Smart phone storage getting full - advice please

RainbowsInTheSpray

After a few years of use, my android phone has started giving me alerts about storage space getting used up and that performance will soon start to suffer. 

System 'cleaning' doesn't seem to make much impact. The alerts continue to arrive showing 90+% of storage space already in use.

Can anyone offer advice about what I can safely get rid of from the device by way of apps which, on the face of it, seem to be the main culprits.Most of them came already installed and a lot only offer 'clear data' or 'clear cache', not 'uninstall'.

Neil_Jones

Without knowing the model nobody can advise properly.

However its not always Apps that take up space... videos and pictures can as well.

https://support.google.com/android/answer/7431795?hl=en-GB

(assuming Android of some sort)

MikeJXE

Move your photos and videos on to an external drive (flash drive)

Grumpy_chap

Do you have photos on the phone memory or SD card?

PHK

RainbowsInTheSpray said:

Hi After a few years of use, my android phone has started giving me alerts about storage space getting used up and that performance will soon start to suffer. 

System 'cleaning' doesn't seem to make much impact. The alerts continue to arrive showing 90+% of storage space already in use.

Can anyone offer advice about what I can safely get rid of from the device by way of apps which, on the face of it, seem to be the main culprits.Most of them came already installed and a lot only offer 'clear data' or 'clear cache', not 'uninstall'.

Are you sure this is Android telling you this and not one of those pop ups which are actually trying to get you to install dodgy system cleaners?

Which phone is it and can you post a screenshot of the alerts?

chrisw

Do you use WhatsApp quite a bit? It saves all the photos and videos to your phone by default. You can change the settings to not save and then manually save any you might want to keep. 

trickydicky14

chrisw said:

Do you use WhatsApp quite a bit? It saves all the photos and videos to your phone by default. You can change the settings to not save and then manually save any you might want to keep. 

Can you tell me how to do this please.

flaneurs_lobster

trickydicky14 said:

chrisw said:

Do you use WhatsApp quite a bit? It saves all the photos and videos to your phone by default. You can change the settings to not save and then manually save any you might want to keep. 

Can you tell me how to do this please.

In the WhatsApp app
Hamburger (3 dots) top right
Settings
Storage and data
Media auto-download
Go into each of the three "When..." options and unselect each medium 

alanrowell

Click on the "files" app and see what's using up the space

km1500

go to settings (cog)

go to device care

click on storage

you'll get a display of what is using your storage ie how much is used by apps, how much by photos, how much by videos etc

TELLIT01

If you don't have an SD card for additional storage, get one and move as many apps as possible to that.