Have you asked yourself, “Why is my phone storage full?” for the fifth time in the last five days? No matter what you do, it seems your phone remains full and keeps slowing down. Fortunately, cleaning up your phone can be straightforward but does depend on your phone type (iPhone or Android, for example). The end result should be improved speed and efficiency.
Why Is My Phone Storage Full?
Understanding why your phone storage is full helps you avoid filling it again too quickly. Common culprits include:
- Thousands of photos and videos. Over the years, all the photos and videos you take of your friends, kids, pets, and vacation hot spots add up to deliver massive blows to your phone’s open space. Delete the photos and videos you don’t want to keep and move the ones you want to save to cloud photo and video storage. It can take a little time but may provide you with additional instant space.
- Songs, podcasts, videos, and other old files from media apps. Sometimes, they can be hours long. Check your downloads regularly to make sure they are not ballooning up.
- Automatic downloads from WhatsApp and other apps. Social media apps may automatically download pictures and videos to your phone. You must change this default setting in the app so the downloads do not occur.
- Too many apps. If you are not using apps, delete them. It’s normally pretty easy to redownload apps you’ve removed. You may not even have to re-enter username and password information.
- Older phone. If your phone is at least a few years old, it could have limited space.
How to Declutter Your Phone
You can declutter your phone today, and it should not take long. First, back up your phone files onto a computer or hard drive using a USB cord. That way, if you accidentally lose something, it is not gone for good.
Perform the decluttering over a secure cell or Wi-Fi connection. Your phone settings are a great direct source to go to for answers to, “Why is my phone storage full?” Your phone itself can identify what consumes its storage.
For example, say you have 64 gigabytes (GB) of total storage with 63.3 GB used. On iPhones, a color bar shows the biggest users of space. Frequently, they are photos, apps, systems, and others. Your phone is likely to make recommendations for how to free up storage. It may list apps by how recently you used each, with the apps at the bottom being ones you might be able to delete or offload without missing them. Some phones, such as Google’s Pixel, even offer the option for you to automatically free up storage.
As for photos and videos, they play a huge role in why people ask, “How do I clean my storage?” and “How do I clean my phone?”If you have not done so already, transfer files to a computer or hard drive backup. Transfer your photos and videos to the cloud, too. Many services offer free storage up to a certain extent or charge a small fee for a subscription. Google and Apple have cloud storage options, too.
A Few Other Tips to Perform Clean Sweep for Phone
How to clean out your phone is not always solely a matter of deleting apps, photos, videos, and other media files. These tips should help you figure out, “Why is my phone storage full?”
- Delete your internet history, cache, and cookies. For example, on an iPhone, you might be able to instantly clear up a gigabyte or more by going to Safari in the Settings menu and choosing, “Clear History and Website Data.”
- Update all of your software. Security holes in apps and operating systems can cause vulnerabilities that add to the clutter on your phone, for example, with programs downloading extra apps you have no idea about.
- Consider whether you need a new phone. If you’re someone who holds onto your phone for years, it may be time for a new one with more space than what your current phone has. You can even get a free smartphone through Lifeline if you qualify.
Newer phones are more likely to come with 128 GB, while 64 GB was the norm several years ago. The cost difference between getting a phone with more storage versus less is minimal.
Why Is My Phone Storage Full?
If you followed expert tips and got advice on, “How to clean my device,” to no avail, a new phone with more storage may do the trick. You can stop asking, “Why is my phone storage full?” Check out the options at enTouch Wireless today.
https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/how-clean-declutter-your-smartphone-inside-out-ncna966691
https://www.consumerreports.org/smartphones/how-to-free-up-storage-on-your-phone-a1910142091/
https://www.makeuseof.com/why-phone-storage-always-full-how-make-space/