Running out of storage space on your Android mobile phone? Here’s how to delete unnecessary junk and free up plenty of space for your apps and media, in just a few easy steps.

If your Android smartphone’s storage is filling up fast, don’t panic. There are loads of quick and easy ways to get rid of unnecessary junk and free up loads of storage space on your mobile, without resorting to deleting photos and apps that you might eventually need.

Here’s our quick and easy guide to freeing up your mobile’s memory.

• You can then delete the local copies—some apps, like Google Photos and iCloud, will even take care of this for you—which will open up extra storage on your phone.
• Over time, your phone may collect a lot of files you don't really need. You can clear out the files to free up a little storage space on your device. You can clear out the files to free up a.

Tapping on Apps in the Storage menu will bring up a list of all the apps on your device, sorted by how much storage space they use. From there, you can tap on individual apps to do a few different things. First, you can (and should) Clear Cache, assuming you didn't already clear cached data for all apps. Then, if necessary, Clear Data. If you have more than 1GB here, you should consider copying photos and videos to a cloud storage service so you can delete them from your device. If you have a Google account, an easy option here. To clear Safari's offline reading list, open up the Settings app and go to General Storage & iCloud Usage. Under Storage, tap Manage Storage Safari. Swipe left over the words Offline Reading.

How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Check how much storage remains

To find out how much storage you actually have left on your Android mobile, head to your phone’s settings and then scroll down to ‘Storage’.

In here you’ll see an exact breakdown of how much space you’re using and what is taking up that space. This is broken down into apps, photos and videos, audio (music, podcasts and so on), downloads and cached data. If you spot that one particular section is hogging loads of space, then it’s time to do something about it.

How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Delete any apps you no longer use

Apps are usually the biggest drain on your storage space, so head to your Android phone’s settings and then scroll down to ‘Apps’ and give it a tap.

In here you’ll see a list of all of your downloaded apps, with an indication of how much space each one is taking up. The bigger that number, the more storage you’ll get back if you delete it; so it’s time to work out if you really need that ‘Hilarious Farty App’ or if it can go straight into the bin.

How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Backup your photos to the cloud

The essential Google Photos app allows you to store your snaps and home-made videos in the cloud for free, and it comes as standard on most Android phones now – but if you don’t have it (only likely if your phone is already over a year old), then head to the Google Play store and get it downloaded.

With that done, tap the menu icon in the top left of the Photos app (which looks like three horizontal lines) and choose ‘Settings’. Finally, tap ‘Backup & sync’ and make sure that this is turned on. Any photos that you snap on your phone will automatically be saved to Google’s cloud service, so you can safely delete them from your mobile to free up space.

Read next: Ten quick ways to get better mobile battery life

Of course, we highly recommend checking your Google Photos account from another device first, just to make sure that they’re 100 percent backed up. After all, you don’t want to accidentally lose that photo of your mate Brian lying face-down in a puddle of his own stomach contents after too many Drambuies.

How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Ditch the downloads

These days it’s actually reasonably affordable to grab an All You Can Eat (AYCE) data contract, which allows you to download media to your heart’s content at no extra cost – provided you don’t roam abroad, of course.

That means you can happily delete all of the music and videos from your Android Phone and just stream your entertainment instead. Services such as Spotify, BBC’s iPlayer Radio and Netflix offer a massive catalogue of online content, which you can stream as much as you like for a small monthly charge. Just remember that you won’t be able to take advantage when travelling abroad, unless you’re covered by something like Three’s Feel At Home service.

How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Messaging hogs

If you use third-party messaging apps on your Android mobile, these could also be eating up your valuable storage space.

For instance, WhatsApp users should try going into one of their popular conversations and tapping the Media/Group Media option in the settings. This will bring up all of the photos that have been sent back and forth in the conversation, which can be deleted en masse to free up more space. Thankfully these pics do get automatically deleted as time passes, so you should only bother with this step if your mates send a lot of photos.

How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Clear your Android phone’s cache

After using a phone for a few months, chances are you’ll have at least a gig of cached data cluttering up your Android handset’s storage space. This is just garbage saved to your phone by apps and your web browser, to speed up operation, and can be safely blitzed to free up storage space.

In the Android settings menu, head to Storage and then tap the ‘Cached data’ entry. This will prompt you to delete all of the cached data. Tap ‘OK’ and it will all be erased – for now. Check back again soon and it’ll be back, ready to be re-deleted.

