Android Tips: Free up Storage on your Android Phone

Android Tips: Free up Storage on your Android Phone

How to make more Storage in your Phone?

A selfie enthusiast’s fear, a geek’s nightmare, and everyone in between; running out of phone storage is what everyone hates right away. Although mobile app development companies have started building optimally sized apps and manufacturers have been stuffing in more internal storage in the phones, unfortunately, that doesn’t solve the problem. For a person who truly likes to explore the depths of what a smartphone can really offer, no matter how big the internal storage is, it would always seem small. There are millions of applications on the App Store and Play Store, and the quality of these apps are improving day by day.

Mobile app developers are improving on providing valuable utilities with their apps and as a result, people are installing new apps every day, most of which are keepers. Other than that, smartphone cameras have improved big time and are comparable to professional cameras nowadays. So keeping all these photos and videos that take up a lot of disk space is another issue we are looking at. So how do you solve the problem of internal storage running out? Let’s jump right into it.

Shift Movable Files to SD Card::

Seeing us start with this tip may seem disappointing to you because this is probably the most obvious thing in making more space out of your internal storage. But this time, we are going to tell you how you can do that differently to squeeze even more space from the corners of your internal storage. First of all, move all the camera-shot photos and videos to the SD card. This could be done manually or with an app available on the Play Store. Once that is done, use a file explorer to navigate to your internal storage. In the internal storage, you can find many folders where you have many media files that you edited earlier. Move these files as well.

Now, get to the downloads folder in the internal folder. The downloads folder has most of the files that are forbidden. We download a lot of documents, files, and APKs, which we go through and forget about once we are done with them. When we use apps to move files from internal to SD storage, these document files are not moved as these apps mostly focus on moving applications and media files. So, unfortunately, you have to move or delete these files manually.

Clean WhatsApp Media Files::

WhatsApp is just great. However, what isn’t great about it is how much storage it eats off your internal storage. But then WhatsApp gives you the freedom to choose what you want to download and what you don’t, right? Despite that, no matter how little we download, eventually, it all piles up into a big mess. And let’s admit you wouldn’t always want to look back at those GIFs and short videos that your friends have been sending for years.

We can always delete these files that are located in the internal storage, which can be accessed with a file manager mobile application. Now this may be too time but trust us, the result is always good. In general, in the phone of an average user, WhatsApp takes more than a GB of internal storage, which is the bare minimum.

Clean the Cache::

It is quite surprising for some of the geeks that there is a large number of people with a smartphone who do not know about the temporary cache files that build up while we are using our routine apps just like any other day. But it is totally fine with us because we understand that smartphones could be quite complicated. You can always clear cache memory in a two-tap process and make a lot of room again.

On average, if you have the top generic apps that are being used by most of people around the world, the average cache build per week easily crosses 1 GB. And 1 GB is a big deal when you are running out of space. However, because cache memory keeps building up in a short time, you need to be regular with cleaning your cache until you get a new phone.

So these are some of the tips that can help you big time in getting a lot of space out of your dying internal storage. Other than these tips, application development has given us cleaning apps that can identify duplicate files and suggest deletions that can get you a lot of free space on your phone.

Recently deleted files::

Recently deleted files are often found in folders, especially in the Gallery section. Although they are invisible, their collection fills up the phone storage. And unless you delete the files permanently, your device may have to deal with bloated memory.

Miscellaneous files, folders or apps::

Various files, folders, or apps can duplicate themselves in a way that fills up the storage on your phone. These log files can be in the form of attachments with your downloads or files received from friends.

Frozen or disabled apps::

Your phone may run out of storage if you have too many disabled or frozen apps. These unused app data are parts of the memory and do not work only in their saved location – similar to files locked in a vault.

Delete unused apps::

Unused non-system apps are a burden on phone storage and are unnecessary when there are alternatives. For example, if you have two dictionary apps that have similar functions, it may be unnecessary to keep both apps. You can delete one to create more space on your Android phone.

Remove data clutter from the file manager::

The file manager keeps several system and application folders on your device. While these files are mostly by default, you can delete the ones that you no longer need their data for. And for large APKs that are installed, delete their default files if you don’t need them soon.

Permanently delete recently deleted files::

As mentioned earlier, deleted media files – images – can often be recovered and take up a lot of space on your phone. You can find them in the Gallery section or in the file manager to delete them permanently. Others that are useful for managing available space may remain.

Move photos and videos to cloud storage::

This is probably the one item on this list that has the most impact than the others. Photos and videos take up a lot of space, and the more of it you have, the less likely you are to want to sort them.

Move data to Google Drive::

Since you are using a phone running a Google-owned operating system, it makes sense to also use Google’s other cloud-storage tools. While your document files will take up significantly less space (unless you have a lot of them or multi-page PDFs, for example), you can move all of these to Google Drive. This creates a useful backup and makes those files accessible from any online device.

Delete unwanted apps and games::

Sometimes people think they have deleted all the junk they have installed through Google Play, when in fact all they have done is scan their home screen for unused apps and delete the ones they find there. Even worse, sometimes they have only deleted the shortcut icon and the app is still hiding in the app drawer. Not all Android phones allow you to uninstall apps from the home screen.