Clean Up Storage On Android



On your Android phone or tablet, swipe down from the top of the screen once or twice, then tap the Gear icon to open the “Settings” menu. Next, select “Storage” in the “Settings” menu. On a Samsung Galaxy phone, you will need to tap “Device Care” first to get to the “Storage” option. If this is the first time Back up & sync is activated, you’ll have to wait until your camera roll is safely backed up before starting to clean up space. Once that is done, you have two options: Use Google Photos Free up device storage to delete files. Open Google Photos; Tap on the three-stripe menu in the top left corner. Tap on Settings.

How to Clean up and Release Android Memory

SD Maid is probably the most underrated phone cleaner app. The app is known for in-depth cleaning of junk files on Android. For that purpose, it offers a wide range of tools to manage extra files. This is the crud that builds up in your phone's memory during day-to-day use, and cleaning it out once in a while is simply a good policy. If you tap on Cached data in the Storage settings menu, a prompt will appear asking you if you'd like to delete cached data for all apps on your Android device. If you see the Android lying down with a warning sign, that is a normal part of the No Command screen. If you have a Moto X (1st Gen), Moto X (2nd Gen.), Moto E (1st Gen.) or Moto G (1st Gen.), please see How to Clear the Android System Cache on 1.0 and 2.0 Phones.

In the previous passage, we have talked about how to change the default install path of Android and move apps to SD card to save storage space. Though Android 2.2 has the function of Apps2SD, supporting apps to be installed and moved to SD card, still some apps cannot. Some system files and privacy are remained in internal memory card. The phone has limited storage capacity configuration. Some other programs like Widgets, dynamic wallpaper, and some system programs still can’t work if installed on SD card. Memory problem is the common issue facing many users.

However, Android operating system memory can be cleaned up and the storage space can be released. Here we summarize the following points help users to clean up and release Android memory. Follow us and get more information below:

Clean up large apps cache data

By cleaning up apps cache files, the memory space can be largely released.

1. Go to “Settings” > “Applications” > “Manage applications

2. Press “Menu” button and choose “sort by size” (if Android 2.2, select “Downloaded” options first.) then all apps will be arranged according to the size.

3. Select one app in the list and click “Clear Cache” if there is.

The number of cache files in some apps may be up to MB, such as Google Maps, Market, browser and album program. Considerable space can be released when you clean up those cache data.

Many Android producers has installed UI program in the mobile phones, such as HTC Sense, MOTOBLUR, etc. If you use Launcher Pro or ADW instead of HTC Sense, you can even delete the data files of HTC Sense, which will release dozens MB for your memory storage space.

Android Market also provides some apps that will automatically clear up cache data but not for free, such as Quick App Clean Cache. For users getting the Root privileges can download Cache Cleaner, Cache Mate and Move Cache from the Android Market, which can help you to clear the cache files quickly and easily.

Delete the ones you never use or rarely used applications

Many users are reluctant to delete those apps never used or rarely used. However, you will find it nothing if you really delete them. Make this and you can save much more storage space for you Android.

Move all the app data which can be moved to SD card

Android 2.2 supports installing apps to SD card. Check you have moved all apps supported to SD card to save storage space, especially some large app such as some large Game programs. But pay attention to Widgets program, procedures bundled with Widgets, dynamic wallpaper and procedures required working in the background, as well as some apps interacting with the system. Don’t move them to SD card, or they won’t work normally.

This is how to clean up and release Android memory. Try it yourself, and you can save a lot storage space for your device. Also, form a habit of cleaning up and releasing Android memory, it will help keep your device healthy and speedup your device.


Clean Up Memory On Android

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October 1, 2015


“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.

How to free up storage on android

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.

Clean Up Storage On Android

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.

How To Get More Storage On Android

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.

Clean Up Device Storage Android

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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