How to effectively free up memory on an Android device: step-by-step instructions. What is phone internal memory and how to use it

Data-lazy-type="image" data-src="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/chistka-pamyati..jpg 450w, http://androidkak.ru/wp- content/uploads/2015/09/chistka-pamyati-300x179.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px"> If you are not a beginner, but a more or less experienced Android user, then you probably already know a rather unpleasant fact: of the gigabytes of memory stated on the box with the phone, not all are available for installing applications.

But before rushing headlong to correct this injustice, it is worth finding out why this happens and how exactly you can clean the system.

Android File System Structure

Data-lazy-type="image" data-src="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/faylovaya-sistema-android.png" alt="File system structure Android" width="200" height="356" srcset="" data-srcset="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/faylovaya-sistema-android..png 168w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px"> !} One thing to understand is that the Android file system is not nearly as versatile as, say, the one found in Windows. If on Windows your programs and media files are in the same space, then on Android each type of file has its own section.

System programs - separately, auxiliary files and music - separately. The first partition is called the system memory, while the last one is called the media partition.

Why is this necessary? First of all, to make the OS as secure as possible. If you combine these sections, it turns out that a regular media player can accidentally delete data important for the operation of another program, crash the system, or simply fill it to capacity with its files, without leaving even a byte for the necessary system programs.

Moreover, these two sections have different access levels. In the media section, the user and third-party programs can do whatever they want. There is no access to anything other than these programs in the Android system programs section.

Because of this order of things, sometimes a rather curious situation occurs: the media section has several gigabytes free, but the phone stubbornly reports that it cannot install an application of a couple of tens of megabytes in size. This happens because the section for third-party programs is already full.

In such cases, there is nothing left but to try to clear the system memory in the hope that you will be able to free up these megabytes.

You can see the amount of free system memory in the settings, in the “Memory” section. The first scale shows exactly this value. In addition, it is worth considering that the system requires leaving a certain amount free - from 50 to 600 megabytes, depending on the Android device model and OS version.

Cleaning system memory without superuser rights

If you have not opened root access on your smartphone, then your ability to clean up the system partition will be seriously limited. On the other hand, the warranty on the device will remain intact. Is it worth it? You decide.

Read also: How to connect a mouse to an Android phone or tablet

If you want to clear system memory, do the following:

• Go to "Settings".
• Go to the "Applications" section.
• Next, go to the “Third Party” tab.
• Click the Menu button (three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the screen).
• Select sort by size.

.png" alt="List of Android phone applications" width="300" height="169" srcset="" data-srcset="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/spisok-prilozheniy..png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"> !} After a couple of seconds, you will see a list of the largest applications on your device. If there is something among them that you do not use, then click on it and select “Delete”. If the button is unavailable, it means that the application is a system application and cannot be erased without superuser rights.

Then select “Uninstall updates”, this way you will free up at least some space. It is also advisable to disable the program by clicking on the corresponding button. But you need to do this carefully and only with applications like Facebook that are not part of the system.

The above method does not take into account the fact that Android calculates the size of the application on the entire internal memory. If it takes up 1.2 GB on the internal memory card and only 40 MB on the system partition, it will still show up as 1.2 GB in size.

If you have already carried out such optimization and there is still little space, you have little choice: get superuser rights or try to transfer applications to a memory card. The latter will only work if your system is version 4.0.4 or lower, so the chance is slim. But if you really are a user of a device that is at least three years old, then next to the “Delete” button you will have a “Move to SD card/USB drive” button. Click on it, and part of the data of this application will leave the system partition and will be transferred to the memory card, freeing up space.

Some Android programs are used only by some third-party applications, so they can be erased even without superuser rights. For example, removing “Google Play Services” allows you to free up to 150 MB in the system partition, in return closing the possibility of direct synchronization between devices. If you don't use programs like Pushbullet or MightyText, you can safely delete this. And if some program suddenly needs something, it will offer to download it again. The second candidate for deletion is Google search, but along with its 40-60 MB you will lose Google Now and the “Ok, Google!” command.

Cleaning system memory with superuser rights

Data-lazy-type="image" data-src="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/chistka-pamyati-root.jpg" alt="Cleaning memory on Android root" width="70" height="69" srcset="" data-srcset="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/chistka-pamyati-root..jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 70px) 100vw, 70px"> !} With superuser rights, clearing system memory is much easier. And although we will further discuss unstable solutions a la Xposed App2SD, which, for example, allow you to replace the application section with a memory card, root users still have more options.

