No matter how large your internal storage is, you cannot install unlimited applications and store large amounts of files all the time. In another word, your Android phone storage will be full sooner or later. When there is no enough storage space, and you need to update your Android or install one important application, what will you do? And what if you want to sell or donate your personal smart phone to someone else? Can you protect your private information effectively?
Therefore, you had better clear phone storage regularly no matter the phone storage is full or not. Though you can move certain files and apps to microSD card or other external hard drives, it is still important to clear memory Android to maintain the normal operating space. Fortunately, this article collects some useful and easy-to-operate solutions. As a result, you are able to free up storage and memory space with ease.
The resulting data saved on your phone is termed as 'cache'. Cache can be good but most of the time, some of your phone's cache are only used for one time and may stay on your phone for a long time if not used. Time to time you need to clean your cache to get rid. Clear an app's cache Note: The only way to clear the cache on every app at the same time would be to perform a factory reset on your phone. Clearing the app cache is kind of like a cleanse for your apps. It will get rid of residual files that could be slowing down the app.
Part 1: How to Clear Phone Storage
You can try the traditional way to clear phone storage space on Android by deleting useless files. And it is also supported to install an Android cleaner app to save your overstuffed mobile. Moreover, this article also shows how to get more space on your phone without deleting anything. You can read and choose the certain solution to free up space on Android.
Delete Your Downloads
To download more apps and media files, or clear system memory, you can delete some less important files manually. If you are not sure whether you will use those files in the further or not, you can backup Android files to cloud storage space in advance.
Step 1. Locate your download folder
Every Android phone has its own download folder. All your downloaded photos, videos, documents and other files will be stored in the local downloads folder. In some Android models, this folder may be called as 'My Files' as well.
Step 2. Clear internal phone storage on Android
Turn to your download history and find files you want to delete. Just long press one file to select it. Later, click 'Remove' or other trashcan icon to delete downloads when internal storage Android full.
Clear the Cache
Furthermore, you need to clear cached data on your Android phone regularly. And you will not lose any sensitive or important Android data. In most cases, cleaning app cache is the first decision you can make.
Method 1: Clear cached data from an Android app.
Open 'Settings' app. Choose 'Applications' and scroll down to click 'Application Manager'. Later, you can find the target application. When you are in the Application info page, click 'Storage' and then choose 'Clear Cache' to clear the cache on Android.
Method 2: Clear all cached data on Android
Go to 'Settings' and click 'Storage' under its list. Find and click 'Cached data'. When you are prompted with 'This will clear cached data for all apps.', choose 'OK' to confirm. After that, you can clear phone memory Android successfully.
Take Advantage of Google Photos
Actually, Google Photos app is a good cloud storage tool that allows users to backup unlimited photos over the air. Thus, you can move all pictures from Android to Google Photos to free up more space on Android.
Step 1. Turn on Google Photos backup feature
Run Google Photos app on your Android phone. Make sure you have turned on 'Back up & sync' feature under 'Settings' already.
Step 2. Backup Android photos to Google Photos
You can set whether to backup Android photos at high quality resolution or original size. Well, Google Photos only offers unlimited storage space for high quality photos at present.
Step 3. Clear phone storage space on Android
Then go back to Settings app and choose 'Free up device storage'. Click 'Remove' to delete Android pictures that have been backed up.
Move APPs to the Trash
If you have not used the certain application for a long time, and you are sure that you have no interest to use this app any more, then why don't you move it to the trash?
Step 1. Access all Android apps
Navigate 'Settings' app. Head to 'Storage' and click 'Apps'. Later, you can see all installed apps sorted by size.
Step 2. Clear phone storage on Android by deleting apps
Hold and press the app you do not use. then click the 'i' icon besides your app's name. Choose 'Uninstall' and confirm your change.
APP to Clear Phone Storage
By free installing Files Go from Google Play Store, you can visualize the left storage space exactly. And it is easy to clear phone storage on Android by deleting temporary files, downloads and other files easily.
Step 1. See all your Android files organized by Files Go
Launch Files Go and grant storage permissions and app access. Then you can monitor the storage usage including unused apps, duplicate files, temporary files, etc.
Step 2. Clear phone storage Android
Choose the certain category and select items you want to delete. Later, click 'Delete' to clean up your Android, or choose 'Clear' to uninstall apps and free up Android phone storage space.
