Updated: January 1, 2021 Home » Smartphone and Mobile » Google Android
Have you ever encounter the following warning from your Google Android Smartphone – Android storage space running out? This means you don’t have enough space to take more pictures or install apps. There are a few tips to clear your Android’s internal storage, they are – upload all of your photos to the cloud or upgrade your MicroSD Card (If it comes with one).
My Internal Storage
Click on the ones using the most storage to see how much of that is taken up by cached files. You can then click on “Clear cache,” which can help with storage issues as well as improve sluggish. With today's need for data and space, you can never have too much internal memory. Whether you have a 150 MB internal memory space or have a 64 GB internal storage, you will always find yourself running out of memory the longer you use your phone.
Related 2021 Article ➤ 8 Best Cloud Apps For Android – Online Photo Backup And Storage
The other method to fix storage space running out problem on Android is to clean the device of junk files. This can be done by factory restore the smartphone or use an App to clean up unwanted junks. Here are 4 of the best free apps when it comes to finding, cleaning and deleting junk files. Works great on Android 8.0 Oreo / Android 9.0 [ Popsicle, Pancakes or Pie ] smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy, Huawei Mate, Oppo, Vivo, XiaoMi, and Nokia.
↓ 01 – Norton Clean [ Memory Optimizer ] | 10K Million Downloads | 4.6/5 Stars
Clean residual cache system files left by uninstalled apps to free up Android phone or tablet disk space. Analyze and safely remove the junk files that take up your memory and storage space. Delete cache and residual files to free up phone, tablet and SD card storage space. The junk-creating behavior of millions of apps has been analyzed so that Norton Clean can intelligently and efficiently hone in on its targets (cache and residual files) with amazing accuracy. Clean cache for individual apps, receive recommendations for removal of rarely used apps and move 1apps to your SD memory card. Reclaim storage space on your Android phone or tablet by cleaning junk, removing residual files and optimizing device memory.
- Clean system cache
- Identify and remove junk, APK, and risidual files
- Optimize memory space
- Manage apps and get rid of bloatware
- Removes data from ads
↓ 02 – Clean Master [ Booster ] | 3.6 Million Downloads | 4.7/5 Stars
The most trusted and safe Android optimizer, junk file cleaner, speed booster, battery saver and free anti-virus app with over 740 million mobiles. Clean Master (Boost&Applock) helps accelerate Ram and clean up junk and cache files! Clean Master(Boost*Applock) also provides real-time protection with the #1 antivirus engine, and secures private data with app-lock function.
- Junk File Cleaning – The junk-creating behavior of millions of apps has been analyzed so that Clean Master can efficiently hone in on its targets (cache and residual files) with perfect accuracy. Delete cache and residual files to reclaim storage, boost speed and improve the performance of your device and SD card.
- Memory Boost – Boost your games and apps, free up memory (RAM), speed up your device and save more battery. Our 1 Tap Boost and Game Boost features make it easy to optimize directly from your home screen.
- Game Booster – Automatically improve your game speeds by 30%+ when launching games.
↓ 03 – Power Clean [ Optimize Cleaner ] | 1.3 Million Downloads | 4.6/5 Stars
Is your Android device performance slowing down? Do unwanted Apps and redundant files occupy your mobile device’s storage space? Power Clean, the fast and powerful cleaner that helps you to free up storage, clean up memory, stop autostart Apps, remove or disable unnecessary Apps, know your device, optimize and speed up it. Just one click, you’ll be the Optimize Master of Android.
Power Clean is a small, fast, and smart Android device cleaner and performance booster featuring a junk cleaner, memory booster, device optimizer, app manager. With this app you can free up storage, boost RAM, remove or disable unnecessary Apps, lock apps, boost games and get your device running like new again.
- Junk Clean – Free up storage and optimize performance by removing old junk files and clutter such as system cache, residual file, cleaning out the download folder, and more.
- Memory Boost – Clean up memory (RAM) and optimize phone speed by removing redundant background tasks. Stop auto-start Apps to increase boot speed and reduce memory usage. 1-tap memory cleaner and booster widget makes it easy to clean your phone directly from the homescreen.
- Game Boost – Boost your game speed up to 80%+, say bye-bye to lagging!
- Duplicate Photos – Scan all the similar photos, find out the best one automatically and remove the duplicate photos to release more storage.
↓ 04 – CCleaner | 660K Downloads | 4.4/5 Stars
Keep your Android clean, safe and fast using CCleaner! Piriform, the makers of the world’s most popular PC and Mac cleaning software bring you CCleaner for Android. Remove junk, reclaim space, monitor your system and browse safely. Become the Master of your own device with the ultimate cleaning app for your Android!
Optimize and Clean
- Speed up your phone and remove junk safely
- Clean application cache, download folders, browser history, clipboard content and more
- Delete call logs and SMS messages individually, in bulk, by age or by contact
Reclaim Storage Space
- Streamline your Android smartphone or tablet
- Quickly and easily uninstall multiple unwanted applications
- Free up valuable storage space on your device
↓ 05 – Avast Cleanup & Boost | 455K Downloads | 4.5/5 Stars
Free up space you didn’t know you had. Avast Cleanup is a highly effective cache and junk cleaner app for Android. Remove leftover files and unused apps with a simple tap, for a faster, more powerful phone. Avast Cleanup optimizes your phone’s performance and boosts its speed by removing unused junk from your mobile. No freezing, no lagging, no impatient sighs – just more space for the things you really want, like your favorite photos, videos, music, apps and more.
- Remove Junk: Avast Cleanup quickly analyzes storage space on your phone and clears all unnecessary data.
- The smart Safe Clean feature instantly cleans up unimportant data, system caches, gallery thumbnails, installation files, residual or unused files, and APKs. With just one tap, you can easily delete accumulated data that has no purpose.
- The Advanced Cleaning option gives you a detailed overview of all the data on your phone.
- Uninstall applications in one tap to free up space.
- The Cleaner identifies and clears the biggest files, media, and apps on your device.
- Use the Ignore List to mark items on your device that you don’t want to be listed.
- Master your storage situation by optimizing your Android device and boost its speed.
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“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Android Internal Storage Cleanup
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