Smartphone storage continues to increase, with many models offering 64GB or even 128GB as a baseline. but, it is
still easy to run out of space, particularly if your phone does not support expansion via a microSD card. Here’s how to free up space & get more storage in Android.
Clear the cache
Many Android apps use stored — or cached — data to give you a better user experience. Cached data can save a little time (and mobile data), but the files stored in-app caches are for convenience and are not strictly necessary. If you need to clear up space on your phone quickly, the app cache is the first place you should look.
To clear cached data from a single app, go to Settings > Applications > Application Manager and tap on the app you want to modify. In the app’s Application info menu, tap Storage and then tap Clear Cache to clear the app’s cache.
To clear cached data from all apps, go to Settings > Storage and tap Cached data to clear the caches of all the apps on your phone.
Uninstall Unused Apps
On the Apps screen, just click on an app that you no longer want and uninstall it.
Once you delete apps you’re no longer using, you may see a marked difference in the available space on your device immediately, but there’s more.
Use USB OTG Storage
Have you heard of USB OTG?
Technicians will know that they can plug-in peripherals such as storage drives to add more space for their phones via the OTG cable.
USB On-The-Go, (USB OTG or OTG), allows USB devices such as tablets or smartphones to act as a host, allowing other USB devices, such as USB flash drives, digital cameras, mice, or keyboards, to be attached to them.
See the demo of how to connect a USB storage drive to know more details about USB OTG.
Step 1. Connect a flash drive (or SD reader with card) to the full-size USB female end of the adapter.
Step 2. Connect OTG cable to phone.
Step 3. Swipe down from the top to show the notification drawer. (If your file manager automatically appears, you don’t need to this.)
Step 4. Tap USB Drive.
Step 5. Now, you can copy files from the phone storage to the flash drive according to the following steps.
Tap Internal Storage to view the files on your phone.
Select the file you’d like to share.
Tap the three dots button.
Select Copy.
Navigate to a USB drive, and then tap Done
USE A FILE MANAGER
If you’ve had your phone for more than a few months, it’s likely you’ve accumulated a load of outdated, duplicate, or simply unwanted files that are taking up a lot of space. File managers such as Google Files let you check your various file folders and see what’s there. Many also have features that will help you search out and delete storage-wasting files — such as junk files, duplicate files, or over-large files — without having to search them out manually.
In most of these apps, you will be given the chance to look through the files that the app plans to delete to make sure that it isn’t getting rid of anything you really want to keep.
Move photos and video of internal storage
This is possibly the one item on this list that will have more impact than any other. Photos and videos take up a crazy amount of space, and the more storage space you have the less likely you are to routinely go through and prune out the poor shots.
If your device has space for a microSD card, add one and automate the saving of such media to microSD. Here’s how to access files on an SD card in Android.
If your device does not support microSD there’s Google Photos. In fact, we’d advise using this free app anyway, since it’s useful for ensuring all the important memories get backed up and are accessible from any device on which you are logged into your Google account.
Download and install the app, then launch it and go to Settings, Backup & Sync. Ensure it is backing up your media over Wi-Fi, and that any important folders – such as your WhatsApp or Snapchat folders – are included. (More on that in the next step.)
Free up space on Android with Google Photos
When it’s finished backing everything up, in Google Photos go to Settings, Free up space. Follow the prompts to delete the local copies of your media and see just how much storage you’ll save.
Move apps to the trash
If you’ve tried all of these tips and you still need more space, there’s no getting around it — you’re going to have to start deleting some things. You’ve probably got some (maybe several) apps on your device that you never use.
To figure out which apps are taking up the most space, open Settings and go to Storage > Apps. You’ll see a list of apps sorted by size — the biggest apps will the at the top of the list.
To delete an app you don’t use, tap the app and then tap the “i” icon next to the app’s name. Tap uninstall to get rid of the app.
Back-Up Your Files in the Cloud
Using a cloud service to store your files can be a big space saver. Once you’ve backed up your files to the cloud, you can delete them from your device.
The obvious choice here for an Android user is Google Drive, which comes with 15GB of free space (including your other Google accounts). Aside from Google, here are some of the most popular cloud storage services:
Dropbox: Free account comes with 2GB of free space
iCloud: Free account comes with 5GB of free space
OneDrive: First-tier with 5GB of free storage
Delete downloads
Everyone always forgets about downloads, which are often left behind in a forgotten folder long after they’ve been any use to you. If you don’t have a file browser app on your device you can download one free from Google Play. Now search for the Downloads folder and ditch anything you don’t need.