Part 2: How to Get More Space on Your Phone without Deleting Anything
Android Data Backup & Restore is your best friend, which can backup and restore any Android data to Windows or Mac PC in one click. Thus, you can backup data to your computer to clear phone storage space on Android. It is quite easy to achieve, and no Android data will be overwritten.
- One click to backup and restore data from Android to Windows or Mac PC.
- Preview and select any data to restore to your Android without data loss.
- Set up password to encrypt your Android backup files.
- Work with over 5,000 Android portable devices including Samsung, Sony, LG, etc.
Step 1. Connect Android to PC
Launch Android Data Backup & Restore. Then use a lighting USB cable to connect your Android phone or tablet to your computer. Click 'One-click Backup' to backup all Android files to PC. Otherwise, you can click 'Device Data Backup' to backup certain Android file types without overwriting.
How Do I Clean My Internal Phone Storage
Step 2. Select data type to backup (optional)
If you want to backup Android data to your computer selectively, then you can select the data type in the popping up window.
Step 3. Backup data from Android to PC
Then choose 'Start' to backup Android data to PC immediately. And you can have a check when the backup is over.
After that, you can clear phone storage by deleting all Android files. If you accidentally deleted important files, just use this software as the backup extractor or to get deleted data back.
Well, it is also a good way that can increase internal storage Android in some degree. In addition, even though your Android device is broken or crashed, you can still access all important documents and medias files directly.
As you use your iPhone, it gets filled up with all sorts of things: apps, photos, videos, messages. And that’s fine, but it also gets filled up with stuff you have little control over and don’t necessarily need.
If you've ever checked your storage, you know there’s a vaguely named Other category that often takes up more space than Photos. Even if you have plenty of storage on your phone, knowing some unspecified stuff is clogging it up can be frustrating. Let’s take a closer look at what Other data is, whether it’s the same thing as app cache or Documents and Data, and how to clear it.
What you'll need:
- Your iPhone
- Gemini Photos, an iOS app for photo cleanup
- Internet connection
What's the difference between app cache, Documents and Data, and Other in iPhone Storage?
The relationship between these three concepts can be a little confusing. But the easiest way to understand it is that they're like Russian dolls: the Other category in iPhone Storage contains the Documents and Data of all your apps, and Documents and Data of each individual app contains that app's cache.
What is app cache on iPhone?
App cache is a bunch of files, scripts, and media that are loaded every time you open the app. Rather than loading those files all over again every time, the app saves copies of them locally on your iPhone and fetches them more quickly next time they're needed. Which is great, because it helps your apps work faster — but that cached data can quickly add up and occupy a lot of space even if you don't use the app anymore.
Browsers also cache bits and pieces of the websites you visit, which means that your favorite websites will load super fast, and that your iPhone browser will get bloated in no time.
What is Documents and Data on iPhone?
In Settings > General > iPhone Storage there’s a list of your apps sorted by the amount of space they occupy. When you tap on each you see how much the app itself takes up, and then how much its Documents & Data do. So what are those “documents”, exactly? They can include the following:
- app cache
- login details
- preferences
- offline media content
Depending on which apps you use more often, some of your biggest space hoarders will include browsers, social media apps, and content-heavy apps like Spotify or Netflix. Identify apps that have the largest chunks of Documents and Data, they will be our targets in the next section.
What does Other mean in iPhone Storage?
In iPhone Storage, Other comprises your iOS and all of the files that don’t fall under labeled categories like Photos, Apps, or Media. These include app data (also known as Documents & Data), call history, notes, voice memos, Mail and Messages attachments, completed reminders, and similar tidbits of user data.
Although none of these files are particularly big, they tend to add up, especially if you have a lot of apps and actively use browsers.
How to delete Other on iPhone
Let’s start your iPhone cleanup with the easy stuff — the files you created yourself. Go over all your apps and delete unneeded:
- message attachments in Messages, WhatsApp, and other messengers
- email attachments in Mail
- completed reminders in the iOS Reminders app
- notes in the Notes app
- voice memos
- voicemail
- your call history
Don’t forget to empty the Recently Deleted folders in Notes and Reminders, as well as empty the Trash in Mail. After that, we’ll move to the trickier part of Other data: files generated by your apps, also known as app cache and Documents and Data.
How to clear cache on iPhone
How To Clean My Samsung Phone Storage
Unfortunately, most apps don't give you access to their cache. And iPhone cleaner apps that claim to clear app caches can't get that access either — it's just the way iOS is built. But apps like Safari and Chrome do allow you to purge their cache, so we'll provide separate instructions for them.