How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Clear old downloads

If you save a lot of documents, photos and so on to your phone, they’ll appear in the Downloads section of the Storage menu – or in the Downloads app. Give this a tap and you’ll see everything you’ve downloaded and how much space it all takes up. You can delete them directly from here.

How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Add extra storage with a microSD memory card

Many Android phones allow you to add extra storage, in the form of a microSD memory card. The microSD memory card slot is usually found in the same tray where your SIM card sits.

How Do You Clear Storage Space On Your Phone Google

These memory cards are affordable and a great way to get a huge chunk of bonus storage, for your photos, videos and other bits. Check out Amazon for a huge selection of cards.

Phones from 2016 that don’t support microSD memory cards include the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, and the OnePlus 3 and 3T. In these cases, you’ll need to check out the next section instead.

How to free up storage space on your Android phone: Add extra storage via third-party accessories

If you’ve harvested all of the spare storage space that you can, but your Android phone is still pretty full, you could consider adding extra storage using accessories such as a special phone case with a built-in memory card slot. Alternatively, you can stream your media from home with a NAS device.

Check out our guides to adding extra storage to your phone:

When you unbox your smartphone, it’s so shiny and new, a blank slate just waiting for you to customize to your needs. It doesn’t take long for it to collect apps and data, however, and soon, your battery slows down, apps start crashing and storage runs low.

But don’t start shopping for a new phone again just yet. By following the tips below, you can declutter your Android or iOS device to help it run more smoothly and efficiently.

Uninstall Unused Apps

The average smartphone user has 60-90 apps installed but only uses about 30 every month (and nine per day). The chances are good that you have at least a handful of apps you rarely put to use. Getting rid of the unnecessary apps will not only declutter your phone’s appearance but might help it run better and could even allow your battery to last longer between charges.

Although phone settings vary, you can generally view and remove apps from the Settings menu.

On an Android phone, go to Settings and select Apps. Choose the first app you want to remove and select Uninstall. Tap OK to confirm that you wish to uninstall the app from your phone. Repeat the steps to remove any other unwanted apps from your device.

On an iPhone, launch Settings, choose General and select Storage. Choose the first app you want to remove and select Delete App. Tap Delete to confirm that you wish to uninstall the app from your phone. Repeat the steps to remove any unwanted apps from your device.

Choose Pics To Save

Go through pictures and videos on your phone to decide which ones are worth keeping. Delete those that you don’t want and send the ones you do want to the cloud, storing them on a service such as Google Photos, iCloud or Dropbox. Depending on how many photos you have on your phone, this one could take some time, so you might want to work on it whenever you have a few minutes to spare.

Clear The Cache

Cached data can save time and data when opening a website or using an app, but it also takes up space on your device. Clearing it can free up resources on your phone.

On an Android phone, you can clear the cache on individual apps from the Settings menu. Alternatively, clear the cache for all apps by opening Settings, select Storage (or Storage & Memory), choose Cached Data and tap OK to confirm you want to clear the cache on your device.

The steps to clear cached data on iPhones vary between apps, but one approach is to open Settings, select an app and choose Reset Cache or a similar option.

Delete Messages

You might not even realize how many old text messages are just sitting on your phone, eating up space. Check your messaging app to discover how many you don’t want or need and delete them. It’s also a good idea to trash other types of messages stored on your phone, such as emails or visual voicemail messages.

How Do You Clear Storage Space On Your Phone Without

Delete Downloads

When you open a file through a browser, a link in an email or other files you receive on your phone, they are downloaded to your device. You likely no longer need the PDF of an amusement park map you downloaded last summer, and deleting these files is an effective way to clean up your phone.

On an Android phone, find an app called Files or My Files. Browse the file categories to find and delete any you don’t need to keep.

On an iPhone, you can typically delete downloaded web files using Safari. Go to Settings, choose Safari, tap Downloads and select Remove Download List Items.

Clean Up Contacts

Your address book might be filled with names and numbers you don’t even recognize. If you have duplicates, unwanted information from syncing your email account, or other entries you no longer need, deleting them is beneficial. Just open your address book and select the edit button on the contact you want to remove. Tap Delete and move on to the next one.

Once you have successfully cleaned up your phone on the inside, you might be motivated to clean the outside of it, as well!