Free Up Storage On My Phone

Posted : admin | On 30-04-2021

The 'Other' category, shown in your phone's storage on iTunes, includes your email, music and web-browsing data. Sometimes the files can get corrupted and take up more space than they should. The easiest way to clear this out is to back up your data and restore your phone on iTunes. Depending on your phone and version of Android, you can also move apps to the SD card to free up space. Users with Android Marshmallow and above can do this by formatting the SD card as internal storage. Then, the SD card will be seen as local storage on that device.

When you unbox your smartphone, it’s so shiny and new, a blank slate just waiting for you to customize to your needs. It doesn’t take long for it to collect apps and data, however, and soon, your battery slows down, apps start crashing and storage runs low.

But don’t start shopping for a new phone again just yet. By following the tips below, you can declutter your Android or iOS device to help it run more smoothly and efficiently.

Uninstall Unused Apps

The average smartphone user has 60-90 apps installed but only uses about 30 every month (and nine per day). The chances are good that you have at least a handful of apps you rarely put to use. Getting rid of the unnecessary apps will not only declutter your phone’s appearance but might help it run better and could even allow your battery to last longer between charges.

Although phone settings vary, you can generally view and remove apps from the Settings menu.

On an Android phone, go to Settings and select Apps. Choose the first app you want to remove and select Uninstall. Tap OK to confirm that you wish to uninstall the app from your phone. Repeat the steps to remove any other unwanted apps from your device.

On an iPhone, launch Settings, choose General and select Storage. Choose the first app you want to remove and select Delete App. Tap Delete to confirm that you wish to uninstall the app from your phone. Repeat the steps to remove any unwanted apps from your device.

Choose Pics To Save

Go through pictures and videos on your phone to decide which ones are worth keeping. Delete those that you don’t want and send the ones you do want to the cloud, storing them on a service such as Google Photos, iCloud or Dropbox. Depending on how many photos you have on your phone, this one could take some time, so you might want to work on it whenever you have a few minutes to spare.

Clear The Cache

Cached data can save time and data when opening a website or using an app, but it also takes up space on your device. Clearing it can free up resources on your phone.

On an Android phone, you can clear the cache on individual apps from the Settings menu. Alternatively, clear the cache for all apps by opening Settings, select Storage (or Storage & Memory), choose Cached Data and tap OK to confirm you want to clear the cache on your device.

The steps to clear cached data on iPhones vary between apps, but one approach is to open Settings, select an app and choose Reset Cache or a similar option.

Delete Messages

You might not even realize how many old text messages are just sitting on your phone, eating up space. Check your messaging app to discover how many you don’t want or need and delete them. It’s also a good idea to trash other types of messages stored on your phone, such as emails or visual voicemail messages.

Delete Downloads

When you open a file through a browser, a link in an email or other files you receive on your phone, they are downloaded to your device. You likely no longer need the PDF of an amusement park map you downloaded last summer, and deleting these files is an effective way to clean up your phone.

On an Android phone, find an app called Files or My Files. Browse the file categories to find and delete any you don’t need to keep.

On an iPhone, you can typically delete downloaded web files using Safari. Go to Settings, choose Safari, tap Downloads and select Remove Download List Items.

Clean Up Contacts

Your address book might be filled with names and numbers you don’t even recognize. If you have duplicates, unwanted information from syncing your email account, or other entries you no longer need, deleting them is beneficial. Just open your address book and select the edit button on the contact you want to remove. Tap Delete and move on to the next one.

Once you have successfully cleaned up your phone on the inside, you might be motivated to clean the outside of it, as well!

Have you deleted apps only to find that your Android phone's memory is still full? Does it lack a micro SD card expansion slot? Maybe it's chock full of photos and videos that you just don't want to delete.

These problems are common on all smartphones. But unlike iPhones and iPads, Android devices make it easy to free up space through tools built into the OS, as well as Google's free cloud services. This guide will explain all the ways you can de-clutter your Android phone or tablet and maximize your available storage.

NOTE: The following advice assumes you're using Android 4.4 KitKat or higher. Even in that case, there may be some inconsistencies with phones using heavily manufacturer-customized operating systems, like the Samsung Galaxy S6.

Check Your Usage

First and foremost, you'll want to check out your current storage situation to see what's using the most space. Simply go into Android's Settings menu and tap Storage. That will bring up a screen that breaks your local storage down into six categories: Apps, Pictures and Videos, Audio, Downloads, Cached Data, and Misc.

Inside the Storage menu, you can click on each category to go to the appropriate app for managing that particular type of data. Check out the following sections for tips on how to tackle the worst offenders.

Pictures and Video

If you're like most people, your smartphone is your go-to camera. That means there's a good chance pictures and video are some of the biggest storage hogs on your device. But don't worry: You don't have to permanently erase those memories in order to free up space.

