Android 101:How to free up space on your phone

It can happen too easily, especially if you have an Android phone with less than 128 GB of storage:one day, you try to install a cool new game or an intriguing new app, and you don't can't do it. You are out of space.

Don't panic. If you're not ready to buy a new phone, and your phone doesn't have a handy microSD slot for extra storage, you can probably still get a decent amount of free space back with a simple house cleaning. Here are some suggestions on how to recover some of that storage.

Note:These were tested using a Pixel 3 phone running Android 12. Depending on your phone's brand and operating system, your instructions may vary slightly.

Use Android's "Free Up Space" Tool

Android has a built-in tool to help you increase the amount of usable storage on your phone. It's easy to find :

• Go to your phone settings and select "Storage". You will see information about the amount of space used and a list of file categories.
• Press the "Free up space" button.
• You will be moved to Google's Files app, specifically its "Clean Up" feature, which offers suggestions on how to free up space by getting rid of junk files, screenshots deleted screensavers, large photos, saved media and unused apps; there may also be other suggestions.

There are other handy tools in the "Storage" section. For example, you can find out how much space each of your apps takes up:

• In Storage, tap Apps. You'll get a list of all your apps, along with how much space each takes up.
• Tap the app name. You can now see the size of the application, the amount of available storage used by user data, and the amount of space used by cache. Two buttons allow you to "Clear Storage" or "Empty Cache".

(Note for newbies:It's usually safe to clear cache. However, before hitting "Clear Storage", check what your user data is. You don't want to accidentally delete any media or important documents.)

Finally, there's a hidden toggle for a feature called "Smart Storage", which allows your phone to automatically delete backed up photos after 60 days. It will also automatically delete backed up photos and videos if there is less than 25% storage space left on your device. You turn it on (or off) via Google's Files app.

• Open the Files app and tap the three parallel lines in the upper left corner.
• Select Settings.
• Find the Smart Storage setting and enable it.

Check your apps

A good way to save space is to make sure you don't clutter up work with apps you haven't used in months. It's too easy to download an app, try it out, then let it sit while you move on.

If you're curious how long it's been since you've used certain apps, here's how to find out:

• Tap your Play Store app.
• Tap your personal icon in the top right corner and select "Manage apps and device".
• Select the Manage tab. On the line below, the Installed button should be highlighted; if not, press it.
• To the right of the Applications header, you will see the sort icon. Tap on it and select "Least Used".
• Now you can see apps you've used only occasionally (if at all) at the top of the list. You won't necessarily want to get rid of them - sometimes an app is nice to have just in case - but you might catch some that you really don't need anymore.

Store your photos online

Photos and videos can be some of the bulkiest items on your phone. Luckily, if you have an Android phone, you're probably already uploading your photos to Google Photos, so you can remove them from your phone.

First, check that you are back up your photos to your Google account.

• Open the Photos app.
• Tap your personal icon in the top right corner. If you backed up your photos, you should see a "Backup Completed" entry in the drop-down menu.
• If you don't back up your photos, select "Photo Settings"> "Backup &Sync".
• Make sure the "Backup and Sync" toggle at the top of the page is set to "On". You should also check which account is listed under "Backup Account". If you have multiple accounts, you can switch to the one you want to use.

There are also other options. For example, you can choose the quality of photos you want to download and whether you want the phone to download photos when using cellular data.

Now that you are sure your photos are backed up, you can delete them from your phone. It's very likely that there's already a notice at the top of the Photos app's homepage offering to free up your device's memory; if not, it's easy to do.

• In the "Photo Settings" menu, tap "Free up device storage".
• You will get a window showing how much memory and how many items will be deleted. Select "Free XX" at the bottom of the page.

Still out of space? Then, unfortunately – or fortunately, if you're looking for a good excuse – maybe it's time to start thinking about a new phone, one with more storage space and maybe one that also gives you the option to offload your data on a microcomputer. SD card.

Updated October 21, 2021, 2:15 PM ET: This article was originally published on August 9, 2019 and has been updated to reflect changes to Android.