Read also: How to log out of Google account on Android

Removing pre-installed programs

If your Android already had third-party applications installed when purchased (Facebook, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, MTS Assistant), then most likely you will not be able to remove them without superuser rights. This is quite a shame, because they often have significant sizes of 40-160 MB.

.png" alt="Titanium Backup application" width="70" height="70" srcset="" data-srcset="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Titanium-Backup..png 150w, http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Titanium-Backup-300x300.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 70px) 100vw, 70px"> !}
The solution is the Titanium Backup program, which allows you not only to make a complete backup of all your applications with their settings, but also to clean the closed system partition from such garbage. To do this, simply select the desired application on the second tab of the program and click “Delete”.

Mounting an SD card as internal memory

As mentioned above, 1.5 GB of a game does not always go completely to the system partition. But for those who have internal memory of a couple of gigabytes, this does not make it any easier.

Jpg" alt="Folder Mount program" width="150" height="119"> !} The solution is the FolderMount program, which allows you to transfer cache files (that’s what these one and a half gigabytes are called) to a memory card, leaving a shortcut in their place. In this case, the system will still consider that the files are in the old location, which leads to funny oddities in the “Memory” settings section: for example, you can see that you have 8.2 GB of 3.6 GB occupied, while another 0.98 of these 3.6 are completely free.

If FolderMount cannot create a folder on the SD card, do it yourself with any file manager and specify it in the program. You can also immediately copy the files of the transferred program there, deleting them later from the internal memory - it’s more reliable. And if you see a message that mounting is impossible, turn on “Autostart” or “Mount at startup” in the settings and restart your smartphone.

Other partition extension methods

Data-lazy-type="image" data-src="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/App2SD.png" alt="App2SD App Manager Save Space" width="100" height="100" srcset="" data-srcset="http://androidkak.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/App2SD..png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px"> !} There are other ways to transfer data from the system partition to a card or internal memory. However, most of them are extremely dangerous in the hands of inexperienced users, are only suitable for a certain model/manufacturer, or require a high level of technical skill.

Android includes a large number of directories, but the question arises - which folders can be deleted and which ones cannot be touched?

Before deleting folders, please read the article.

This article is suitable for all brands that produce phones on Android 9/8/7/6: Samsung, HTC, Lenovo, LG, Sony, ZTE, Huawei, Meizu, Fly, Alcatel, Xiaomi, Nokia and others. We are not responsible for your actions.

We are not responsible for your actions

Android folders

The list of folders may vary depending on the Android version. Some applications can create their own directories in memory - for example, instant messengers. However, in general, the list of folders will be the same on all versions of Android, so you just need to know what is stored in them.

• Cache - folder with temporary update files. If you are not going to update the system, you can delete it.
• data/app - installation files of all third-party applications. If you don't use them, you can delete them.
• data/data - settings, saves and other service information necessary for the operation of applications. If you do not use installed programs, delete the directory.
• data/clipboard - data clipboard with the latest screenshots. It is not recommended to delete.
• data/dalvik-cache - cache memory area for the Java virtual machine, which allows the phone to run APK files. Files must be cleaned regularly, but cannot be deleted. (read)

The Documents folder stores a variety of documents. If they are not interested in the content, feel free to delete the directory. The same applies to the Bluetooth directory, which contains files received via this wireless technology.

Increase

The DCIM folder stores photos taken with the camera. If you don’t have the photos you need, you can safely delete the catalog. Deleting the Images, Pictures, Musi, Audio, etc. folders will not affect Android operation.

Folders that cannot be deleted

There are folders in Android that absolutely cannot be deleted, since without them the system will not work correctly. Remember these names:

• efs - information about IMEI, Mac, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
• etc - configuration files used when loading the system and processes of various built-in programs.
• lib - libraries necessary for the operation of programs and modules.
• mnt - images of mounted systems.
• proc - key information about the installed system.
• sbin - executable files of all programs involved in system management.
• sys - current system configuration.

Under no circumstances should you delete the system folder with all its subdirectories. System is the backbone of the system, so if you delete any data from here, you will have to flash the phone again.

Removal methods

To delete system folders, you need superuser rights - root. If you don't have them, then you definitely won't be able to break Android. If available, you need to be extremely careful - deleting important system files will result in you having to flash the device again.

