How To Free Up Space On Android Device Storage

Curious what is occupying your phone storage that you don't know about?
Yes!, Some unnecessary files can occupy large amount of useful space on android phone storage. These files include cache and junk files created by manually installed or pre built android apps. There's no con whatsoever in deleting those files but rather you'll be able to improve your device performance, so you have nothing to worry about.

Have you been getting this notification that your device storage is running out? Or you are unable to install more apps and getting the error "App not installed" when you try to install new app?. Freeing up more space on your phone's storage will fix this issue.

Moreover, your android device will start lagging behind once the storage space is very low to the point that you start feeling maybe something is wrong with the phone. Well, that's not so. Your low storage is the one affecting your device performance.

To free up more space for apps, games and media files, you need to delete these files...

• Cache data
• Junk files
• Rarely used apps
• Old videos, pictures and files you no longer need.

How To Delete Cache Data

What you may need to know about Cache
Cache are fast memory storage for storing a separate copy of files that a user is working with in the foreground though this is a background process. Cache memory are more quickly accessible and very useful if those files are being requested often. All android apps use the cache memory for storing files that may be needed in the future. The use of Cache memory by most of the android apps explains why your phone's speed started slowing down when there isn't much free space on your phone storage.

But on the other hand, Cache data can occupy considerable amount of space on smartphones. I once checked my installed apps and find out that the Google Message app is about 1.7GB in size including its data. "What?!😳 . I wondered how a messaging app can occupy such amount of space. Then I view the storage details and found out that the app including it's data occupies about 150mb only while the Cache data takes up 1.5GB from my precious phone storage. Imagine! lol. This is usually the case for some android apps especially the message app and apps that connect to the internet very often such as your browser app - Chrome and others.

As far as I know, there's no second or third party app that can be used for clearing the cache data. In fact, from Android 8.0 to 9.0, Google removed the ability to bulk remove the complete cache data of all your apps which gives the user unnecessary effort to clear the cache data of each app individually.

Procedure:

To free up the cache memory or in other words delete Cache data on your android phone,

• Go to android system Settings and tap Storage from the list. From here, you can see how your device storage is being used up by your installed apps & games and media files which includes your photos and videos. And then you will find the cache memory status in the list. Tap on it to clear the memory.

For android version of 8.0 and above, such option to clear all the Cache data at once will not be available. You'll have to delete the Cache data for each apps individually. So,

• Go to your android system Settings and tap on App settings. You'll need to click See All App to view all your installed apps.
• Tap on any of your app and click on Storage details to view the Cache data size.
• Now click Clear Cache to clear the cache data. Do this for all your apps that are using too much space on your phone storage.

For easy navigation, you may want your apps list sorted by size. Just go to your Storage settings and click Other Apps from the list. Please be aware that all your installed apps may not appear in this list. You can check the other categories under Storage settings list.

How To Delete Junk Files

Junk files are residual files generated by installed android apps. These files are useless and can occupy a lot of space on android storage.

There are many apps out there that can help you in cleaning up these residual files but I'll recommended Google Files manager app named Files Go. It's a good file managing app that has all the features you wanted with a special tab for cleaning up your phone storage. This tab will list out all the files that you may want to remove from your phone starting from the Junk files, Duplicate files, Rarely used apps and folders that are containing large files occupying the most out of your storage.

Read Also: The Best File Manager App For Android

How To Clean Up Your Storage With Files Go

• Download and install Files Go app from Google Play store by clicking here. This app comes preinstalled on some android phones, so you may just need to update it on the Play store.
• Open the app and tap Clean from the buttom left to open the tab. You will find a banner at the top showing the junk files details. Click "Confirm and free up..." to remove the junk files from your phone.

Use the Files Go app to also remove rarely used apps, videos, pictures and other media files or documents you no longer need.

Buy A Memory Card

If you still need more space after cleaning up all the unnecessary files on your phone then I'd advise getting a memory card for your phone. And then, you can copy your media files(videos,music etc) I believe they take up the most out of every smartphones' storage. Copy these files to your memory card and delete them from your phone storage.

Note that;

1. Not all smartphone support external storage device.
2. If your phone is supported, you must know the maximum external storage capacity your phone can hold, so you don't waste your money buying a memory card that'll not work with your phone.

You can buy a memory card at affordable price on Jumia Online by clicking here and get it delivered to your doorstep. If you're not based in Nigeria, you can get one on AliExpress - check it here.

You May Also Like: 35 Affordable High-End Smartphones You Can Buy On Jumia This Year

So, that's it. All you need to know on how to clean up your phone storage and improve your device performance. If you find this article helpful, please share it with others. For more related updates, click here to join our mailing list and if you have any question or anything to add to this, kindly scroll to the comment section below and leave a message. We'll reply as soon as we get notified.

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