Running out of storage space on your Android mobile phone? Here’s how to delete unnecessary junk and free up plenty of space for your apps and media, in just a few easy steps.
If your Android smartphone’s storage is filling up fast, don’t panic. There are loads of quick and easy ways to get rid of unnecessary junk and free up loads of storage space on your mobile, without resorting to deleting photos and apps that you might eventually need.
To clear cached data from a single app, go to Settings Applications Application Manager and tap on the app you want to modify. In the app's Application info menu, tap Storage and then tap Clear. Android 12 will automatically hibernate unused apps to free up storage space. The app hibernation feature will remove temporary files and stop notifications from apps that haven’t been used for. On stock Android, Android Nougat, or Android Pie, go to Settings Apps and Notifications App Info. This will open up a separate page for that app, and here you’ll see “Storage Used” near. Video Tutorial on How to Empty Trash on Android Phone to Free Up Storage. Before we go on, you can first watch the video tutorial below. It's quite easy to get all the specific solutions to free up your Android phone storage. You can explore more from Wondershare Video Community.
Here’s our quick and easy guide to freeing up your mobile’s memory.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Check how much storage remains
To find out how much storage you actually have left on your Android mobile, head to your phone’s settings and then scroll down to ‘Storage’.
In here you’ll see an exact breakdown of how much space you’re using and what is taking up that space. This is broken down into apps, photos and videos, audio (music, podcasts and so on), downloads and cached data. If you spot that one particular section is hogging loads of space, then it’s time to do something about it.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Delete any apps you no longer use
Apps are usually the biggest drain on your storage space, so head to your Android phone’s settings and then scroll down to ‘Apps’ and give it a tap.
In here you’ll see a list of all of your downloaded apps, with an indication of how much space each one is taking up. The bigger that number, the more storage you’ll get back if you delete it; so it’s time to work out if you really need that ‘Hilarious Farty App’ or if it can go straight into the bin.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Backup your photos to the cloud
The essential Google Photos app allows you to store your snaps and home-made videos in the cloud for free, and it comes as standard on most Android phones now – but if you don’t have it (only likely if your phone is already over a year old), then head to the Google Play store and get it downloaded.
With that done, tap the menu icon in the top left of the Photos app (which looks like three horizontal lines) and choose ‘Settings’. Finally, tap ‘Backup & sync’ and make sure that this is turned on. Any photos that you snap on your phone will automatically be saved to Google’s cloud service, so you can safely delete them from your mobile to free up space.
Read next: Ten quick ways to get better mobile battery life
Of course, we highly recommend checking your Google Photos account from another device first, just to make sure that they’re 100 percent backed up. After all, you don’t want to accidentally lose that photo of your mate Brian lying face-down in a puddle of his own stomach contents after too many Drambuies.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Ditch the downloads
These days it’s actually reasonably affordable to grab an All You Can Eat (AYCE) data contract, which allows you to download media to your heart’s content at no extra cost – provided you don’t roam abroad, of course.
That means you can happily delete all of the music and videos from your Android Phone and just stream your entertainment instead. Services such as Spotify, BBC’s iPlayer Radio and Netflix offer a massive catalogue of online content, which you can stream as much as you like for a small monthly charge. Just remember that you won’t be able to take advantage when travelling abroad, unless you’re covered by something like Three’s Feel At Home service.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Messaging hogs
If you use third-party messaging apps on your Android mobile, these could also be eating up your valuable storage space.
For instance, WhatsApp users should try going into one of their popular conversations and tapping the Media/Group Media option in the settings. This will bring up all of the photos that have been sent back and forth in the conversation, which can be deleted en masse to free up more space. Thankfully these pics do get automatically deleted as time passes, so you should only bother with this step if your mates send a lot of photos.
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How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Clear your Android phone’s cache
After using a phone for a few months, chances are you’ll have at least a gig of cached data cluttering up your Android handset’s storage space. This is just garbage saved to your phone by apps and your web browser, to speed up operation, and can be safely blitzed to free up storage space.
