If you’re running out of storage space on your smartphone, we don’t blame you. As smartphone cameras and processors become more powerful, the size of apps and media files increases rapidly. A single 4K video can easily take up hundreds of megabytes of storage space on your device. For this reason, you see smartphone variants with up to 1 TB of storage space these days. Aside from accessing higher storage, there are a few other things you can do to manage your device’s storage capacity. In this article, we will share with you the 8 best ways to free up space on your iPhone and Android phones.
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Clear the cache
Clearing the cache memory on your device can help you free up a significant chunk of storage space. The web browser and apps store temporary files in cache memory to speed up loading time. Clear the cache of each app individually to increase the available storage space on your smartphone. Here’s how.
Clear cache on Android
Step 1: Go to Settings and choose Apps.
Step 2: Scroll down and select an app.
Step 3: Tap on Storage.
Step 4: Select “Clear Cache”.
Clear browser cache on iPhone
Step 1: Go to Settings and select Safari.
Step 2: Select “Clear History and Website Data”.
The browser cache is emptied.
Clear app data
Ever wondered why a particular app’s size increases dramatically over time? This is because the apps on your smartphone store a lot of personal data such as account information, databases, files, and preferences. If you don’t use an app that often, you may want to clear its data to save storage space. Here’s how.
Step 1: Go to Settings and select Apps.
Step 2: Select the app you want to clear data from.
Step 3: Tap on Storage.
Step 4: Select “Clear Data” at the bottom.
Free up storage space with the Files app on Android
Android’s native Google Files app has a cleanup tool that can help you get rid of redundant and old data on your device. Here’s how to free up storage space using the Files app.
Step 1: Launch the “Files” app and tap on the “Clean” tab.
Step 2: Go through the cleaning suggestions. Delete duplicate pictures and old apps on your device.
Step 3: Under a specific category, tap “Select Files” to choose which files you want to delete.
Step 4: Tap “Move to Trash” to delete the file and free up space.
Delete unused apps on your device
There’s no point in keeping apps that you hardly ever use. Deleting an app is a great way to free up much-needed space on your device. Here’s how to delete unused apps on your device.
Delete unused apps on Android
Step 1: Go to Google Play Store and tap on your profile icon on the top right corner of the screen.
Step 2: Select “Manage apps and device”.
Step 3: Switch to the “Manage” tab.
Step 4: Tap on the filer options and choose Least Used.
Step 5: Highlight the apps you want to remove and tap on the delete icon on the top right corner of the screen.
Unload unused apps on iPhone
The iPhone Offload Unused Apps feature routinely checks your phone for inactive apps and deletes them from the system. You’ll still see the app icon on your home screen, but it needs to be downloaded before you can use it. You can check how much storage you can save by offloading apps by going to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and checking the Recommended section. Here is how you can enable app offloading on your iPhone.
Step 1: Go to Settings and select App Store.
Step 2: Enable toggle bar for “Offload unused apps”.
Make a backup copy of your media
For most smartphone users, photos and videos take up most of the storage space on their devices. Your smartphone camera can capture many details in the captured images and videos. While the output may be great, even a normal image can take up to 5MB of disk space. Videos can take up more space depending on the resolution and duration.
It’s a good idea to back up the media on your device and delete the older pictures and videos that you don’t watch often. You can back up your data using a cloud service such as iCloud and Google Drive, or create a local backup on a memory card or external hard drive.
Optimize photo storage on your iPhone
While most users are on board with creating a backup of media files, they still don’t want to part with the pictures and videos on their iPhones. This is understandable as accessing the media locally is very convenient and one of the reasons why people enjoy using smartphones in the first place. But what if you could back up pictures to the cloud and at the same time access a version of the picture that doesn’t take up much storage space on your phone? Well, your iPhone can do just that. Here’s how you can optimize photo storage on your iPhone.
Step 1: Go to Settings and select Photos.
Step 2: Under iCloud, select Optimize iPhone Storage option.
Frequently Asked Questions How do I free up space on my phone?
The easiest way to free up space on your phone is to delete duplicate files and unused apps.
Why is my phone memory always full?
Your phone’s memory can fill up over time. This is because the apps on your device are always collecting data. Clear app data to free up storage space.
How do I free up space on my phone without losing data?
Delete redundant and duplicate files from your phone. Backup large files to cloud storage and remove them from your device.
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Diploma
These are the top 8 ways you can free up space on your iPhone and Android phones. It’s a good idea to view the full breakdown of storage space on your device to gauge storage status. Routinely clear the cache and redundant files on your device to manage its storage.
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