How To Free Up Space On Your Smart Phone

Smartphones have become a massive part of people’s lives, and you probably cannot begin to imagine what a whole day will feel like without your phone. With several apps and functions that smartphones afford, keeping them functioning at optimum levels is not debatable. However, when you want to perform a function, say take a picture or a video, and you realize you have run out of space. That can be pretty frustrating, especially if you realize that you do not know how to delete duplicate photos taking up precious space. Here are some tips to free up space on your device.

Use cloud storage

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Cloud storage offers you the opportunity to save files online. This means you do not have to sift through your files; you can upload everything, be it documents, pictures, or videos. Once you do this, you can delete those files from your smartphone to free up much-needed space to do other stuff. When uploading your files to a cloud service, though, be mindful of the resolution they will be available in. Some cloud services automatically shrink the resolution of pictures and videos to increase the storage capacity. If you want to maintain the original resolutions, you should indicate that before uploading your files.

Back up to your computer

You can also keep your files on your computer to free up some space on your device. Get your device cable, connect it to your computer, and select the files you want to move. Remember to keep the connection stable so that the file transfer happens smoothly; if not, you may end up losing some files. Of course you can always buy 16GB USB drive to store some of your file on.

Increase your phone storage

This is primarily applicable to Android phones, but there are other solutions for iPhones as well. Most of them come with expandable storage for android devices in the form of a memory card slot. This slot allows you to add external storage of up to 400GB to your device. Memory cards are pretty cheap and present an excellent option for Android devices that have expandable storage.

If your android device does not have expandable storage or uses an iPhone, you should consider getting a flash drive with on-the-go (OTG) capability. You can plug such flash drives into your devices directly. They can also be used to transfer files either from or to the phone. This is also a cheap alternative that can help you free up a lot of space.

Get rid of old messages and files

It is easy to forget things that no longer have any relevance. As such, messages, emails, and other irrelevant files can take up space on your device, and you may not even notice. Getting rid of such messages and files is another way to free up space on your device. Depending on the type of device you use, you can do bulk deletion.

For iPhone users, head to Settings, select General, and then iPhone storage. You will see an option to turn on Auto Delete Old Conversations. Once you tap on this, all old conversations will be deleted. For Android users, go to Downloads, select the files you want to delete and then hit delete.

Uninstall Unused apps

When looking to free up space, the first places you look at are the pictures and videos. But some apps can take up a lot of space, particularly games. The average full version game on a smartphone is about 2GB. If you have a lot of games on your phone, then your storage will be filled quickly. When freeing up space, look out for apps that you do not use, have never used, or used just a few times. Delete them as well as the games before considering the pictures and videos.

Shoot in lower resolutions

Several of the latest smartphones on the market have 4K resolution for both pictures and video. This means high-quality images which need a lot of space and can quickly fill up your storage. Unless you need them for work such as photography or video editing, consider shooting in lower resolutions such as HD to save space. HD is still high quality but may not have fine details like 4K.

Regularly check your storage

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If you do not want to get caught out with storage when you need it most, make it a habit to check your storage and free up space constantly. Remember that when you have ample storage, your phone performs much better. Some apps require a basic amount of storage to operate, and if that is not available, that will affect their functionality.