Full storage on an Android device: How to free up space

DomMT

Rédactrice Web

03-10-2025

How to free up storage space on Android device

Is your Android phone out of storage, or nearly full? No more room for new photos and videos, or to install apps or update your device? Find out which items take up the most storage space on a cell phone and check out our 6 easy solutions for freeing up space.

Tip #1: Check the Storage section of your device
Tip #2: Use the Files by Google app
Tip #3: Delete cached files
Tip #4: Move photos and videos to cloud storage
Tip #5: Transfer photos and videos to a computer
Tip #6: Add storage space with a memory card

What takes up space on a mobile phone?

Mainly it’s photos, videos, music, podcasts, email attachments you’ve downloaded, text messages and attachments, as well as apps and their saved data.

Some of the items that take up memory space cannot be deleted, such as the operating system and fonts. That’s why there’s always a little bit of space taken up on your device, even when it’s brand new.

Good to know
A given mobile device model can be sold with different storage capacities. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S25 is available with 128 GB or 256 GB of storage.

Tip #1: Check the Storage section of your device

In your settings, go to Storage to see the size of all the things on your phone. You can then decide which applications, videos, or large images you don’t need, and delete them. Here’s how to access the storage settings based on your model (steps may vary slightly):

Pixel (Google)

Launch the Settings app.
Tap Storage.
Select a category to view the space occupied by each item.

Samsung

Go to Settings.
Select Battery and device care (or Device maintenance).
Tap Memory.
If you want to free up space, tap Clean now.

Tip #2: Use the Files by Google app

The Files by Google app includes a handy cleanup feature. It goes through the files on your phone and suggests deleting duplicates, old screen shots, large files, and downloaded files. You still maintain control because you can select individually the files you want to keep.

This is our favourite cleaning app—it’s free and easy to use! Download the Files by Google app.

Tip #3: Delete cached files

To free up space, you could uninstall some rarely used apps, but you could also keep them and use two features to reduce the amount of space they take up:

Clear data—app data, such as files and settings, are deleted from your device.
Clear cache—the temporary memory for the app is deleted, but the app data remains. Learn more about how to empty an app’s cache.

Typically, you can empty the cache for each app in the Storage section of your device. The most useful thing to do is to regularly empty the cache for your web browsers, such as Safari and Chrome.

To clear the Chrome cache:

In the Chrome app, tap More > Delete Browsing Data.
Select a time range and the data you want to delete, then tap Delete data.

Learn more about clearing the Chrome cache on a mobile device.

To clear the Samsung Internet cache:

Launch the web browser app.
Press More Options (three horizontal lines).
Go to Settings > Privacy and Security.
Select the data to be deleted, such as the cache and history, and confirm your choices.

Learn more about clearing the Samsung Internet cache.

Tip #4: Move photos and videos to cloud storage

In addition to freeing up space on your phone, cloud services allow you to access your files from other devices, such as a tablet or computer. Several services let you transfer files to the cloud, including:

Typically, you just install the app on your device then follow the instructions to create an account and start importing your files. You can start with a small amount of storage for free (anywhere from 2 GB to 15 GB), but you’ll need to take out a paid subscription if you want more capacity.

Tip #5: Transfer photos and videos to a computer

You can store photos and videos on your computer before deleting them from your phone to free up space.

To perform the transfer, connect your device to a computer with a USB cable. On most models, it’s easy to complete the process: just drag and drop files from your device’s folder to another folder on your computer.

Tip #6: Add storage space with a memory card

Prefer to keep all your files on your device? Get a micro SD or micro SDXC card for additional storage space. This memory card slides into your phone and increases your device capacity up to 2 TB, depending on the card.

Note: First check that your device allows external storage to be added, as this feature tends not to be included on newer models. If necessary, refer to the user guide for your device.