A smartphone is a “go-to” device for many of us. We watch movies, we play games, we listen to music, we install a number of apps for our own productivity, and what not. All of this on just one device – our Smartphone. We store movies, music, install games and apps and not just storing but continuously adding more of them. We keep on downloading and sideloading. And then there comes a time when we suddenly realize that our storage space is running out. You find an interesting App on the Play Store which you would like to download but as soon as you hit ‘Install’, the play store shows an error that the app can’t be downloaded. Reason? INSUFFICIENT STORAGE. That’s when you start to think “How should I free up space on my device?”
Of course you have the option to expand your storage via MicroSD card (if your phone is expandable) but still, your storage space is going to fill up eventually if you keep on adding media. And you are definitely going to need to manage your storage. By managing your storage space I mean to free up space on your device.
1. Delete Cached data (The Best way to free up space)
The best way to instantly free up some space is by clearing cached data. In case you don’t know the meaning of cached data or cache files, Cached files are those files which are created and stored on your device when you run an application or browse a website. They do so to save your time so that the next time you run that application or visit that website it will load faster. Clearing cached data will not land you in any kind of trouble.
Cached data can take up a lot of space, it can be in MBs or even GBs. And you won’t even know unless you hop into your internal storage to see what’s eating up the internal storage.
To clear cached data from your internal storage, follow the below-mentioned steps (It’s Easy!):
- Go into your Settings
- Locate ‘Storage & USB’ and tap on it. (It can also be called as ‘Storage’ or ‘Storage Settings’ on some phones)
- Tap on Internal Storage
- It will take a few seconds to calculate the portion of storage used by Apps, Images, Videos etc.
- Locate Cached Data and Tap on it
- It will ask for a confirmation “Clear cached data?”. Tap OK
- It will recalculate and voila! You’ve freed up some space.
2. Uninstall unused applications
Open up your app drawer and look for those apps which you haven’t bothered to open, even once, since past few months. Or You might, also, come across a game which you don’t play anymore. Have such apps or games on your app list? Uninstall them right away. They may be taking a big portion of your internal storage. It’s wise to uninstall them and free up space.
Alternatively, you might go into the ‘Apps’ section in your settings and sort apps by size. Then look for those apps or games which you don’t use anymore but take up a lot of space. When you find such app or game just tap on it and uninstall it by hitting the ‘Uninstall’ button.
3. Move apps from your internal storage to MicroSD card
This method might be useless for a few of you. If it is, then please move on to next method. When you download a new app, all the data and the app itself installs in the internal storage. To free up space you can move apps from internal storage to SD Card. However, there are some manufacturers like Motorola, Xiaomi, Gionee, Oppo, etc who doesn’t allow you to move apps to SD Card. In case you have the option to move your apps, move it. It will give your internal storage some free memory.
In case you have root permission, you can use apps like Link2SD to move your apps from internal storage to SD Card even though your OEM doesn’t allow it. You can download it from the Play Store by clicking here, but just remember you need to have a rooted phone to use this app.
You can also remove all those unwanted bloatware apps or pre-installed apps. But again, you need to have a rooted phone to remove such apps and make some space.
4. Taking Backups at regular interval
You can take backups of your media files like photos, videos, or mp3 files and save them on your laptop or PC or on an external hard disk. In this way, you can create some space without actually deleting any files. You can perform backups once in a month or maybe even twice as per the size of your media files.
5. Use Cloud to save your photos
You can use apps like Google Drive, Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive to save your photos on the cloud. They all come with some free space. If you think it’s not enough for you, then you can pay anytime to get some more storage. Cloud storage always comes handy when you have lots of photos on your device. Perfect for all those photographers out there.
That’s it, guys. Did I miss any method? Do you have any other way to free up some space on your Android? Which of the above-mentioned method do you prefer? Do let me know in the comments section below. And don’t forget to share this article with your friends and family and help them out.