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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. Check & free up memory. Android manages the memory that apps use. You don't usually need to close apps. Basically, since very little but apps and their data is taking up space (pictures are backed up to the cloud, by default, so all that’s on your phone is thumbnails, which don’t take up much space), about the only way to free up an appreciable amount of space is to choose apps you want to get rid of, force-stop each one, clear cache, clear data, then uninstall the app. Keep doing that until you’ve freed up enough space. How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Add extra storage with a microSD memory card Many Android phones allow you to add extra storage, in the form of a microSD memory card. You can sort apps by size in your phone's app list in settings on some phones, but sadly this isn't a stock Android feature. Delete backed-up photos. Google Photos is the tool built into Android for backing up your photos and videos to the cloud. If you don't need quick access to the photos and videos you've recorded lately, Google Photos has a. Use ‘Clean up’ option on your device. Almost all Android devices these days give you an option to.

“I’ve made a huge mistake“. When I was buying a secondary Android phone, I went with the 8 GB Moto G model. 8 GB will be more than enough I said to myself, it’s not my main device anyway. I was so wrong. Out of the 8 gigs, only 5 GB are usable. When you use many apps (for testing) and some media, that’s not a lot.

It got so bad that this one time when I was trying to download a storage space analyzer app, I got an error saying I didn’t have enough space left. Oh, the irony.

But in the end I was able to persevere. Using a combination of different apps (yes, yes, adding insult to the injury), uninstalling apps, clearing caches, and being ruthless about downloaded files, I was able to clear more than 1 GB of data in a matter of minutes. To me, that’s a lot.

Read on to find out how I did it. And how you can too.

1. Look Up Storage in Settings

First, go to Settings -> Storage and take a look at what’s taking up so much space. Is it apps, photos, or videos? Tap on an option to see the complete list. Although, deleting files from here is not possible for some reason.

More importantly, tap the Misc option. This lists all the extra files left from apps you uninstalled, old backup files, or any other file type. I found over 1 GB of data taken up by such miscellaneous files. Deleting the old ROM backups, ROM images, and more was an easy way to free the space.

2. Analyze Storage Using Disk Usage & Storage Analyzer

Sometimes a visual representation of data helps. That’s where Disk Usage & Storage Analyzer comes in. Once the app scans your storage, it will show you a breakdown of your entire storage directory, folder by folder.

It displays this using a branched circle structure. You can use the Directory tab to go deeper into the folders. Tapping a folder/file brings up the Delete option.

3. Clean Cache and Temp Files

If you’re a fan of RSS readers or offline reading apps, app caches can build up pretty fast. I’m talking about a couple hundred MBs here. You can either go to Settings -> Apps, choose the app and clear the cache manually or you can use a cleaner app.

When it comes to cleaner apps, you can either use Clean Master or CCleaner (our review here), Clean Master being the choice of Android veterans.

When you launch Clean Master, you’ll see a Junk Files option. This will include system cache, app caches, system junk files, residual files from old apps and more. You can select what you want to delete. It freed nearly 300 MB using this feature. Not bad for literally 15 seconds of work. As caches build up with time, you’ll have to do this cleaning at set intervals.

4. Upload Photos to Dropbox and Delete Local Copies

Dropbox’s Carousel app has a “Free up phone space” feature (available in Settings) that deletes local copies of photos that are already backed up to Dropbox.

They can be accessed from the Carousel app anytime. Carousel will show thumbnails of all the photos. Tapping them will give you a larger preview. You can save photos from here to local storage as well.

If you want to do this manually, you can. Choose your cloud photo backup service of choice. Upload, then delete the local copies.

5. Do a Manual Sweep with ES File Explorer

There’s nothing better than just having a look around. Grab a full-featured file manager like ES File Explorer and start hunting. Explore the folders from top down. You’re bound to find files and folders taking up unnecessary space.

Check the Downloads folder: Everything you download on your phone will be on the Downloads folder. Over time, it gets easy to ignore this folder while it fills up. I found a couple of apk files and many wallpapers the last time I went looking in my Downloads folder, all of which I could get rid of.

