How Do You Free Up Storage Space On Your Phone



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.

Free up space on your Android device On your Android phone or tablet, open the Google Photos app. Sign in to your Google Account. Tap your account profile photo or initial Photos settings Free up. If you’re like us you probably don’t delete all your not-quite-good-enough photos. It’s amazing how much storage space you can free up when you get shot of them, and deleting unwanted pics.

Uninstall Unused Apps

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.

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.

For WhatsApp, go to Settings Data and Storage Usage Storage Usage, you can check the storage usage of each conversation, then tap it to clear the unwanted chat history. Also, you can backup your chat history to iCloud drive to free up your iPhone space. Go to your phone’s settings, and select “Storage.” Among other things, you’ll see information on how much space is in use, a link to a tool called “Smart Storage” (more on that later), and a list.

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!

© Provided by Business Insider You can clear your iCloud storage on your iPhone, iPad and by going to the iCloud website on your Mac. SOPA Images/Getty Images
  • You can clear an iCloud account's storage in several ways to free up space and avoid having to pay for extra storage.
  • Apple gives you 5 GB of iCloud storage with the purchase of one of its devices, and that can fill up fast.
  • Most often, your iCloud storage goes towards backing up your photos, files, voice memos, apps, and text messages.

Unless you pay for an iCloud subscription, Apple gives you 5GB of storage with any device's purchase. That's not a lot of space, and you can quickly find that you don't have enough room for your photos, iCloud Drive files, and other data from your phone or tablet.

You can upgrade your iCloud subscription, but it's cheaper to clear out space in your iCloud account. You can delete files, photos, app backups, voice memos, and more from your iCloud Drive directly on your Apple device or through the iCloud website.

Typically, these things and all their associated data get backed up to iCloud by default. This can be both a blessing and a curse, particularly if the things you want to be backed up take up a lot of storage space. But you can save a substantial amount of space by disabling automatic backups, especially when it comes to your largest apps.

You can also delete text messages and any of the videos or images attached to them. While deleting individual texts won't save much space, you can remove entire conversations and the media associated with them, which can help significantly.

Here's how to clear your iCloud storage and free up more space.

How to clear iCloud storage

Delete photos from iCloud storage

By default, iCloud backs up all your photos and videos to the cloud. Over time, that adds up to a lot of pictures. You can save space by deleting any images you no longer want. It's possible to do this from your iPhone, iPad, or the iCloud website. As long as Google Photos is enabled, any pictures you delete in one location are automatically deleted everywhere. Here's how to delete photos from iCloud.

Delete files and folders from the iCloud website

1. Open iCloud.com in a browser.

2. Log in with your Apple ID.

3. Click 'iCloud Drive.'

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4. To delete a folder, select it and then click the Delete icon.

5. To delete files, double-click a folder.

6. Hold down CTRL while clicking each file.

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider You can remove a single or multiple iCloud files using the CTRL-key. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

7. Select the Delete icon.

Delete unwanted files in iCloud Drive from your iPad or iPhone

1. On your iPhone or iPad, launch the Files app.

2. Tap 'Browse' at the bottom of the screen.

3. In the Locations section, select 'iCloud Drive.'

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider You can delete files and folders to free up space in iCloud using the Files app on your iPhone or iPad. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

4. To delete an entire folder, tap 'Select' in the screen's top right.

5. Then, choose the folder and tap the Delete icon.

6. To delete files, open the folder they're contained in.

7. Use 'Select' to choose files and delete them.

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider Select each file you want to delete and then send them to the trash. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

Delete app backups from iCloud on your iPhone or iPad

1. Start the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap your account name at the top of the screen.

3. Select 'iCloud.'

4. Choose 'Manage Storage' on the next screen.

5. Tap 'Backups.'

6. A list of your Apple devices being backed up to iCloud will appear. Select the name of the device you are currently using.

7. In the Choose Data to Back Up section, you should now see a list of the five apps that take up the most space on iCloud.

8. Turn off the backup feature for any of these apps by swiping the button to the left.

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider You can save a lot of storage space by not backing up your largest apps. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

9. To see more options and disable more apps by tapping 'Show All Apps.'

10. Repeat this process for any of your other Apple devices from that respective device.

Delete voice memos from iCloud on your iPhone or iPad

1. Start the Voice Memos app on your iPad or iPhone

2. Swipe a voice memo to the left.

3. Tap the Delete icon.

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider You can delete any voice memo, but you'll need to remove it from the Recently Deleted section to reclaim the space immediately. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

4. Select 'Recently Deleted.'

5. Tap the recording you just deleted.

6. Choose 'Delete' to permanently remove the voice memo, which will be erased on its own after 30 days.

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Delete text messages and their large attachments on an iPhone or iPad

1. On your iPhone or iPad, start the Messages app.

2. Locate a conversation that has attachments you want to remove.

3. Select the person's name at the top of the screen.

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4. Choose 'Info.'

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider A contact's info can often be found by tapping the 'i' icon. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

5. On the Details page, photos should appear in a grid. Scroll and tap the 'See All Photos' link below them.

6. Tap 'Select' at the top of the screen.

7. Select each photo you want to remove.

8. Tap 'Delete.'

9. Go to the iMessage app.

10. Select the text thread you want to delete.

11. Swipe it to the left.

© Dave Johnson/Business Insider This method will delete an entire conversation, including all its photo and video attachments. Dave Johnson/Business Insider

12. Tap 'Delete.'

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