How To Clean Up Storage On Iphone
How to clear Safari and Chrome cache
This works pretty well for browsers, because Safari and Google Chrome actually allow you to delete cache, either in iPhone Settings or in the Settings within the app.
Clean My Phone Storage
To clear Safari cache, do the following:
- Open Settings.
- Scroll down to Safari.
- Select Clear History and Website Data.
For Chrome, follow these steps:
- Open the app.
- Go to Options > Settings.
- Tap Privacy.
- Tap Clear Browsing Data.
- Select the browsing data you want to delete (cookies, history, cached images and files) and tap Clear Browsing Data.
How Can I Clean My Phone Storage Space
Some other apps have this feature as well, so rummage around in their Settings to see if you can clear the cache.
How to clear app cache for other apps
The majority of cache-heavy apps like Facebook and Snapchat don’t have a built-in cleanup, so the only way to delete cache for an app like that is to delete and reinstall the app itself. Before you do that, make sure you have all your login info: deleting an app will clear not only its cache, but all its Documents and Data, including login details. And you probably don’t want to get locked out of your Facebook account.
Once you're sure you have all your login information, here's how you can delete the apps:
- Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
- The apps at the top are the ones occupying the most space. Tap on an app to see how much Documents and Data it has. This is all the cache, login details, and offline content the app has accumulated over time.
- If it looks like a lot, tap Delete App.
- Repeat for all your 'heavy' apps.
Now go to the App Store and reinstall the apps you just deleted. You'll notice they'll have far less Documents and Data, which means you've successfully purged the cache.
Is clearing cache bad?
Clearing cache isn't bad in the long run. The first time you open apps and websites after your big cache purge, they might feel a little slower. But once they re-cache the resources they need, you'll be up to speed again.
What's the point of cleaning up cache if apps and websites will regenerate it anyway? Well, you're getting rid of useless data from the random website you once read an article about measles on, or that game you played twice and forgot about it after. All that cache can add up to gigabytes, so you're reclaiming storage for the things you actually need. Plus, according to moms, you should really clean up every once in a while.
How to delete other Documents and Data
Apps like Netflix, Spotify, and Google Maps allow you to save content for offline use, which is a great way to stay entertained or find your way around when you don’t have internet access. But once you’ve watched that Black Mirror episode, you probably just leave it there, and the app continues hoarding data and using up space.
Deleting and reinstalling the app like we suggested above will definitely help. But if you don't want to re-log into all of your apps, try deleting just the offline content. Look around in some of your apps and see if you have offline content left behind. It can include:
- Movies and series in Netflix
- Music in Spotify or Apple Music
- Areas in Google Maps
- Files in Google Drive or other cloud storage apps
- Videos in educational apps like Coursera and Skillshare
- Podcasts
- Books
With all that done, the Other section of your storage bar should shrink considerably.
Bonus tip for a cleaner iPhone
Clearing app cache, long-forgotten offline playlists, and login data is a great way to declutter. But if your goal is to clear any and all useless stuff on your iPhone, not just Other data, we have a bonus tip: clean up your photo library.
Sure, nobody likes deleting their photos, because those are memories and you keep them for a reason. But most iPhones have a fair amount of photos that are useless clutter, not memorable shots.
These include multiple photos that look the same (taken to pick a good one later); photos of notes, bills, schedules (taken for a temporary need and then forgotten); screenshots (same case); photos that are plain bad (dark or blurred). You'd be surprised how much cleaner your iPhone feels when you get rid of all that dead weight! Here's how to do it:
- Download Gemini Photos for iPhone.
- Tap Similar, and then on a set of photos.
- Look through the photos in this set to make sure you agree with the Best Result.
- Tap Delete.
- Repeat for all your similar pics!
When you're done with Similar, be sure to check out Screenshots, Duplicates, Videos, and Blurred. Finally, go to Other and swipe through all the remaining photos: up to keep a pic, down to delete it.
We do recommend you give your Camera Roll a cleanup — not only will it save you some storage, but it will also make the photo collection on your iPhone cleaner and easier to navigate. That can be time-consuming, but with an app like an app like Gemini Photos you'll be done way faster.
How Can I Clean My Iphone Storage
That’s it, hope this helped you understand the confusing Other data – Documents and Data – app cache relationship and clean up your iPhone a little bit. Be sure to come back to this checklist every once in a while to keep your iPhone clean.