Lack of storage space has become a headache for many smartphone users. Over time, photos, videos, apps, and temporary files fill up the memory, and it’s not long before the dreaded “storage full” message appears. What should you do when your phone runs out of space? There are simple solutions to recover memory and optimize your device’s performance, but since we can’t tell you everything in the introduction, we’ll explain it below.
In this article, we’ll review how to clear space with practical tips to leave both your Android and iPhone devices 100% spotless. We’ll explain what you should try to delete first, as well as the types of files you should delete first, from apps you no longer use to videos that take up several gigabytes—the biggest space-hogs we could call space-hogs. We’ll also explain how to check what’s filling up your memory and what safe tools can help with the cleanup.
Checking what’s taking up space on your phone first is a good idea.
The first step is to identify what’s using the most storage. Both Android and iOS offer built-in tools to view memory usage, even by category. On Android, we have the following path:
- We go into Settings
- Click on “ About the phone.”
- We access Storage
- If we click on any of the sections, we can also delete what is not of interest.
It shows a graph showing how much apps, photos, videos, or audio are taking up; on iPhone, you have the iPhone Storage option in Settings, which does the same. With this data, you can prioritize which items you should delete or move, for example, reviewing which games are rarely used or a video folder that has too many, and review them before taking more drastic measures.
Delete apps you no longer use
Uninstalling apps that you installed just in case, but don’t use, is one of the quickest ways to gain space. Aside from the more general option we discussed earlier, you can also review them on Android, from Settings and the Applications section, or even from the “Manage apps and device” section of Google Play to sort them by size and delete them in batches, or even by tapping the icon and clicking the trash can to delete it. On iPhone, from the storage list, you can choose ” Delete app ” or ” Disable app ” (unloading the app preserves the data), freeing up gigabytes without losing information if you reinstall it later.
Photos and videos: backup or cleanup
High-resolution photos and videos tend to eat up a lot of storage space. Go through your gallery and delete duplicates, blurry photos, or silly videos. To avoid losing memories, use Google Photos or iCloud to back up your photos to the cloud and then delete the local copy. Both Google Files and the iOS ” Optimize Storage ” feature automate this process, freeing up space without causing a huge mess. WhatsApp is obviously another reason why so many images and videos accumulate, so delete anything you have and don’t want on this social network.
Clear cache and temporary files
Temporary data grows without you even noticing. On Android, select each app in Settings > Applications and tap “Clear Cache”; many apps (Chrome, Facebook, etc.) have their own built-in clearing option. On iPhone, there’s no global button, but in Safari, for example, just go to Settings > Safari > Clear Browsing Data. Don’t forget your Downloads folder either; you’ll need to use a file explorer or the Files app on iOS to empty it.
