Android: 6 tips to have more storage on your phone

If you own an Android phone, you may have had to manage storage space often to continue using the device to its fullest potential - whether that’s downloading updates or taking photos and videos. In fact, phone storage quickly fills up with photos, apps, files, and other data that we accumulate every day.

Not all smartphones have expandable memory, i.e. the possibility of inserting external memory microSD. Fortunately, there are tips to free up space and optimize the performance of your device. In this article, we will discover some practical solutions to free up the memory of your Android phone without having to give up important files or old souvenir photos.

6 tips to have more storage on your mobile phone

The storage space in your smartphone is necessary (obviously) to store photos, videos, and documents. However, it also allows you to download updates, which are essential for the device’s functioning. There are several ways through which you can increase the storage space of your phone. From the use of microSD to some quick and effective tricks.

1. Use a microSD

If your smartphone has expandable memory, you simply need to buy a microSD and move as many files as possible onto it, including apps. To find out if your smartphone allows the insertion of a microSD you can:

• search for the model on the Internet;
• read the device technical data sheet;
• check if there is a special door on the smartphone, generally positioned next to the one dedicated to the SIM.

If you cannot find the space dedicated to inserting the microSD it means that your smartphone does not have expandable memory. At this point, to have more memory on your mobile phone, all you have to do is follow this guide and discover all the tricks to free up space without having to delete everything.

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2. Use management and storage apps

The first trick to free up space on your device is to download a file management and storage app. Among the best apps to archive documents, we find Google Files.

Downloadable from the Play Store, this app allows you to manage files, helping you free up space in your internal memory.
Once you have downloaded the app, go to the "Delete" tab, located in the bottom bar. Here the app provides some useful tips for cleaning your smartphone. For example, it reports large files and unused apps.

As regards storage, some apps are integrated into all Android devices, like Google Photos. On the other hand, Amazon Photos, owned by the e-commerce giant, is downloadable on all devices from various online stores. After uploading the photos, the latter entitles you to a 15 euro Amazon voucher.

These apps automatically archive photos and videos thus allowing you to delete them from your smartphone’s internal memory without losing them forever.

3. Delete unused apps

Installed apps, and even pre-installed ones, take up a lot of storage space on your device. Often, when we buy a new smartphone, we find some apps pre-installed that we don’t need. It is therefore necessary to check, on the device’s home page, whether the apps present are useful to you. If not, press and hold the app icon and tap "Uninstall".

Some of the pre-installed apps cannot be deleted. In this case, it is best to deactivate them by uninstalling the updates and removing them from the device’s home page.

A final piece of advice regarding apps is to download and use, when available, the Lite version. An example is Facebook Lite, downloadable directly from the Play Store, lighter in terms of memory, data, and battery consumption.

4. Clear cache

Apps accumulate cached data over time. The cache is a temporary memory used by computers and digital devices to store data, speed up access times, and improve overall system performance. The cache contains copies of previously retrieved or calculated information that makes it faster to retrieve the data when it is requested again.

Cleaning your cache regularly can free up space without affecting your phone’s performance. To do this, you can proceed by individual app or with a general deletion. To clear the cache of an individual app, you must:

• go to “Settings”;
• tap on “App” and “App Management”;
• select the app whose cache you want to delete;
• select “Delete data” at the bottom;
• tap on “Empty cache”.

Alternatively, if you want to delete the cache of all apps, you need to:

• open device settings
• tap on “System info”;
• select “Storage space”;
• tap on “Free”.

Once this is done, a screen will open where you can choose whether to delete only the cached files or also the obsolete and residual ones.

5. Perform a “deep cleaning”

Performing "deep cleaning" regularly allows you to get rid of all unused data or files that needlessly take up storage space.

To do this from an Android smartphone you must:

• open device settings;
• tap on “System info”;
• select “Storage space”;
• select “Deep Cleaning” at the bottom.

At this point, you will be shown the unused apps, the superfluous data, the double or blurry photos, the large files and you will be able to choose what to delete.

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6. Clean WhatsApp

WhatsApp is one of the most used apps in the world and certainly takes up a lot of storage space. Chats, voice messages, video messages, GIFs and stickers, photos, documents, and everything that is sent or received via WhatsApp is saved and stored in the mobile phone’s internal memory.

The advice is to delete useless chats directly from WhatsApp, as well as to perform a deep clean through the file manager of our device. To do this you must:

• open the integrated “File Manager” app;
• select the folder icon at the top, next to the clock icon;
• three folders appeared in the list, select “Android” and “Media”;
• Tap on “WhatsApp”.

Once this is done, folders will open, including Backups (which we recommend not deleting), Databases, and Media. Tapping Media will open all the media files stored by WhatsApp. From here you can start the cleaning operation. By deleting, for example, the WhatsApp stickers folder, you will not lose the stickers saved on your mobile phone but, if you are in the habit of sending or receiving many, you will free up a lot of storage space. Voice messages are the files that take up the most space within the messaging app. Since once deleted they will no longer be playable, it is recommended to delete the older ones.

For photos, it is very important to check the ones you send. When you send a photo to a friend on WhatsApp, it is not saved in your device’s gallery but in the archive. Often these are instant and useless photos that, however, accumulate and take up a lot of space.

If carried out consistently, these operations allow you to always have enough space for updates and files and ensure maximum efficiency of the device.

Original article published on Money.it Italy 2024-02-13 19:49:00. Original title: Hai Android? 6 trucchi per avere più memoria sul tuo cellulare