How To Free Up Your Internal Storage On Android Phone in 2022
Tags: android, mobile
Published: 2023-09-12 10:40:14

_Get more space to store the things you want. Learn simple ways to free up your internal storage on Android phone._

The 64/128GB internal storage on Android phones can look plenty at first until you're hit by that crazy "Storage space running out” notification that limits you from storing almost any new thing. It happens out of the blue: when you're about to take a picture, install an app, or save a new document.
Why your phone storage gets filled really quickly isn't so complex, and you can easily get rid of junk here and there to make more room for what you really want to store. Keep reading to find simple suggestions to regain more space in your phone's internal storage.
Let’s kick in!

## Why is my Internal Storage so full on Android?

Especially if your Android phone has less than 128GB of storage, it won’t take long
before it fills to the brim and notifies you that "Storage space is running out.”

Your phone storage moves closer to running out as you install a new app, take a new photo, record a new video, and download a document. The Android System also draws its share for storing loads of files and caches to keep the device running smoothly.
So, if you ever wonder, "What is taking up all my storage?" it's nothing else than what you've stored on it.

## How do I free up internal storage on your Android phone?
Start by clearing your junk files, then remove some extensive files, unused apps, and other useless stuff. Below are the simplest ways to make more room in the internal storage on Android phones in 2022.

### 1. Use your phone's built-in cleanup tools.
The simplest way to free up the internal storage on Android phones is to use the built-in storage management tool. Almost every Android smartphone has a built-in feature to help you free up your storage in a few clicks, and you should leverage it. They're storage tools that help you analyze what's clogging up your internal storage and offer a simple way to get rid of them.
To find this feature on your phone:

- Head over to the **Settings**app
- Tap **Storage**
- Click on the **"Clean up" or “Free up space”** button.
- On any recent Samsung, Xiaomi, TECNO or Infinix device, tapping that button will take you to the **Phone Master** app, where you'll find various suggestions to free up your phone storage.
- Start by uninstalling the least used apps, then remove junk files, extensive files, watched videos, installation packages, and others.
- Carefully get rid of things you don’t need anymore to get more free space in your phone’s storage.

But how do I manage internal storage on Android? Clicking the “Free up space” tool on many Android phones may redirect you to the Google Files apps, which also offers a robust storage management tool. You can also install the app (Files by Google) on the Play Store to get insights and what's clogging up your storage and get rid of them quickly.

When you open the Files (by Google) app on your device and navigate to the “Clean” tab, you'll automatically see suggestions to clean your storage space. These include deleting junk files, large files, unused apps, downloaded files, blurry photos, duplicate files, WhatsApp videos, and many more.

You can deal with those first, but that's not all. Clicking your Internal Storage at the top of the page gives you a detailed view of how much volume of storage your apps, images, audio files, videos, documents, and the system takes.

From there, you can access each category to find what you can delete. For instance, tapping the "Apps" category lets you see how much space each app on your phone takes. Select an app to view its storage information: the volume of storage used to store user data and cached files. You can tap the "Clear cache" button to remove the app's temporary files. But be careful with the "Clear storage" button to avoid deleting important files accidentally.

### 2. Take out your trash.

If you use a file manager app like Files by Google or a gallery app like Google Photos, you may need to empty your recycle bin by now. In case you're unaware, some Android apps have a hidden recycle bin, which means the things you delete there aren’t actually hidden from your view.

Even if you’ve deleted many things by now, they might still be in your storage until you remove them from the trash.
If you use the Photos or Files app by Google, follow these steps to empty your trash to free up your storage.

- Open the **“Files by Google”** app (you may know it as “Google Files”).
- Tap the **menu button** in the top left.
- Select **Trash**.
- Review the things you want to delete permanently or check the “All files” option, then tap **Delete **to erase the files.

Emptying your trash in the Files app also does the same in the Photos app. But if you only use Google Photos, follow these steps to take out your trash.

- Open the **Photos**app.
- Tap **Library**and select **Trash**.
- Click on the 3-dot button in the top-right corner and select Empty Trash.

### 3. Uninstall apps you don’t use.
We've mentioned this earlier, but it doesn't hurt if you take your time to uninstall apps you're not using on your phone. Not only will it free up the storage, but deleting rarely used apps will declutter your phone’s memory and make it run faster.

If you may ask, “What apps can I delete to free up space on my phone?” Start from apps you rarely use, then think about sacrificing the apps that take “too much” storage on your phone, if you can.

You can easily find these apps by using the storage management tool in Files by Google:

- Launch the **Files **app.
- At the top of the **“Clean”** tab, select your **Internal Storage**.
- Click on **“Apps.”**
- Tap the **“Unused apps”** button to sort out your rarely used apps.
- Long-press to select and uninstall the ones you wish.
- Similarly, tap the **“Large apps”** button and uncheck “Unused apps” to see apps
- taking the most of your storage.
- You can select and delete them, too, if you wish.

### 4. Store your photos online.
Sometimes, decluttering the internal storage on Android phones doesn't end with deleting the stuff you care for. If you take lots of photos and videos on your phone like most of us, I bet your media files take up an enormous space in your storage. And while you can’t simply delete “all the memories you’ve taken” to free up your phone storage, you can easily store your photos and videos online, allowing you to take the actual files from your phone.

Luckily, if you use Android, you probably have heard about Google Photos and use it to back up your media files. Isn't it? If yes, you should be able to save a ton of space with the app’s “Free up space” tool.

But before that, confirm that your photos and videos are backed up on your own Google account. Here’s how:

- Launch the Google Photos app
- Click your profile icon in the top right corner. You should see your current backup status – either confirmation for 'Backup complete' or the reason why your photos aren't backed up.
- And if you’re not backing up your photos yet, click on "Photos Settings” then tap “Back up & sync” to adjust your synchronization settings.
- From there, ensure the toggle for “Back up & sync” is turned on, and that you've chosen the appropriate Google account.

Similarly, you can explore the rest options to configure how you want your photos to be backed up. You can change your backup quality and choose if you want to back up with your mobile data or set a data usage limit.
Once your media files are in the cloud, you can delete the local files to free up your storage. Of course, not manually, but with this Google Photos built-in tool:

- Launch Google Photos
- Tap your profile icon in the upper right corner.
- Tap “Free up space.”
- A new window will show you how much space you’re about to save. Tap the Free up button below the screen to continue.

That’s it. You should be able to redeem a ton of space after lifting your photos and videos from the device’s storage to the cloud. If by anytime you need an answer on "How do I clean out internal storage on my phone?" just backup your media files and delete them from the local storage.

### 5. Offload your files to the SD card
If you own one of the modern Android phones with SD card support, it'll be a great advantage to leverage it now. Even if you’ve tried deleting almost everything you can, chances are you’ll still have a load of important files you want to keep locally. That’s
where your external storage comes in.

Simply get a compatible SD card for you and move the large files on your phone to it. I suggest you move large video files, audio files, photos, large document files, etc., to the memory card to free up your internal storage.

Of course, you don’t have to do this manually. Apps like “File to SD” or “Phone Master”
make moving files from your phone storage to the SD card much easier.

## How to free up Internal Storage on Android Phone: Final thoughts

If your phone doesn't support an SD card and your storage is still low after deleting everything you can, you may need to get a new phone with higher storage capacity. Switching to a phone with 128GB internal storage (from 64GB) will significantly offer more space to adapt to your current storage demands. And it gets even better if the phone supports expandable storage via an SD card.

As of today, most Samsung, Xiaomi, TECNO and Infinix phones come with up to 256GB of internal storage and are expandable via micro-SD cards. So, storage shouldn't be an issue if you own one of these devices.