If you have just taken a nice photo, your smartphone cannot save it because your storage space is full. If that happens, or if you see that your storage space is almost full, it’s time to free up some memory. This is the best way to proceed.
Free up storage space
When you get that message, you know what time it is: time to run a broom through your smartphone. You can do this in several ways, although it is best to simply put all the tips below into practice right away. This way you can be sure that you will not encounter that message again for the time being.
1. Move photos and videos to the cloud
The best way to quickly free up space is to make sure your photos and videos are safely stored in the cloud. Android phones use Google Photos for this. With this app you can automatically backup your videos and photos. If something is in Google Photos, you can safely delete it from your phone. You can do that manually in your phone’s file manager or gallery, but you can also do it in Google Photos.
You can back up photos and videos to the cloud by doing this:
- Go to Google Photos
- Tap your account in the top right
- Choose Settings for Photos
- Choose Backup and Sync
- Make sure the slider at the top is to the right (on)
- Optionally, set whether Google Photos can also make backups on your data plan, or only on Wi-Fi
- Check under ‘Device folders and Backups’ which folders he will upload and whether you agree with that
Once the backup is complete, you can delete the photos from your phone via Google Photos. This is how you do it:
- Tap your account in Google Photos (top right)
- Choose Free up storage space on device
- Google Photos will then tell you how many GB you can free up on your phone, by deleting videos and photos that are already in Google Photos
- Choose Free up X GB to actually delete the photos and videos
2. Remove unnecessary apps
That one app you once had to use to load tickets for a festival? You probably don’t use it anymore. Go through all the apps on your phone and consider carefully whether you still use them or want to use them. Where for wardrobes there is often a rule of thumb that ‘a year of not being worn means getting rid of’, a much shorter period applies to apps. If you don’t need an app for a month, it’s probably better to delete it and download it again when you need it again.
This is how you work:
- If you want to see all your apps at a glance, it’s best to go to the Google Play Store
- Tap your profile picture in the top right
- Choose Manage apps and device
- Click on the bar that says how many GB you are using
- You will then see your apps. With the three lines at the top right you can then choose whether you want to sort by size, name or least used apps.
- You then only have to tap the box behind the app and then the trash can that appears.
- Now your apps have been removed and you probably already have some more space on your smartphone.
3. Check and free up storage space
Android phones also have a built-in system to help you clean up your phone. Again, this mainly concerns the removal of apps, photos and videos, although this also involves other files such as downloaded PDFs.
- Open the settings on your phone
- Tap on Storage area
- Tap a category
- Select the items you want to delete
4. Use a different storage method
When you think of a USB stick, you may quickly think of one that you can connect via an old-fashioned USB-A connection, but there are also USB-C variants that you can easily plug into your phone. Again, you can then transfer your files to that USB-C, pull it out and delete the files from your phone. Another solution is by connecting to a NAS (Network Attached Storage) that automatch backups all your files.
In short, often it is the apps, the photos, videos and files that ensure that your phone is well filled, especially if you do not give it a regular cleaning.
– Thanks for information from Androidworld.