While newer Android devices have an ever-increasing amount of storage, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to fill your device with trash. Long forgotten downloads, corrupted cache files, duplicate images – there are all kinds of junk files on your Android device that, if not maintained regularly, can start to do. your memory full.
Thankfully, there are a few ways you can delete these files and free up space for important apps and files. If you want to know how to empty the trash files on Android, here’s what you need to do.
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Delete app cache files on Android
When you are running apps on your Android device, they create cache files. These are temporary files that the app uses in the background. Over time, these files grow and increase in size, especially in web browsers, social networking apps, and other apps with an internet connection.
Deleting these files can restore a large amount of your used storage. It won’t stop apps from working, but you may need to sign back into some apps.
- To clear the files in the app cache, open the settings menu for your device. You can do this by scrolling down the notification drawer and selecting Setting right to buy.
- The Setting menus for Android devices vary, depending on the device manufacturer and Android version. Choose Application from the list to see your installed apps.
- inside Application , you will see a list of installed applications. Certain Android versions may require pressing Installed Apps to see this list, however. To clear cache files from some apps, select the app in the list.
- inside Application Information for that app, select Warehouse right to buy.
- inside Warehouse menu, select Clear cache at the bottom. This will clear all cache files for that app.
If you’re having trouble clearing any app cache files, you can also clear all installed app caches using Android’s recovery menu. However, this is not recommended for most users because the risk of your device becoming damaged and unusable is quite high.
If the app cache is proving difficult to empty, the best thing to do is to delete the app and reinstall it, as this will empty the cache files in the process.
Delete downloaded files with Google Files
How many of us bother to delete the files we download? The success rate on desktops or Macs may be higher, but may be lower for our smartphones and tablets. However, deleting Android downloads can delete some long-forgotten files and free up space for more important photos and documents.
- Open your app’s file manager app, or install Google Files from the Google Play Store and open it instead. You may need to give Google Files permission to access your files when you first open it.
- inside Files application, select Browse > Download. inside Download , you will see a list of all downloaded files on your device. To select all, select three-dot menu icon in the top right, then select Select all right to buy.
- With all files selected in Download menu, select Delete icon in the top left.
- The Files app will ask you to confirm your choice. Option Delete to do this and delete all files.
Once you’ve confirmed the deletion, all files in your device’s downloads folder will be deleted. You’ll need to repeat these steps to empty your Android’s trash files periodically to make sure you don’t fill up your storage with forgotten downloads.
Remove temporary files with Google files
Android “cleaning” apps were very popular in the early days of the Google operating system. While some questioned their usefulness, the combination of low-power devices, small storage capacities, and under-optimized systems forced users to try and find ways to remove them. system junk files and freeing active memory.
We won’t necessarily recommend any of these apps today, but if you’re concerned about these junk files on your Android device, you can use Google’s own Files app to remove them. them for you.
- You will need to install Google Files first if you haven’t already, as well as give it the necessary permissions to access your files when you run it for the first time. Once opened, select Cleaning (if it’s not already visible), then select Cleaning option in Junk files card at the top.
- Files will ask your permission to delete some temporary files on your device. Option Strange to do this.
When these files are deleted, the storage space occupied by temporary Android trash files will be restored for you to use elsewhere.
Clear browser cache in Google Chrome on Android
One of the biggest sources of unnecessary junk files on your Android device is your web browser. Chrome, which is the default browser for many Android users, stores cache files for the websites you visit to help load them faster on later visits, and reduce your data usage.
You can use the steps above to delete the Chrome app cache file directly, but this may cost you certain settings and personalization changes. Instead of trying so hard, you can use Chrome’s own trash removal system to delete unnecessary cache files.
- To do this, open Google Chrome on your Android device, then select three-dot menu icon at the top right. From the drop-down menu, select Setting right to buy.
- inside Setting menu, select Website Settings right to buy.
- inside Website Settings menu, select Stored data right to buy.
- You’ll see a list of data stored for each individual website you’ve visited Stored data menu. To delete this data, select Erase all data at the bottom of the menu.
- Chrome will ask you to confirm that you want to delete the cached files. Option Strange to do this.
With browser data cleared, Chrome’s memory usage is significantly reduced. You’ll need to repeat these steps often to ensure that Chrome’s memory usage doesn’t increase too much in the future.
Maintain your Android device
The above steps will help you clean up junk files on Android. However, once you’ve deleted the unwanted junk files, you’ll need to do regular maintenance to make sure you don’t run into problems later. For example, you can start move some apps to external storage or store some of your files in the cloud.
You should clean up junk files on Android regularly, but it’s not a miracle cure for a slow smartphone or tablet. If it’s time to upgrade, you can transfer your data to your new Android device easily. You can also switch from Android to iPhonealthough the process will take a little longer to complete.
