Low internal storage is the most common problem for entry-level smartphones. Android-equipped devices coming in various forms like smartphones, phablets, and tablets. But the internal memory capacity is very limited when compared to laptops and desktops. As they equip with 16GB or below memory, it is not enough to carry the Android OS, apps and other files you save. When you are trying to install an app or downloading the file, running out of space message suddenly pops up. This message is quite irritating to see while we are in a quick hurry to download an important file.
Latest smartphones like OnePlus 6T offering storage space like 128 GB and 256GB variants. And some devices are expandable up to 1TB of space with SD card expansion. If you are not belonging to this high-end smartphone owners list and struggling with limited internal memory and want to free up space on your Android device, our “Easy Tips To Regain More Space” article helps you.
Uninstall Unwanted Built-In Apps from your Android device
Unless if you have a pure Google Play version of Android, the rest of the devices comes with built-in pre-loaded Apps. These apps consume a lot of space on your device and most of them are useless. Removing these apps can save a lot of space on your device. Or sometimes we install an app by seeing in a promotion or app recommendation. After a few days, we forget about the app we installed and it eats you storage, RAM and as well as data when it required an update. Removing these kinds of apps is the best solution to keep your device clutter free. Make time for app auditing every month and remove the unused apps regularly.
For usual apps, the deletion process is a pretty simple process. Follow the below steps to remove unwanted apps from your device.
- Launch the Settings on your device.
- Inside Settings open Applications or Apps.
- Tap the app you wish to uninstall.
- Tap Uninstall to remove it.
Bloatware apps are stubborn to remove. These apps don’t come with uninstallation option and consumes your device limited resources. To remove these kinds of stubborn pre-installed apps you need to use powerful apps like Titanium Backup. But before going to try these steps, your Android must be rooted first. Titanium Backup app needs admin privileges and root level access to remove the bloatware apps.
You can uninstall bloatware simply by Titanium Backup app which is available in both the free and paid versions. The app is very powerful and completely removes the unwanted built-in apps from your Android device.
2. Clear Cached Data
Cached Data occupies plenty of your Android storage in the background. When you install an app, it allocates some space to store cached data. For example, when you use Google Chrome on your Android device, it collects information from the websites you visit and stores the data in the allocated space. The app uses cached data to serve the faster loading speeds for regularly visited websites.
Clearing cached data on your device really works and you will see a noticeable difference in the storage space. Especially clear the cache of browsers and social media apps. As we regularly use these apps, there are more chances of heavy consumption of storage by these apps.
To clear cache on your device follow the below steps.
- Open Setting on your device.
- Here, tap on the Internal Storage.
- Here, you will see the amount of data taken by different files including the cached data.
- Now tap on cached data to clear it.
3. Delete Duplicate Files
Sometimes we accidentally download the same file twice or thrice. Depending on the file size, duplicate files consume a lot of valuable storage space. As per the regular usage statistics, many people download PDF’s, APK files, songs, and videos on their devices. If you notice the size of a game apk file, it usually sizes between 500MB-1.5GB usually. If you download the file twice, it easily wastes another 1GB data to store duplicate file. These are the most issues in downloading duplicate files.
If you are afraid to check what you downloaded multiple times fret not. Finding and deleting unwanted duplicate files is an easy job. Download apps like Duplicate Files Fixer and Remover for checking any type of files. If you know your photos library is eating the most of your device space, you can clean it by duplicate photos removing apps like Remo.
4. Clean Downloads Folder
Android OS comes with Downloads folder. The folder contains all the downloaded data on your Android. If you download stuff regularly, the folder becomes full and makes internal storage space unusable for the next ones. Clean up the downloads folder regularly and delete unwanted downloads from the folder.
To dump downloads, open app drawer and tap on Downloads or Files. Now tap on the hamburger menu with three lines at the top of the corner and sort the files list by size, and then take a look at the files which are wasting your storage space. Now select the files you want to delete and tap on the Trash button to completely remove from your device.
5. Transfer Apps and Files to SD Card
If your Android device internal storage become full, transfer them to SD card to make free space in internal storage. Usually, downloaded files, apps will use internal storage as the primary option. If the internal storage becomes full, you can’t even install a new app on your device. Whenever you try to install a new app, the system shows running out of space message which is quite irritating to see.
You can skip this issue by moving files internal storage to the SD card. Any file manager app can perform this task easily. For example, if you use the ES File Explorer app for your Android device file management, it is quite easy to move files from internal to SD card.
The default installation app uses internal storage only. You can change the default location from internal storage to memory card by Apps2SD app. This app transfers possible apps from internal to microSD card. Not all apps move to the SD card, some apps work only from the Android installation directory. From the Apps2SD user interface, you can check the movable apps list.
6. Delete Offline Maps in Google Maps
Google offline map is a great feature to use when we travel in remote areas. Google Maps allows the user to download the particular map of a city or an area for offline use. After the trip is over, we forget to delete the offline maps from the device. Depending on the size of the area the map size will determine.
For example, if you download the New York offline map, it easily occupies 1GB of data on your Android internal storage. If you use Google offline maps feature frequently, check the map files size and delete unwanted from the list. You can delete them by tapping on the hamburger menu at the top and sort by size. Now you can delete the unwanted offline maps from the device.
7. Turn on Storage Manager
Storage Manager features introduced in Android Oreo version, which is quite useful for managing Android storage. This feature automatically deletes the files like photos, and videos from your device after the backed up to Google Photos. It is a quite handy feature to automate the deletion process without many efforts.
To enable the storage manager, follow the below steps.
- Open the Settings app and tap on “Storage.”
- Now tap on “Free Up Space” button, you’ll see the “Storage manager” option. Here, flick the toggle on, that’s’ it.
8. Use Google Drive
Google is offering 15GB free space for every Google user. First, perform all the above steps to delete unwanted data and use cloud storage to move any important files left in the internal storage to reclaim its full storage capacity.
And if 15GB storage data is not sufficient to save your important files, you can upgrade to Google One subscription plan. It charges $1.99 per month for an extra 100GB of storage space in Google Drive.
Summing Up
These are the possible solutions to reclaim the Android internal storage space. I hope this article helps you to manage your files and data better. If you have any more effective way to free up internal storage, please use the comment box below to share with our audience.