Make some space on your smartphone with these 5 fast methodsDelete photos and videosDelete games you are no longer playingDelete browser downloadsDelete synced playlistsDelete cached maps
For those who regularly find themselves running out of space and need to manage it, it is recommended to get a smartphone with more storage next time around. However, for those, who wish to continue with their current smartphone, we have got some space-saving tips for their device. In this article, we try to bring you some quick way to free up storage space on your smartphone. However, please note that these tips do not include deleting movies and TV shows.
Delete photos and videos
Have a huge collection of memorable pictures or 4K video clips but do not wish to delete them? While the easier option to make space on your smartphone would be to go to the gallery app of your choice and just delete some of the images and clips. However, you may want to retain most of them. For Android smartphones, there is Google Photos that offers free up device storage option on the main app menu that scans for pictures and videos that have already transferred to the cloud and deletes the local copies. To do this on Android devices manually, go to Device folders from the app menu, choose a group of pictures, tap the three dots on the menu bar and select Delete device copy. Also, check your backup settings—Google Photos allows you to select between storing originals and resized copies in the cloud. Only, if you are satisfied with the arrangement you have set up, delete the local copies. However, it is a bit riskier to delete local copies of files on Apple’s Photos app in iOS, while keeping the iCloud backups, as the apps are specially set up to keep everything in sync. The only simple solution is to use Apple’s own automatic Optimize iPhone Storage option from the Photos & Camera menu in Settings. This uses low-resolution copies on your smartphone when space is limited, while keeping the originals available in the cloud.
Delete games you are no longer playing
Often the worst culprits, games eat a lot of space on your device as far as storage goes. While uninstalling apps can remove some space on your smartphone, you need to select apps of a substantial size to actually clear the decks. It is important to double-check what happens to any saved games you have saved before removing any title. However, if they are in a safe place in the cloud (or you just don’t want them), then erasing games you are no longer playing can be a real space saver. If are sure and satisfied that you won’t be deleting anything important that you cannot retrieve later, then go ahead and remove a few games. To check out how much storage each game utilizes on Android, you can go to Settings and tap on Apps. On iOS, from Settings select General, Storage & iCloud Usage and Manage Storage.
Delete browser downloads
Do you regularly download large files from the web and forget about them? Stock Android offers a Downloads app right in the main app drawer, so that you can quickly check what you have got in there and erase anything that are not required. However, on the other hand, iOS doesn’t allow you do anything as unsafe as download files. Saved photos are in your Photos app, but that’s about it. On Android and iOS, you can clear the website and history data from your mobile browsers too, but the storage space savings are unlikely to be important.
Delete synced playlists
Maybe one of the reasons behind your smartphone running out of storage space could be the different type of album collection you have on your device. If yes, you can quickly go through the list and delete the ones that you do not need, which in turn will give you some space on your smartphone. In Spotify, go to Your Library from the main app menu (or the navigation tab) and the playlists you’ve synced are in green. To erase its contents from your device, tap on any one and uncheck the offline toggle switch. (You might not get back all the space straight away— in case you made a mistake, Spotify seems to keep the tracks cached for a little while.) In Google Play Music, you can go to Manage downloads from Settings on the main app menu to actually see tracks on your device. Tap the orange tick next to any playlist, album or song to remove it from your smartphone. In Apple Music, in the Music section of the Settings app on iOS, there’s an useful Downloaded Music entry that you can use to delete cached tracks. While there is no such option on Android, you need to go to My Music from the main app menu, then tap Artists and select Only Downloaded Music to see locally stored songs. In Spotify, you can also reduce the quality of cached tracks to free up some room: the option is behind the Streaming Quality menu in the app settings (iOS) or in the app settings under Music Quality (Android).
Delete cached maps
Do you have the habit of caching offline maps in advance, as you keep traveling around remote parts of the world? While this feature is helpful, it can however eat a lot of storage space on your device, if you have got half the country saved to your local storage. While there is no solution for Apple Maps, as it manages offline caching automatically, you can try it for Google Maps and Here Maps. In Google Maps, go to Offline areas from the main app menu, tap on an area and you will get the option to delete it from your smartphone. If you do not wish this to happen in the future, you can set offline areas to automatically remove themselves after 30 days: tap the gear icon to turn automatic updates off from the same Offline areas screen. However, check the offline cache if you are using a different app —it’s behind Download maps on the main app menu for Android and iOS in the case of the Here Maps, and you can swipe left (iOS) to delete a map or simply tap any of the relevant trash icons (Android). Source: Gizmodo