If you figure out which folders can be safely deleted, then proceed to clearing memory using standard functions:

1. Open the Android main menu and launch the file browser (file manager).
2. , which can be deleted. Press it and hold your finger.
3. When the menu appears, select Delete.

A manager option with multiple selection support is presented. The delete button is located in this case at the top right in the form of a trash can icon.

The standard file manager does not display all Android files and folders. To clean your device's memory well, use ES Explorer or another third-party file manager.

1. Launch ES Explorer.
2. Choose what you will clean - internal storage (Internal Storage) or memory card.
3. Hold your finger on the folder you want to delete. Once it's checked, start highlighting other files and folders.
4. After selecting all the items to delete, click on the “Delete” button in the bottom menu.

You can not use file managers on Android, but simply connect your phone to your computer by selecting the media device mode, in which you can view and change the contents of the memory.

Freeing up memory on Android is not such a difficult task if you do it right. And this article is designed to teach you exactly that.

Before deleting something from the device, it is necessary to audit what is stored in the device and how much memory each element occupies. To do this, go to the “Settings” section, then “Device memory”. Here you can see detailed statistics on how much memory space is occupied by applications, pictures, audio, video downloads and other components.

By clicking on each element you can go to the screen for managing these elements. For example, by clicking on the “Photo” section, you will be taken to your photo gallery.

Note that if you click on "clear device cache" this will free up memory on Android, but it may slow down your apps a little as they have to fetch that cache data again. In addition, clearing the cache may lead to the fact that in some of your applications you will have to re-enter your username and password to enter them.

It is also worth noting that if you manually moved music or video files to other directories, Android will count them in the “Advanced” column.

If you have an SD card in your smartphone or tablet, then in the same section you can also view the data located on it.

Now that we have studied what our memory is clogged with, it’s time to move on to freeing it

2. Managing your applications

Look at the application icons on the desktops of your devices and honestly answer the question of how many of them you use regularly. Surely there are some that haven’t opened for several months. It's time to delete them to free up Android memory.

If you cannot decide which of the installed applications can and should be removed, go to the settings section and select “Applications” or “Application Manager”. Select "Downloaded".

Here you can see a list of applications that you have recently downloaded, as well as how much memory space they occupy. This will help you make an informed decision about which applications can be safely removed.

Start with the apps you no longer use, look at the largest apps that take up a lot of space, and consider whether you need them. To remove an application, simply click on its name and then the “Delete” button.

Please note that some of the applications you will not be able to uninstall due to the fact that they are built into Android or the software of the smartphone or tablet manufacturer. But if you select the “All” tab and click on any of such applications, you will find a “Force Stop” button there, then that application will no longer run and waste Android memory. In addition, you can remove updates for these applications, which will also relieve the device memory.

It also makes sense to transfer some applications to an SD card, however, unfortunately, not all Android devices support this function. In addition, if you format the SD card, your applications on it will become unavailable.

3. Clean up your photos

Review your photos in the gallery and make sure that there are no random or unnecessary ones. You know, photographs of the floor, ceiling and sky are of little artistic value. In addition, the necessary photos can be placed on an SD card, your computer, or, finally, on one of the cloud services, for example, Dropbox or Picasa.

4. Stream music and movies

If you have a really large music library, you don't necessarily need to store it on your device. Services like Google Play Music and Amazon Music can store a large amount of music files and stream it to you whenever you want.

Five full-length films in HD quality can take up 15 gigabytes or more of memory. A dozen 1-2 minute videos you shoot will add a couple more gigabytes to this. So it is not practical to store all this on your gadget.

If you purchased a movie using Google Play or Amazon, then they can always be found in the cloud services of these companies. Don’t forget about services where you can watch videos online, without having to download them to your tablet or smartphone.

5. Cloud services

We've already mentioned cloud services for streaming music, videos and storing photos, but we'll name a few more such services.

For example, Google Drive is an obvious choice for Android users, making collaboration very convenient.

Google Drive along with Google Play, Google Music and other Google services like Gmail and Google Docs give you 15 GB of storage space to store your data.

Many owners of Android devices face the problem of full memory.

It seems like there aren’t many user files saved, but the drive is still full. There are several reasons for this problem - consider each of them.