Google Photos

You can view photos stored locally on your device by tapping on 'Device folders' in the Google Photos app's menu.
Once you have selected the photos you want to delete from your local storage, tap on the three dots to reveal the 'Delete device copy' button.
Tapping the 'Delete device copy' button will remove the photos from your device. Just make sure they were backed up before you do so.

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You can view photos stored locally on your device by tapping on 'Device folders' in the Google Photos app's menu.
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Once you have selected the photos you want to delete from your local storage, tap on the three dots to reveal the 'Delete device copy' button.
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Tapping the 'Delete device copy' button will remove the photos from your device. Just make sure they were backed up before you do so.

Of course, you'll still need to delete the copies in your local storage. Luckily, that's something Google Photos makes dead simple. Here's how:

Tap the Menu button (in the upper left corner of the screen) and select Device folders.
On next screen, select everything you want to delete.
Tap on the three-dot symbol in the upper right corner to access the Delete device copy button.

The procedure is similar for other media, like movies and books. You can easily delete local copies while still making them available for streaming. Google Play Books and Movies both have Manage downloads pages in their settings menu, where you can delete local copies. If you prefer the Amazon Kindle app, you can do the same there.

Music and Audio

If you're really into music, you're probably using either Spotify or Google Play Music. Both of these services prioritize streaming, but also allow you to download local copies for offline listening. That's a great feature to have, but you can easily forget what you've downloaded and fill up your storage with music you haven't spun in months.

Luckily, it's easy to delete these downloaded copies. Like Play Books and Play Movies, Google Play Music also has a Manage downloads screen in its settings. For its part, Spotify simply has a Make available offline toggle. If you don't want to keep the music around anymore, just flick it to the off position on a case-by-case basis.

For other audio files on your device (like ringtones and voice recordings), tapping on the Audio category under Storage in Settings app will bring up a simple file manager, allowing you to easily get rid of any files you no longer need.

Google Play Music

How To Free Up Storage On My Cell Phone

If you scroll down in the Google Play Music app's settings, you will find the 'Manage downloads' button.
On the 'Manage downloads' screen, tapping on the orange checkmark circle next to a song will bring up a prompt to delete the downloaded copy.
On the 'Manage downloads' screen, tapping on the orange checkmark circle next to a song will bring up a prompt to delete the downloaded copy.

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If you scroll down in the Google Play Music app's settings, you will find the 'Manage downloads' button.
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On the 'Manage downloads' screen, tapping on the orange checkmark circle next to a song will bring up a prompt to delete the downloaded copy.
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On the 'Manage downloads' screen, tapping on the orange checkmark circle next to a song will bring up a prompt to delete the downloaded copy.

Apps, Cached Data, and Downloads

Before we go into dealing with apps themselves, we recommend you first see how much room you can make by deleting your cached data and downloads. This is the crud that builds up in your phone's memory during day-to-day use, and cleaning it out once in a while is simply a good policy.

If you tap on Cached data in the Storage settings menu, a prompt will appear asking you if you'd like to delete cached data for all apps on your Android device. If you've never done this before, it could end up freeing up a substantial amount of space. (On one well-used phone we managed to clear 2.78 GB.) The Downloads category works much like the Audio category described above, with a file manager where you can manually select what to dispose of.

Android Settings App

Tapping on 'Cached data' in the Storage menu will bring up this prompt to delete all cached data on your device.
If you tap on Apps in the Storage menu, you will be taken to this list of installed apps.
Tapping on an app will bring you to this screen, allowing you clear the app's cache and data, or uninstall it.

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Tapping on 'Cached data' in the Storage menu will bring up this prompt to delete all cached data on your device.
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If you tap on Apps in the Storage menu, you will be taken to this list of installed apps.
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Tapping on an app will bring you to this screen, allowing you clear the app's cache and data, or uninstall it.

How Do I Free Up Storage On My Phone

Finally, there are the apps themselves. If you've moved all your media to the cloud, cleared your caches, and deleted extraneous downloads, but still need more space, it's time to start purging apps. Tapping on Apps in the Storage menu will bring up a list of all the apps on your device, sorted by how much storage space they use.

From there, you can tap on individual apps to do a few different things. First, you can (and should) Clear Cache, assuming you didn't already clear cached data for all apps. Then, if necessary, Clear Data. Keep in mind that this will get rid of login info, stored preferences, and other assets—in essence, it's like returning an app to its newly downloaded state. And if you want to get rid of the app entirely, you can simply tap Uninstall and follow the prompts.

Using these tips, you should be able to dramatically increase the amount of free space on your Android phone or tablet. But if you're in the market for a new phone, there are things you can do to avoid having to employ any of these methods.

If you're not comfortable surrendering your data to cloud services, we recommend that you look into getting an Android device with expandable storage. Google's focus on the cloud means fewer Android phones come with MicroSD card slots, but those that do can typically accept cards as large as 128 GB, giving you plenty of room to play with. It's an added expense, to be sure, but you'll be grateful for the room when you really have to get that shot.

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