6. Use the Old Fashioned Way: Delete Via PC

If you’re looking for an easier way to manage/delete data from your phone that’s possibly the most reliable way, connect it to a PC. This will list your internal storage as well as external SD card. Browse around, rearrange, and delete anything you don’t need.

7. Batch Uninstall Apps

We’ve talked about the best ways to batch uninstall apps, including Titanium Backup for rooted users. But you can use a cleaner app like Clean Master to uninstall apps as well.

Apps like Facebook and Instagram can take up more than 100 MB of space (not to mention significant battery power). You can consider deleting them and using the website instead.

8. Do a Factory Reset

We’re talking about taking extreme measures here, but if necessary, you could just do a factory reset and start over fresh. Make sure all your personal data is backed up (to the cloud preferably) before you do this.

How Do You Free Up Storage Space?

What’s your workflow for getting rid of unwanted apps, photos, and files? Let us know in the comments below.

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.

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Is storage space running out on your phone? Free up storage by clearing all media files from groups on

If you’re an avid Android app user, you’ll definitely reach the point of no more storage space. And if you have, the last thing you want to do is start deleting apps that you use all the time.

Fortunately, Android has built-in settings that allow you to free up storage space on your phone without deleting the apps you use or losing valuable pictures & videos. Here are three helpful tips to manage your phone’s storage:

1. Check to see which apps and files are taking up the most space.

Here’s how to find out much storage space apps and files are using:

1. Go to Settings>Storage to see how much storage is available. There, you’ll see a list of how much storage is available. You’ll also see a list of types of storage (apps, audio & video, photos, etc.) and how much space each type is using on your phone.
2. On that list, tap Downloads to see the files you’ve downloaded. You can select the files you want to delete and choose the Delete icon at the top to get rid of these files.
3. To find out how much space apps are using, go back to the Storage menu and tap They appear in order of how much space the app takes up, with the ones using the most space on the top. To save space, try these options:
   1. Clear Cache: A phone’s cache stores files so a website or app loads more quickly. By clearing the cache, you can free up space on your phone.
   2. Clear Data: Clearing data can give you more space on your phone, but be carefully it will wipe out your settings, login info, game progress, etc. Some apps (like Facebook & Twitter) are automatically backed up online, so once you log in, all your information and settings will be saved.

2. Copy photos and videos from your phone to a computer or to the cloud.

To free up space on your phone, you can copy pictures and videos to a computer or laptop. Another benefit of doing this is that you’ll have a backup of your photos if you lose your phone or it breaks. After making copies, you can delete them from your phone.

Back them up to your computer:

1. Connect your phone to your computer using a USB cable.
2. Once your phone is plugged in, you’ll see a pop-up showing your phone’s folders.
3. Navigate to the folder that contains your images (Usually it’s called the DCIM folder) and open it.
4. Click & drag each image to transfer it to your computer.

Or even easier:

1. Use an app like Google Photos to back up your photos to the cloud so you can delete them from your phone.
2. After backing up photos using Google Photos, go to the app’s menu and choose Free up space. Google Photos will find the photos that are already backed up and ask if you want to remove them from your phone.

3. Adjust the settings in your camera app so your pictures and videos are smaller in file size.

Your camera app should have settings for the size of your pictures and videos. Open your camera app and tap the settings icon in the upper left. There, you can adjust the following settings to save space on your phone:

Freeing Up Space On My Android Phone

• Picture Size: You can choose either a smaller or higher megapixel setting. While a higher megapixel gives you a sharper picture, it also takes up more space.
• Video Quality: Most camera apps let you choose the image quality. The higher resolution you choose, the more space the files take up. Plus, video files are much larger than pictures, so be careful to not take long videos.

Use these tips to free up space on your Android phone so you can keep using it for the things you need.

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Best Way To Free Up Memory On Android Phone

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Free Up Storage On Android

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