Android 101: how to free up space on your phone

It can happen all too easily, especially if you’ve got an Android phone with less than 128GB of storage: one day, you try to install a cool new game or an intriguing new app, and you can’t. You’ve run 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 some extra storage, you can probably still pick up a decent amount of free space with some simple house cleaning. Here are suggestions on how to get back some of that storage.

Note: These were tested using a Pixel 6 phone and a Samsung Galaxy S23, both running Android 14. Depending on your phone’s make and operating system, your directions may vary slightly.

Both Pixels and Galaxy phones have built-in tools to help you increase the amount of useable storage on your phone.

• Go to the Files app and tap the three parallel lines in the upper left corner. Select Clean.
• You’ll see information on how much space is in use and how much is in your Trash. After that, there is a list of ways you can clean out your memory, such as delete duplicates, delete old screenshots (I tend to have a lot of them), delete unused apps, or delete large files.
• In each case, tap the associated button to see what apps or files can be removed.

• Using the Samsung My Files app, swipe down to Manage storage. You’ll see how much is in your internal storage and what type of files they are.
• Below that, there will be a series of suggestions on how you can save space. Swipe left to see each; if you want to try one, select Review old files, View all, or whatever it says that isn’t the Not now button.
• Below that, you’ll see buttons that let you know what’s in the Trash, your unused apps, duplicate files, and large files.

There are handy tools in your phone’s settings as well. For example, you can find out how much space each of your apps takes up.

• Go to Settings > Storage > Apps. You’ll get a list of all your apps, along with how much space each is taking.
• Tap on the app name. You can now see the app size, how much of the available storage is being used by user data, and how much space is being used by the cache. Two buttons let you either Clear storage or Clear cache. 

(Note for newbies: it is usually safe to clear the cache. However, before you hit Clear storage, check to see what your user data is. You don’t want to accidentally delete any important media or documents.)

• Go to Settings > Apps. You’ll get a list of all your apps, along with how much space each is taking.
• Tap on the app name, scroll down to Storage, and tap on that. You can now see the app size, how much of the available storage is being used by user data, and how much space is being used by the cache. Two buttons at the bottom let you either Clear storage or Clear cache. 

If you’re using Google Photos in any type of Android phone, there is a hidden toggle for a feature called Smart Storage, which gives your phone permission to automatically remove backed-up photos after 60 days. It will also automatically remove backed-up photos and videos if the storage on your device has less than 25 percent space left. You can 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.
• Look for the Smart Storage setting and toggle it on.

A good way to save space is to make sure you’re not clogging up the works with apps that you haven’t used in months. It’s all too easy to download an app, try it out, and then let it sit while you go on to other things.

If you’re curious about how long it’s been since you’ve used certain apps, here’s how to find out. This works on a Pixel or a Galaxy phone.

• Tap on your Play Store app.
• Tap on your personal icon in the upper right corner and select Manage apps & device.
• Select the Manage tab. On the line below that, the highlighted button should read This device or Installed; if it doesn’t, tap on it and highlight one of the two.
• To the right of the Apps heading, you’ll see the sorting icon. Tap on that and select Least used.
• Now you can see the apps that you’ve only used occasionally (if at all) on top of the list. You won’t necessarily want to get rid of them — sometimes an app is fine to have around just in case — but you might catch some that you really don’t need anymore.

Photos and videos can be some of the most space-hogging items on your phone. Luckily, if you’ve got an Android phone, you can upload your photos to Google Photos — and can therefore take them off your phone.

First, check to make sure you are backing up your photos to your Google account.

• Open Google’s Photos app.
• Tap on your personal icon in the upper right corner. If you’re backing up your photos, you should see a Backup complete entry in the drop-down menu.
• If you’re not backing up your photos, then select Photos settings > Backup.
• Make sure that the Backup toggle on top of the page is set to On. You should also check which account is listed under Account & storage. If you have more than one account, you can switch to whichever you want to use.

There are other options as well. For example, you can choose the quality of the photos you want to upload and whether you want the phone to upload photos when you’re using cellular data.

Now that you’re sure your photos are being backed up, you can delete them from your phone. It’s very likely that there is already a notice on top of the Photo app’s front page offering to free up memory from your device; if not, it’s easy to do.

• Back at the main page in the Photos app, tap on your personal icon and select Free up space.
• You’ll get a window saying how much memory will be saved. Select the Free up XX GB at the bottom of the page.

Incidentally, if you have a Galaxy phone and use Samsung’s Gallery app, you have another choice.

• In the app, tap on the three lines in the lower right corner and then Settings.
• On the top, you have the option to sync your images with Microsoft’s OneDrive. Tap on Sync with OneDrive. If you have an account, you can sign in with your password or with Google, or you can create an account then and there.

Still running out of space? Then, unfortunately — or luckily, if you’re looking for a good excuse — it may be time to start thinking about a new phone, one with more storage space.

Update February 28th, 2024, 8:28AM ET: This article was originally published on August 9th, 2019, and has been updated to account for changes in Android and to add instructions for Galaxy phones.