In the Android settings menu, head to Storage and then tap the ‘Cached data’ entry. This will prompt you to delete all of the cached data. Tap ‘OK’ and it will all be erased – for now. Check back again soon and it’ll be back, ready to be re-deleted.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Clear old downloads
If you save a lot of documents, photos and so on to your phone, they’ll appear in the Downloads section of the Storage menu – or in the Downloads app. Give this a tap and you’ll see everything you’ve downloaded and how much space it all takes up. You can delete them directly from here.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Add extra storage with a microSD memory card
Many Android phones allow you to add extra storage, in the form of a microSD memory card. The microSD memory card slot is usually found in the same tray where your SIM card sits.
These memory cards are affordable and a great way to get a huge chunk of bonus storage, for your photos, videos and other bits. Check out Amazon for a huge selection of cards.
Phones from 2016 that don’t support microSD memory cards include the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, and the OnePlus 3 and 3T. In these cases, you’ll need to check out the next section instead.
How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Add extra storage via third-party accessories
If you’ve harvested all of the spare storage space that you can, but your Android phone is still pretty full, you could consider adding extra storage using accessories such as a special phone case with a built-in memory card slot. Alternatively, you can stream your media from home with a NAS device.
Check out our guides to adding extra storage to your phone:
If you’re an avid Android app user, you’ll definitely reach the point of no more storage space. And if you have, the last thing you want to do is start deleting apps that you use all the time.
Fortunately, Android has built-in settings that allow you to free up storage space on your phone without deleting the apps you use or losing valuable pictures & videos. Here are three helpful tips to manage your phone’s storage:
1. Check to see which apps and files are taking up the most space.
Here’s how to find out much storage space apps and files are using:
- Go to Settings>Storage to see how much storage is available. There, you’ll see a list of how much storage is available. You’ll also see a list of types of storage (apps, audio & video, photos, etc.) and how much space each type is using on your phone.
- On that list, tap Downloads to see the files you’ve downloaded. You can select the files you want to delete and choose the Delete icon at the top to get rid of these files.
- To find out how much space apps are using, go back to the Storage menu and tap They appear in order of how much space the app takes up, with the ones using the most space on the top. To save space, try these options:
- Clear Cache: A phone’s cache stores files so a website or app loads more quickly. By clearing the cache, you can free up space on your phone.
- Clear Data: Clearing data can give you more space on your phone, but be carefully it will wipe out your settings, login info, game progress, etc. Some apps (like Facebook & Twitter) are automatically backed up online, so once you log in, all your information and settings will be saved.
2. Copy photos and videos from your phone to a computer or to the cloud.
To free up space on your phone, you can copy pictures and videos to a computer or laptop. Another benefit of doing this is that you’ll have a backup of your photos if you lose your phone or it breaks. After making copies, you can delete them from your phone.
Back them up to your computer:
- Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable.
- Once your phone is plugged in, you’ll see a pop-up showing your phone’s folders.
- Navigate to the folder that contains your images (Usually it’s called the DCIM folder) and open it.
- Click & drag each image to transfer it to your computer.
Or even easier:
- Use an app like Google Photos to back up your photos to the cloud so you can delete them from your phone.
- After backing up photos using Google Photos, go to the app’s menu and choose Free up space. Google Photos will find the photos that are already backed up and ask if you want to remove them from your phone.
3. Adjust the settings in your camera app so your pictures and videos are smaller in file size.
Your camera app should have settings for the size of your pictures and videos. Open your camera app and tap the settings icon in the upper left. There, you can adjust the following settings to save space on your phone:
- Picture Size: You can choose either a smaller or higher megapixel setting. While a higher megapixel gives you a sharper picture, it also takes up more space.
- Video Quality: Most camera apps let you choose the image quality. The higher resolution you choose, the more space the files take up. Plus, video files are much larger than pictures, so be careful to not take long videos.
Use these tips to free up space on your Android phone so you can keep using it for the things you need.
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