How To Clean Up Storage On Phone

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It becomes the first thing we reach out for. However, it doesn't take long for a new Samsung phone or tablet to get cluttered up with rolls of pictures, redundant apps, unused widgets, cached files and the troublingly vague 'Misc' data. It takes up increasingly internal storage day by day and slows down your phone. To download more apps and media, or help your phone run better, you can clear space on your phone. Storage is where you keep data, like music and photos. Memory is where you run programs, like apps and the Android system. How to free up phone Memory space on Android. How to free up internal storage on Android. How to clean phone memory on Android. How to clean unnecessary dat. Go to Settings Messages. Scroll down to find Message History and tap Keep Messages, then change Forever to your preferable option. For WhatsApp, go to Settings Data and Storage Usage Storage Usage, you can check the storage usage of each conversation, then tap.

No matter how large your internal storage is, you cannot install unlimited applications and store large amounts of files all the time. In another word, your Android phone storage will be full sooner or later. When there is no enough storage space, and you need to update your Android or install one important application, what will you do? And what if you want to sell or donate your personal smart phone to someone else? Can you protect your private information effectively?

Therefore, you had better clear phone storage regularly no matter the phone storage is full or not. Though you can move certain files and apps to microSD card or other external hard drives, it is still important to clear memory Android to maintain the normal operating space. Fortunately, this article collects some useful and easy-to-operate solutions. As a result, you are able to free up storage and memory space with ease.

Part 1: How to Clear Phone Storage

How To Clean Up Storage On Phone

You can try the traditional way to clear phone storage space on Android by deleting useless files. And it is also supported to install an Android cleaner app to save your overstuffed mobile. Moreover, this article also shows how to get more space on your phone without deleting anything. You can read and choose the certain solution to free up space on Android.

Delete Your Downloads

To download more apps and media files, or clear system memory, you can delete some less important files manually. If you are not sure whether you will use those files in the further or not, you can backup Android files to cloud storage space in advance.

Step 1. Locate your download folder

Every Android phone has its own download folder. All your downloaded photos, videos, documents and other files will be stored in the local downloads folder. In some Android models, this folder may be called as 'My Files' as well.

Step 2. Clear internal phone storage on Android

Turn to your download history and find files you want to delete. Just long press one file to select it. Later, click 'Remove' or other trashcan icon to delete downloads when internal storage Android full.

Clear the Cache

Furthermore, you need to clear cached data on your Android phone regularly. And you will not lose any sensitive or important Android data. In most cases, cleaning app cache is the first decision you can make.

Method 1: Clear cached data from an Android app.
Open 'Settings' app. Choose 'Applications' and scroll down to click 'Application Manager'. Later, you can find the target application. When you are in the Application info page, click 'Storage' and then choose 'Clear Cache' to clear the cache on Android.

Method 2: Clear all cached data on Android
Go to 'Settings' and click 'Storage' under its list. Find and click 'Cached data'. When you are prompted with 'This will clear cached data for all apps.', choose 'OK' to confirm. After that, you can clear phone memory Android successfully.

Take Advantage of Google Photos

Actually, Google Photos app is a good cloud storage tool that allows users to backup unlimited photos over the air. Thus, you can move all pictures from Android to Google Photos to free up more space on Android.

Step 1. Turn on Google Photos backup feature

Run Google Photos app on your Android phone. Make sure you have turned on 'Back up & sync' feature under 'Settings' already.

Step 2. Backup Android photos to Google Photos

You can set whether to backup Android photos at high quality resolution or original size. Well, Google Photos only offers unlimited storage space for high quality photos at present.

Step 3. Clear phone storage space on Android

Then go back to Settings app and choose 'Free up device storage'. Click 'Remove' to delete Android pictures that have been backed up.

Move APPs to the Trash

If you have not used the certain application for a long time, and you are sure that you have no interest to use this app any more, then why don't you move it to the trash?

Step 1. Access all Android apps

Navigate 'Settings' app. Head to 'Storage' and click 'Apps'. Later, you can see all installed apps sorted by size.

