You are about to take a photo and you get a message, "Cannot take photo. There's not enough available storage..." Your heart sinks. The moment is gone. Many people are all too familiar with this scenario and frankly, it's the worst. The good news is you can take steps to prevent and free up smartphone space. Here are seven tips to help you to increase storage space on your smart phone:

Deleting old text messages is one of the best ways to free up space on your smartphone. (Photo: Peter Roise/Thinkstock)

1. Check your smartphone space limits. First, it is important to know how much storage your device has and how much your system requires. Some devices are limited to 16 GB while others have as much as 128 GB. If your operating system update is takes up a large portion of your storage space, it may just be time to upgrade your device.

2. Expand your storage. Some devices allow you to add SIM or memory cards to expand your storage. Take advantage of this option when you need space, but don't want to purchase a new smartphone right away.

3. Application overload. What's taking up your space? Investigate which applications are using the majority of your storage, and consider deleting ones you no longer use. On the iPhone, you can find this in Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage. On Android under Settings > Storage. And, on Windows, go to App > Storage Sense > Phone or SD card.

4. Cache out. Clean out your website data and history. This can be done through your mobile browser's settings.

5. Take it to the cloud. While your wireless provider or cell phone manufacturer may offer you a paid backup storage service. You can use cloud storage like Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox for free. Thus, these are a great resource to back up photos and video, as well as any other smart office files you might have!

6. Stream it. Rather than downloading music and video, it is probably best to stream media with services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Spotify and Pandora. Your cable or wireless internet provider may even offer services like these.

7. Delete old text messages. SMS messages build up quickly over time and can take up a lot of space on your phone. Seems like the easiest way to free up space quickly (and to address text messaging glitches) is to clear out old text messages.

What tips do you have to help free up smartphone space? Tell me about it in the comments below, on Facebook or Twitter, or email me at [email protected].

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Penton Agriculture.