When you unbox your smartphone, it’s so shiny and new, a blank slate just waiting for you to customize to your needs. It doesn’t take long for it to collect apps and data, however, and soon, your battery slows down, apps start crashing and storage runs low.
But don’t start shopping for a new phone again just yet. By following the tips below, you can declutter your Android or iOS device to help it run more smoothly and efficiently.
Uninstall Unused Apps
In Settings General iPhone Storage, tap on an app at the top of the list. This will often be a social media app like Facebook or Snapchat, a messenger, or a content app like YouTube or Spotify. If you paid for the app, you won't have to buy it again. Learn how to uninstall apps. Clear the app's cache & data. You can usually clear an app’s cache and data through your phone’s Settings app. This guide explains how you can reduce “system” storage size on your iPhone or iPad. System storage consists of two type of files: (a) system files that are necessary for operating the core system of the device and (b) temporary system files: system settings, backups, logs, caches and other files. Clear out all cached app data. Clearing out cache won't save a ton of space at once but it will add.
The average smartphone user has 60-90 apps installed but only uses about 30 every month (and nine per day). The chances are good that you have at least a handful of apps you rarely put to use. Getting rid of the unnecessary apps will not only declutter your phone’s appearance but might help it run better and could even allow your battery to last longer between charges. Does eyemed have a copay.
Although phone settings vary, you can generally view and remove apps from the Settings menu.
On an Android phone, go to Settings and select Apps. Choose the first app you want to remove and select Uninstall. Tap OK to confirm that you wish to uninstall the app from your phone. Repeat the steps to remove any other unwanted apps from your device.
On an iPhone, launch Settings, choose General and select Storage. Choose the first app you want to remove and select Delete App. Tap Delete to confirm that you wish to uninstall the app from your phone. Repeat the steps to remove any unwanted apps from your device.
Choose Pics To Save
Go through pictures and videos on your phone to decide which ones are worth keeping. Delete those that you don’t want and send the ones you do want to the cloud, storing them on a service such as Google Photos, iCloud or Dropbox. Depending on how many photos you have on your phone, this one could take some time, so you might want to work on it whenever you have a few minutes to spare.
Clear The Cache
Cached data can save time and data when opening a website or using an app, but it also takes up space on your device. Clearing it can free up resources on your phone.
On an Android phone, you can clear the cache on individual apps from the Settings menu. Alternatively, clear the cache for all apps by opening Settings, select Storage (or Storage & Memory), choose Cached Data and tap OK to confirm you want to clear the cache on your device.
The steps to clear cached data on iPhones vary between apps, but one approach is to open Settings, select an app and choose Reset Cache or a similar option.
Delete Messages
You might not even realize how many old text messages are just sitting on your phone, eating up space. Check your messaging app to discover how many you don’t want or need and delete them. It’s also a good idea to trash other types of messages stored on your phone, such as emails or visual voicemail messages.
Delete Downloads
When you open a file through a browser, a link in an email or other files you receive on your phone, they are downloaded to your device. You likely no longer need the PDF of an amusement park map you downloaded last summer, and deleting these files is an effective way to clean up your phone.
On an Android phone, find an app called Files or My Files. Browse the file categories to find and delete any you don’t need to keep.
On an iPhone, you can typically delete downloaded web files using Safari. Go to Settings, choose Safari, tap Downloads and select Remove Download List Items.
Clean Up Contacts
Your address book might be filled with names and numbers you don’t even recognize. If you have duplicates, unwanted information from syncing your email account, or other entries you no longer need, deleting them is beneficial. Just open your address book and select the edit button on the contact you want to remove. Tap Delete and move on to the next one.
Once you have successfully cleaned up your phone on the inside, you might be motivated to clean the outside of it, as well!
Have you been receiving the “Phone storage is full” notification on your iOS or Android phone? You can easily free up space with a little spring cleaning on your smartphone. Here’s a breakdown of what you can safely delete to give yourself some more space.
How to free up space on your phone
We use our phones for everything these days, from our music player and camera to ordering groceries. So it’s easy to find yourself with a lot of unused apps and cached data taking up space on your phone that you could really use to take more pics of your beloved pet. Every day, Asurion Experts help our 300 million customers (and counting!) to get the most out of the tech devices they love and rely on, including how to free up space on their smartphones. We’ll walk you through what you can do to get more device storage, from how to clear cache on your phone to how to back up your data to the cloud.
How to check your phone storage
The first thing you’ll want to do is check to see which apps on your smartphone are the biggest users of space and delete the ones you can live without. On your phone’s usage screens, you will see your available storage, along with a list of your apps ranked from top to bottom based on how much space they’re occupying. With a little luck, you’ll find an app that’s taking up a lot of space that you never use, so you’ll have no problems saying goodbye to it.
On Android
Android has built-in tools to check your storage.
- In Settings, select Device Care (may also be Battery and device care).
- Then, click on Storage.
- From there, you can see what’s taking up space on your phone.
On iPhone
iPhone also has a built-in system check.
- Tap on Settings.
- Then, choose General.
- From there, select iPhone Storage.
- At the top of the screen, you can check out how much storage is used on your iPhone, what content takes up the most space, and how much memory is left.
What apps should I delete to get more storage on my phone?