Step 2. Clear phone storage on Android by deleting apps

Hold and press the app you do not use. then click the 'i' icon besides your app's name. Choose 'Uninstall' and confirm your change.

APP to Clear Phone Storage

By free installing Files Go from Google Play Store, you can visualize the left storage space exactly. And it is easy to clear phone storage on Android by deleting temporary files, downloads and other files easily.

Step 1. See all your Android files organized by Files Go

Launch Files Go and grant storage permissions and app access. Then you can monitor the storage usage including unused apps, duplicate files, temporary files, etc.

Step 2. Clear phone storage Android

Choose the certain category and select items you want to delete. Later, click 'Delete' to clean up your Android, or choose 'Clear' to uninstall apps and free up Android phone storage space.

Part 2: How to Get More Space on Your Phone without Deleting Anything

Android Data Backup & Restore is your best friend, which can backup and restore any Android data to Windows or Mac PC in one click. Thus, you can backup data to your computer to clear phone storage space on Android. It is quite easy to achieve, and no Android data will be overwritten.

  • One click to backup and restore data from Android to Windows or Mac PC.
  • Preview and select any data to restore to your Android without data loss.
  • Set up password to encrypt your Android backup files.
  • Work with over 5,000 Android portable devices including Samsung, Sony, LG, etc.
Download for WinDownload for Mac

Step 1. Connect Android to PC

Launch Android Data Backup & Restore. Then use a lighting USB cable to connect your Android phone or tablet to your computer. Click 'One-click Backup' to backup all Android files to PC. Otherwise, you can click 'Device Data Backup' to backup certain Android file types without overwriting.

Step 2. Select data type to backup (optional)

If you want to backup Android data to your computer selectively, then you can select the data type in the popping up window.

Step 3. Backup data from Android to PC

Then choose 'Start' to backup Android data to PC immediately. And you can have a check when the backup is over.

After that, you can clear phone storage by deleting all Android files. If you accidentally deleted important files, just use this software as the backup extractor or to get deleted data back.

Well, it is also a good way that can increase internal storage Android in some degree. In addition, even though your Android device is broken or crashed, you can still access all important documents and medias files directly.

With high-resolution photos and console-quality games, your iPhone storage fills up in no time. Even with a 128 GB model things can get out of hands fast. And if you’re using a 32 or 64 GB iPhone, chances are you’ll see that pesky “Storage Almost Full” alert much sooner.

Luckily, there are lots of things you can do to clear storage on iPhone, both manual and app-powered, so let's take a look.

What you'll need:

  • Your iPhone
  • A photo cleaner app Gemini Photos
  • Your Mac
  • A macOS cleaner app CleanMyMac X
  • Internet connection

Why is my iPhone storage so full?

Your iPhone may be full of things you don’t really need. Since they take up a lot of valuable space, it’s important to find out what they actually are. Here’s how to check and manage storage on your iPhone:

  1. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
  2. At the top, you’ll see a color-coded bar showing how much space you have left, how much is taken up, and what's taking it up. The biggest categories are usually Photos and Apps, but that depends on your usage.
  3. Below there is a list of your apps sorted by how much space they take. You can tap on each app to see how much of that space is the app itself, and how much of it is the app’s Documents and Data.

Depending on how you use your iPhone, you might have a huge and bloated Photos app, bursting with photos and videos. Or it might be games and social media apps that are hoarding the most storage. Below are five easy steps you can follow to free up storage on iPhone regardless of your iPhone use.

How to clear storage on iPhone

Chances are, there’s a lot of unneeded clutter on your iPhone. And that’s actually good news. It means you can free up a significant chunk of space without deleting the things you want to keep. Here’s how to free up storage on your iPhone, step by step:

  1. Clean up your photo library
  2. Clear browser cache
  3. Clear app cache and other app data
  4. Delete attachments in Messages
  5. Delete offline content

Step 1. Clean up your photo library

If you’ve checked iPhone storage like we suggested above, you already know who the main space hogger is (looking at you, Photos). Of course, wiping your whole photo library clean is not an option, but there’s probably stuff you can get rid of:

