3 quick and easy ways to clear device storage space on your phone

As a documenter, I am constantly taking excessive amounts of photos, downloading various editing apps and generally overusing my phone and ultimately its device storage space. It’s certainly not uncommon for my phone to send me the “no sufficient space” alert when I am trying to download a new photo editing app or take multiple photos of the same thing until I find one that I like.

I knew I had to do something to fix this dilemma I was always finding myself in, and as someone who is not the most technically savvy person, I managed to stumble upon 3 easy and quick ways to clear space on my phone right away, making room for even more photos, editing apps and other fun things that phones are so conveniently used for these days.

Since this is something I’ve struggled with for some time, I figured there must be others out there who have struggled with the same things at one point or another, so I thought I would share my 3 simple recommendations:

1. Download Google Photos

Although it seems counter-intuitive to download yet another app to clear space, this is actually the best decision I’ve ever made. If you have only one app on your phone, make sure it’s Google Photos.

This app offers unlimited free high quality storage and syncs automatically so that all the photos, screen shots and downloads that I have saved in my gallery are automatically uploaded to my online Google gallery. If you set it to sync automatically, the photos will show up online in a matter of seconds after you take them, which is probably the best way ever to get photos off your phone and into a useable form.

I cannot boast enough about how amazing this app is. Not only does it upload all my photos to the cloud so that I can delete them from my actual device on a regular basis, but they also become searchable and accessible on any device afterwards so that I can print or view photos whenever and wherever I need to.

It’s so smart! Just type in “dog” and it finds every photo of Oliver! How awesome!?

2. Clear your downloads folder

Although I was constantly clearing the downloaded photos from my gallery, I realized by coincidence that they were still being filed in my downloads folder, taking up space I didn’t even know they were taking up! I originally went in to delete a file from work that I had downloaded by accident, when I stumbled upon all my hi-res wedding photos! I am talking like 2 MB each, just sitting there taking up space. No wonder I wasn’t able to download any more apps or take more photos!

To clear your downloads folder, go into your applications >> downloads >> select all >> delete. All of the images in your gallery download section will have already been uploaded to Google Photos, so there is no worry that you will be removing anything you don’t already have saved elsewhere.

3. Uninstall apps you don’t use

I was on the GO bus once and wanted to play Sudoku, so I downloaded an app, played it once and forgot about it. I also had Piano Keys on my phone because Will was really good at it and I wanted to try it for myself, but I am really not a phone gamer and never got into it.

If you do this too, I recommend taking the time to remove some of the silly gaming, editing, blog reading, etc. apps. It takes two seconds to uninstall something, and is so worth it in the end, because it leaves you with so much more useable space!

Also, a side note that I finally recently downloaded the Facebook Messenger app because it was becoming impossible to check messages on my phone without it, but it sucked the life out of my battery. Because I am the worst at closing apps not in use, I was finding my phone wasn’t even lasting an entire day with it running. So I had to say goodbye and commit to only checking messages on my laptop. I did realize though, that it’s not the end of the world, because if it’s anything urgent, I will get a text or a phone call instead.

I definitely think it’s better to live a minimalist phone life to save on battery and storage space, than it is to run out of space when your dog is being super cute and won’t sit still for long enough for you to clean up your phone.

I hope these tips are useful and help you clear up some space on your phone. Just a note that I am using an android phone, so I can’t guarantee that these tricks will work on an iPhone, but I assume they are fairly universal. So give it a shot, clear some space, and let me know in the comments section if you have any additional recommendations!