manually.
• Screenshots – This one’s obvious. It detects and clears all those unnecessary screenshots you probably forgot about.
• Lives – Compresses Live Photos in your library into still images without the short video clip that plays when you browse your photos.
• Heavies – Sorts your videos from largest to smallest, so it’s easy to delete the biggest offenders first—something the Photos app still doesn’t let you do.

Additionally, as stated on its official Clever Cleaner cleanup app page, “Once downloaded, you’ll have access to all its powerful tools for free, forever.” This means the developer guarantees that if/when paid features are introduced in the future, early users will never be charged for upgrades or new tools. With so few apps offering this kind of deal, it’s worth keeping it on your phone while it’s completely free.