  • duplicate photos, like those you downloaded twice
  • similar shots (like the five selfies you took so you can pick a good one)
  • photos of whiteboards, notes, checks, and things like that
  • screenshots you don’t need anymore
  • large videos you don’t like

You can go through your library and weed out these photos and videos manually, but a quicker and more convenient alternative is an iPhone app like Gemini Photos. Here’s how to free up some space with it:

  1. Download Gemini Photos and launch it. It will automatically start scanning your library.
  2. Go to Notes, Blurred, and Screenshots. This is where you’ll see screenshots, photos of text, and other useless stuff. All photos will be pre-selected, but you can deselect the ones you still need.
  3. Tap Delete All.
  4. Go to Similar. Sets of similar photos will be grouped and pre-selected, with the best photo in each set remaining.
  5. Review a set, select other photos if you want to, and tap Move to Trash to trash selected photos.
  6. When you’re done reviewing sets of similar photos, tap Empty Trash.
  7. Go through Duplicates, Videos, and Other to sort out the rest of your photo library.
  8. Finally, go to the Photos app, and scroll down to Recently Deleted.
  9. Tap Select, and then Delete All.

After a cleanup like this your library will shrink by a few gigabytes and become way easier to navigate.

Step 2. Clear browser cache

If you often use your iPhone to browse the web in Safari or Chrome, keep in mind that your phone may be storing caches and other data that you don’t need. And you'd be surprised how much space you can free up just by clearing your browser cache.

Here’s how to clear Safari cache:

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Find Safari.
  3. Choose Clear History and Website Data.

If you use Chrome, follow these steps to clear its cache:

  1. Open Google Chrome on your iPhone.
  2. Tap Options > Settings.
  3. Scroll down and tap Privacy.
  4. Tap Clear Browsing Data.
  5. Choose which browsing data you want to clear (browsing history, cookies, cached images and files) and tap Clear Browsing Data.

Step 3. Clear app cache and other app data

Unlike browsers, most apps don’t give you access to their cache and other data they store, such as login data. And if you tap on each app at the top of that list in iPhone Storage, you’ll notice it has several gigabytes of so-called Documents and Data. Here’s how you clear that app data to get more iPhone storage:

  1. Before you start, make sure you remember your logins to various apps or have them saved somewhere.
  2. In Settings > General > iPhone Storage, tap on an app at the top of the list. This will often be a social media app like Facebook or Snapchat, a messenger, or a content app like YouTube or Spotify.
  3. Tap Delete App.
  4. Go to the App Store and reinstall the app.

How To Clean Up Storage On Iphone

Yup, unfortunately, this is the only way to clear cache and other app data for the majority of apps.

Step 4. Delete attachments in Messages

Texting isn’t just about text, right? You’re sending and receiving memes, GIFs, selfies, little videos of your cat falling off the couch in her sleep. All that content is stored on your iPhone even if you don’t save it to Photos, and if you text a lot it quickly adds up.

Here’s how to delete all your attachments in Messages to clear some iPhone memory:

  1. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
  2. Scroll down and tap on Messages.
  3. You’ll see a list: Top Conversations, Photos, GIFs and Stickers, and Other. Tap on the category that occupies the most space. Keep in mind that in Top Conversations, you’ll be deleting entire threads, not just the attachments. If you don’t want to do that, stick to Photos and other content.
  4. Tap Edit in the upper-right corner.
  5. Mark all attachments you want to delete.
  6. Tap the Trash icon.

That’s it! Space-hogging attachments are gone.

Step 5. Delete offline content

You probably consume a lot of content every day — music, videos, podcasts and what not. And if you save that content offline to be able to play it on the subway or during a long flight, you have quite a lot of leftovers piled up.

As a result, apps like YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify can take up several gigabytes of iPhone storage each. So why waste space on those Stranger Things episodes you downloaded back in 2017 and a long-forgotten playlist you never listen to anymore?