Consider whether the apps that you rarely use really and truly need to be on your smartphone. Ask yourself, “Does this app provide a function that I cannot get by going to the company’s website?” If it does, then by all means, let it be. If not, delete the app and bookmark the company’s website instead.
For Android users who wish they could remove some of the apps pre-installed by Google or their wireless carrier, you’re in luck. You may not always be able to uninstall those, but for newer Android devices, you can at least “disable” them and reclaim the storage space they’ve taken up. Simply long press the app icon in the apps menu and choose Disable from the pop-up window.
For many social apps on your iPhone, you can choose the Offload App option to help free up space. Settings > iPhone Storage > choose an app > then enable Offload App. This feature will automatically offload your unused apps when you’re low on storage, while saving your related documents and data for future access.
How to clean my files and delete unwanted documents
File manager apps can help you to easily clean up your phone and create more storage space. These apps can scan your device to remove duplicate files, clean up your contact list, and identify apps you don’t use that are hogging needed space. Here are a few worth checking out.
Best file manager apps for iPhone and Android
Files by Google
Available for Android devices
Files by Google easily scans your device and gives recommendations for freeing up your phone’s storage space with just a few taps. The app also helps you to keep your device free of clutter, sending you prompts from time-to-time to remove junk or temporary files that impact your phone’s performance.
Smart Cleaner
Available for iOS devices
Smart Cleaner scans your iPhone storage and allows you to easily remove duplicate contacts, screenshots, and similar photos from your gallery. Its Smart Cleaning function makes the process simple, taking care of freeing up space with just a single tap of a button.
KeepClean
Available for Android devices
KeepClean is a powerful all-in-one solution for your phone storage cleanup needs, offering everything from junk file and device cache cleaning to antivirus security. It also helps keep your phone performing at its best with its built-in battery saver and quick charging functions.
Back up photos, videos, music from your smartphone to the cloud
How To Clear Your Phone For More Storage
If you’re still in need of additional storage wiggle room, check out your photo and video albums. Deleting duplicate photos will be a huge help – and you’re likely to have a lot, since it typically takes 10+ tries to get that perfect selfie. But the biggest space saver will be deleting video files. Video files tend to be huge, so the more you can get rid of, the better. Post them on social media or a cloud storage account, or save them to your home computer before deleting them from your smartphone. You should also consider enabling automatic uploading from your camera roll to Dropbox or another cloud storage solution – check out our easy guide to backing up your phone photos.
How To Clear Internal Storage
Keeping music downloaded on your device can also take up room on your device. Dakota johnson twitter. Consider keeping only the music you really love and want to be able to listen to if there’s no WiFi or wireless service available. Otherwise, stick to music streaming apps like Pandora or Spotify, since they take up much less space than a big music library.
Best cloud storage for Android and iPhone
- Google Photos offers 15 GB of free storage, which is more than most cloud services offer. With features like tagging for faces and places, plus it being backed by Google’s powerful search, Google Photos makes locating the particular photo or video you’re looking for simple and keeps your phone photos organized.
- iCloud offers 2GB of free storage and allows you sync files between your iOS devices as well as your PC, but take note: there’s currently no iCloud option for your Android devices. A bonus feature is the Family Sharing option, which allows family members to share access to music and App Store purchases and a family photo album. Check out our guide on how to use iCloud.
- Dropbox offers 2GB of free storage and is a simple solution if you’re just looking to back up files and sync them between your devices. The Dropbox app allows you to automatically back-up photos or videos as they are taken, making it even easier to keep the storage space on your phone uncluttered.
Do emails, text message and voicemails take space on mobile phones?
You’d be surprised at how much space old text messages and voicemail take up on your device. Sure, there are certain exchanges you keep for the sake of cherished memories, but the photos of your dogs in their Halloween costumes you text to your spouse a year ago probably aren’t the best use of storage space on your phone. Take a few minutes to go through these and delete where necessary.
Clear your phone cache
What is phone cache?
Phone cache is information—like files, scripts or images—that is saved on your device after visiting a website or opening an app for the first time that speeds up your experience when returning to them in the future.
If you’re like most people, you use your phone for just about everything, which means over time your phone will collect a large amount of cached data that you just don’t need and that will put a strain on your phone’s memory. Clearing out your phone’s cache occasionally will help to free up a little storage space on your device and will likely improve your device’s overall performance.
How to clear cache on your phone
If you have an app that’s running slowly or crashing, clearing the app’s cache can solve a lot of basic issues. Clearing app cache will erase unnecessary files, but you won’t lose any of your app’s saved passwords or data.
How to clear cache on Android:
- Go to your device Settings.
- Choose Apps.
- Click on an often used app, like Chrome. Then, click on Storage.
- Click on the Clear Cache icon in the bottom right corner.
- Repeat these steps for the other apps on your device.
How to clear cache on iPhone:
Instructions to clear app cache on an iPhone varies from developer to developer. If you suspect a particular third-party app is causing performance issues, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. There, you’ll see your apps listed in order of size. You can click on an individual app to see if there are options available to clear cache data. If there is no cache clearing option available, try uninstalling and reinstalling the app.
Protect your phone now.
How To Clear Internal Storage On Iphone
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