Android storage

How to free up space on Android without losing what matters

Android has several built-in ways to recover space, but some delete files for good and menus vary by manufacturer. Here is what each tool does and how to keep your photos safe while you clean up.

Updated 5 October 2026 · 5 min read

When an Android phone is full, there are several built-in tools to get space back, but they are not equal: some move files to a trash you can still recover from, others delete them permanently. Menus also vary between manufacturers. Google says it directly: “Settings can vary by phone.” This guide describes Google's own steps, notes where a Samsung phone differs, and ends with how to keep your photos safe before you delete anything.

Start from Settings › Storage

On a recent Android phone (Google notes that some steps only work on Android 14 and up):

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap “Storage” and select a category to see what is using space.
3. To clean up by hand, tap “Free up space”, scroll to a category and tap “Select files” (if it is missing, tap “Browse”).
4. Select the files and tap “Move files to Trash”.

In the same “Free up space” screen, Menu › Settings has a switch called “Smart Storage”. Google describes it as a way to “automatically clear backed-up photos and videos when your device's storage is almost full”. It only touches items already backed up.

On a Samsung Galaxy the path is different: Settings › “Device care” › “Storage”. On other brands, look for a “Storage” entry in Settings or check the manufacturer's help pages.

Files by Google: “Clean”

Files by Google is Google's file manager app and works on Android 8.0 and up. Its cleaning screen collects suggestions in one place:

1. Open Files by Google.
2. Tap Menu › “Clean”.
3. On the “Junk files” card, tap “Clean xx MB”.
4. Confirm with “Clear”.

Google Photos: free up space on this device

If you back up with Google Photos, the app can remove from the phone the photos and videos that are already “safely backed up”:

1. Open Google Photos and sign in.
2. Tap your profile photo or initial, then “Free up space on this device”.
3. Tap “Free up [x] from device”.

Some things to know before you tap:

• Items fewer than 30 days old may stay on the device.
• Removed items remain visible in the Google Photos app and at photos.google.com, but not in the phone's built-in gallery, not offline, and not when you are signed out.
• Backups count toward the 15 GB that Google shares between Gmail, Drive and Photos. If that space is full, backup stops; the guide on why Google storage fills up explains what counts.

Deleting a photo in Google Photos is different from freeing space: it deletes the copy on the phone and on all devices with backup on. Deleted items stay in the trash for 30 days before they are permanently deleted. Many older articles mention 60 days for backed-up items; Google's current pages say 30 days. To restore something: “Collections” › “Trash”, touch and hold the item, then “Restore”.

Apps: archive, cache and storage

Archive unused apps (Android 15 and up)

“When an app is archived, your device removes its software, permissions, temporary files, and stops notifications, but retains the app icon and data.”

1. Open Settings › “Apps” and select the app.
2. Tap “Archive”.

The icon stays, dimmed, with an archive badge; tap it to reinstall the app, as long as the app is still available for download. Android can also archive apps automatically if you opted in; to keep a specific app from being archived, open it in Settings › “Apps” and turn off “Manage app if unused”.

Clear cache, not storage

On a Pixel: Settings › “Apps” › “See All Apps” › the app › “Storage & cache” › “Clear cache”. On a Samsung: Settings › “Apps” › the app › “Storage” › “Clear cache”. Clearing the cache deletes temporary data; the app may be slower the next time you open it. “Clear storage” is a different button: it “permanently deletes all app data”, so Google suggests deleting data from within the app first.

Copy your photos before deleting them

If the Storage screen shows that photos and videos take much of the space, they are the obvious place to start. Before you delete them or let a tool do it, make sure a copy exists somewhere else:

1. Copy the camera photos and videos to a computer, a cloud service or both.
2. Check the copy: compare the number of items and open a few, including old ones and videos.
3. Keep at least one more copy on a different disk or service, so that the computer is not the only place they exist.
4. Only then delete them from the phone or use the tools above.

If you want photos to be copied automatically, apps such as PhotoSync and FolderSync can send them to a WebDAV server; the guide to automatic phone photo backup compares the options and explains their limits.

Where LifetimeCloud fits

LifetimeCloud can hold that second copy. When you upload from the website on a computer, by dragging photos or whole folders, the content of your files is encrypted on your device before it leaves, with AES-256-GCM. Files sent through WebDAV, for example from a phone app, are stored as received: protected by HTTPS in transit, but not end-to-end encrypted by us. The free plan (1 GB, up to 50 files, 50 MB per file) lets you try it; a photo library usually needs a paid plan, paid once with no subscription. Current prices are on the plans page.