How To Clean Up Storage On Phone Screen

Let’s start with Netflix. Here’s how to delete Netflix movies and series you saved onto your iPhone:

  1. Open the Netflix app.
  2. Go to Downloads.
  3. Tap on the pencil icon in the top right corner.
  4. Tap on the red X to delete the video.
Clean

Next up, YouTube. To delete offline YouTube videos, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the YouTube app.
  2. Go to Library > Downloads.
  3. Tap on the three dots next to a downloaded video.
  4. Tap “Delete from downloads.”
  5. Repeat for each video.

Finally, to delete offline playlists or podcasts in Spotify, do the following:

  1. Open Spotify.
  2. Go to Your Library > Music > Playlists.
  3. The playlists you downloaded will be marked with a green arrow. Tap on a playlist like that.
  4. Tap on the green arrow icon below the name of the playlist.
  5. When a confirmation popup appears, tap Remove.
  6. Repeat for podcasts, if you have any saved offline.

You should also rummage around in Podcasts, Apple Music, and other entertainment apps you’re using. Once you’ve cleaned up all the offline content you don’t need anymore, you’ll see how much iPhone memory you’ve managed to recover.

How to prevent iPhone storage from getting full again

Just like your closet, iPhone storage will get full again, and you will have to go through the steps above every once in a while. But there are things you can do to manage your oh-so-limited storage more wisely and not have to do that major cleanup quite as often.

Store photos and videos elsewhere

Even after you’ve trimmed some fat off your library, chances are Photos still hogs a lot of iPhone space. What to do? Transfer your photos and videos to your computer or to the cloud

If you have a Mac, the easiest way is to connect your iPhone and sync all media files to the Mac. Then you can delete the originals from your phone.

Note that when you sync photos with your Phone, some of them stay cached on your Mac. This cache occupies space on your disk after the sync is done, so it’s better to clean it up. A utility like CleanMyMac X is an easy way to clear iOS photo cache (and it’s free to download). In just two clicks you’ll remove all the junk files from your Mac.

Alternatively, you can upload your iPhone photos to an online storage like iCloud. It’s pretty convenient, because iCloud Photos automatically syncs every photo and video you take to the cloud, so you can access your library from any device, as long as it has internet connection. You do have to pay for iCloud storage, though, because the free 5 GB won’t be enough for your whole photo library.

Here’s how to upload photos to iCloud:

How To Clean Up Storage On Phone
  1. Sign in to your iCloud.com account. It’s the same as your Apple ID.
  2. Go to Settings on your device and select Photos.
  3. Turn on iCloud Photos.

Now your photos are automatically synced to iCloud, which means they'll be taking up space in iCloud, not on your iPhone.

Disable saving duplicate photos when shooting in HDR

On iPhones that don’t have Smart HDR, when you take photos in HDR, your iPhone saves two shots: the original picture and the processed one. You will save a lot of iPhone storage if you disable saving these duplicates. Just do the following:

  1. Go to Settings and select Camera.
  2. Disable Keep Normal Photo.

From now, only the HDR versions of your photos will be saved. That said, the previous HDR and non-HDR copies of your photos will remain, so do run your photo library through Gemini Photos to find those similar shots.

Stop storing messages forever

By default, your iPhone stores all the messages you send and receive … forever. This is convenient if you want to read your 2-years-old conversations, but not so convenient when you run out of storage because your brother sends you fifteen memes every single day.

To stop your phone from saving messages forever, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings and tap Messages.
  2. Scroll down to Message History and tap Keep Messages.
  3. Change Forever to 30 days or 1 year.
  4. You’ll see a pop-up message asking if you want to delete older messages, tap Delete to proceed.

Bonus tip to help you clean iPhone storage

In iOS 11 and later, Apple brings storage management tools to your device. This means that you get unique storage saving suggestions based on your iPhone. They include things like Reviewing Large Attachments and Conversations, Offloading Unused Apps, Saving Messages to iCloud, and others. Therefore, if you’re running iOS 11 or later, go to iPhone Storage and check out the recommendations.

We hope you found our troubleshooting guide helpful in tackling that annoying “Storage Almost Full” message. Enjoy taking new photos and never have to worry about lack of iPhone storage again.