Anyone with a smartphone will be veryfamiliar with seeing the dreaded “storage almost full” message flash up on the screen.For those who have ignored these warning signs long enough, it may even read“storage full”. Running out of memory can be quite annoying and disruptive,particularly if it happens just before you need to do something which requiresstorage space.
For most Apple or Android users, this message will first appear when you are very close to reaching your storage limit, usually about 500MB before. It often shows after you’ve tried to download a new app, that album you’ve been looking forward to or while shooting a video. If the file size is larger than what’s remaining, the prompt will appear and indicate that you need to make room.
To see how much space each app occupies, iOS users can go to Settings General iPhone Storage. On an Android smartphone, open Settings Storage Apps. By deleting a handful of apps, you could potentially free up as much as 500MB with little or no effort.
The good news is that you don’t have to putup with it. There are simple steps you can take to help stretch your phone’sinternal memory and make use of every megabyte you have.
Transferphotos and videos out of internal storage
We’re all guilty of taking photosand recording videos, and then forgetting to delete them. Over time, thesefiles can accumulate and take up a lot of storage.
By offloading these files to a cloud-basedsystem, it can make a huge difference. If you’re using an iPhone, go toSettings > Apple ID > iCloud > Photos and tap the iCloud Photo Librarytoggle to turn the service on. Once you’ve enabled iCloud Photo Library, yourphotos and videos will automatically upload to iCloud so you’re free to deleteany locally stored files. Apple provides a certain amount of storage for free,with more available for a small fee.
Android users can set up Google Photos toautomatically back up files by launching the app and going to Settings >Back Up & Sync. Google lets you back up unlimited photos and videos forfree, up to 16MP and 1080p HD. You can then access them from any phone, tablet,or computer on photos.google.com.
Beyond iCloud and Google Photos, there arevarious apps you can use to upload your photos and videos to an online account,including Dropbox and Flickr.Alternatively, you could always go through your albums and delete what you donot need.
Getrid of those unwanted apps
Another habit that we all get into isdownloading apps for a specific purpose (or amid a gaming fad – who remembersFlappy Bird?) and then forgetting to delete them. These apps take up asurprisingly large amount of space and if left without updates, can cause yourphone to slow down.
To see how much space each app occupies,iOS users can go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. On an Androidsmartphone, open Settings > Storage > Apps.
By deleting a handful of apps, you couldpotentially free up as much as 500MB with little or no effort.
Removeunnecessary downloads
Unlike a few years ago, our phones nowcontain lots of downloaded content. From podcasts to Netflixepisodes, to music, eBooks and documents. Much like unwanted apps, these areoften downloaded and forgotten about. If you no longer need or use them, deletethem and free up space for new content.
Deleteold text message threads
When you send and receive text messages,your phone automatically stores them for safe keeping. If these texts containimages or videos, they can take up a considerable amount of space.
Fortunately, you do not need to go back andmanually delete all your old text messages. Both Apple and Android phones allowyou to auto-delete old messages.
To enable this feature in iOS, go toSettings > Messages and scroll down until you see Message History. Then, tapKeep Messages and change Forever to 30 Days or 1 Year. Immediately after,you’ll be prompted to delete older messages.
For other devices – like Samsung phones– you simply need to head to Settings and make sure “delete old messages” is toggledon.
By following these tips, you will besurprised at how much storage you can save and in turn, how little you begin tosee those pop-ups again.
Next ArticleWe’ve all experienced that moment of dread: You’re about to capture a video of your dog or cat doing something especially cute or hilarious. But then, the pop-up of doom: you’re out of space on your phone.
You might have lost that moment, but there are plenty of ways to free up space on your Android phone to keep something like that from happening again. Good storage management is important for making sure you’ve always got the space you need, when you need it.
Here’s how to keep track of the applications that are hogging up precious space on your Android phone, make room for new apps, photos and other content, and even add more storage to your device.
By navigating to your Android device’s Settings app and clicking on the Storage option, you’ll be able to look at an at-a-glance view of your storage. Up top, you’ll see how much of your phone’s total storage you’re using, followed by a breakdown of different categories that use up space on your phone. For me, it’s Photos & videos that take up the most space, followed by Music & audio. If you download a lot of mobile games or movies, your readout will look different.
Under the amount of space used there should be a button labeled Free up space. This is an automated way to clear out unwanted junk from your phone, chosen by category, including Backed up photos & videos, Downloads, and Infrequently used apps.
You can choose from the categories individually by checking the empty box on the right-hand side of the listed items. But if you want everything gone, it’s less time-consuming to hit the empty box on the right-hand side of the category name. Once it’s got a blue checkmark, click Free up space on the bottom-right side of the screen.
You can uninstall your infrequently used apps in one click using the steps above, but there are other ways to delete apps from your phone, too. Often, I find myself downloading apps or games and forgetting about them, leaving them to take up space that could be filled with photos and videos of my dog. To see all of your apps in one place, open the Google Play Store app and click the Menu icon on the top-left. Navigate to My apps & games, then Installed.
You’re able to scroll through these applications. To uninstall them, you’ll want to click on the particular app. From there, there are options to Uninstall and Open.
By hitting Storage at the top, you can mass-delete apps by selecting multiples with checkmarks. Hit Free up space at the bottom to delete.
On Android phones, it’s easy to back up your photos using Google Photos, which stores images privately on the cloud. To turn it on, you’ll need to open the Google Photos application and sign into your Google account, if you haven’t already done so. Click on the Menu icon. Hit Settings, then click Back up & sync. There’s a toggle button next to Back up & sync to turn the feature on or off, with other settings available for what to back up and when.
Once your photos are backed up, they can be safely removed from your device without fear of losing them — you can always download them from the cloud when you want them. Open the Google Photos application, then select the photos you want to remove (you can select these individually or do this in batches.) Click the More icon, which looks like three vertical dots, and navigate to Delete from device at the top-right of the screen.
Some Android phones have extra slots for memory cards, often microSD cards. This is an easy way to add extra storage to your phone without having to delete everything you love off the device.
First, check your specific phone’s instructions to see if it’s compatible with memory cards, and, if so, which kinds of cards it accepts. Memory card in hand, turn off your phone, insert the memory card into your device, and turn your phone back on. A notification called Set up should appear to help you install the card.
From there, you’re able to choose if you want to use the memory card as portable or internal storage. Portable storage is used for music, photos, and videos. You’re able to move this data from device to device if you want or need to, but apps can’t go in this sort of storage area. Internal storage is used for applications and data that come from your device’s store, and they won’t work if you remove the memory card and use it on another device.
To move apps from your phone to a memory card, go to the Settings page under Apps. Click the app you’d like to relocate to the memory card and hit Storage. Click Storage used and hit Change. Choose the new memory card and proceed from there.