But first, a note for novice users. The largest amounts of memory are usually occupied by videos. We recommend going to the “Gallery” and checking your smartphone for unnecessary materials. Unused videos, downloaded movies, video clippings - all this accumulates in the file system and takes up memory. Delete unnecessary videos, photos and other data downloaded from WhatsApp or other apps and instant messengers. They are saved in a separate folder located in DCIM.

Clearing phone cache

First of all, you need to clear the cache on your Android smartphone. There are several cleaning methods. Let's start with the basic settings:

1. Open your smartphone's settings.
2. Go to the “Memory” or “Storage” section.
3. Select the “Cache Data” section and click the “Delete Cache” button.
4. Next, click “OK” to complete the cleanup.

Also, the cache memory on Android is cleared through (which recently). Here is a cleaning method using the CCleaner utility as an example (the program is available on Google Play). After installing it, follow the following procedure:

1. Go to the application, select the “Clear cache and memory” option and click on the “Analysis” button.
2. Once the system scan is complete, check the “Cache” option and select “Clear.”
3. Cache, temporary files and other garbage are automatically deleted from the phone.

If you have any questions, be sure to study for more details. Note that one of the most effective methods for clearing cache memory is in.

Cleaning up unnecessary files

Large amounts of unwanted data most often accumulate in download or messenger folders, as well as in the hidden .thumbnails directive. We recommend that you conduct a thorough analysis of the file system. The disk analyzer DiskUsage, which is also downloaded from Google Play, is suitable for this operation.

After installation, go to the program and select the “Memory Card” option. All data that is on the device is collected here. Select the unnecessary file and delete it. To do this, go to the menu in the upper corner of the screen and click the “Delete” button.

DiskUsage is suitable for individually deleting files and analyzing disk space, but the application is inconvenient for mass cleaning of the system. Also, you won’t be able to view media files here - for this it is recommended to use some kind of explorer or.

Deleting files from the hidden folder.thumbnails

Located in the DCIM folder - in the gallery where photos and videos are stored. Thumbnails stores thumbnails of media files so that the smartphone can load thumbnail tiles faster in the future. Over time, several gigabytes of thumbnails accumulate, especially if the owner of the device likes to take pictures or shoot videos.

For example, one of the editorial office’s smartphones stores 500 photos. The size of the thumbnails.thumbnails folder is 1 GB. This space can be easily freed up.

Since the .thumbnails directive is hidden by default, you won’t be able to access it through the gallery. To diagnose and delete thumbnails, it is recommended to download the Total Comander application. Next you need to do the following:

1. Go to the installed Total Comander application and find the .thumbnails folder there (it is located in the DCIM folder).
2. Under the list of saved thumbnails in the lower left corner of the screen there is a “Select” button - click it.
3. Then click on the cross at the bottom of the panel to delete existing thumbnails.

The only drawback to this operation is that now the thumbnails will load a little slower. After clearing the .thumbnails folder, the device will start creating new thumbnails again. To prevent this, you will need to block the creation of thumbnails.

How to block thumbnail creation?

To avoid permanently deleting the contents of the .thumbnails folder, follow these steps:

• Delete the .thumbnails folder and connect your smartphone to your PC.
• On your computer, create an empty text file and give it a name .thumbnails(make sure the folder name is correct).
• Next, this file is transferred to the phone in the DCIM folder.

Saving thumbnails will now stop because the system will not be able to create a new directive .thumbnails, since a folder with the same name already exists in the gadget. If for some reason this method did not work, do the same steps, but instead .thumbnails, give the empty text file a name .nomedia.

Memory card

The logical and simplest solution to problems with lack of memory is to buy a memory card (if your smartphone has an appropriate slot). When installing microSD on some devices, you will need to activate it, because by default the phone will continue to save files to the internal memory. Go to the “Memory/Storage” section and place a marker next to the “Memory Card” option.

It should be noted that smartphones running the latest versions of Android have the ability to combine internal storage with a memory card. In such cases, the smartphone itself will offer to make a connection after installing the card.

Reset

The most radical method of solving all system problems is to completely format or reset the gadget to . This method is recommended for use in cases where simple ways to solve the problem have not brought the desired result.

To return your smartphone to factory settings, follow these steps:

1. Go to settings and select the “Backup and reset” option.
2. There are two options here: a reset without data loss and a reset together with a complete formatting of the drive. Choose the second option.
3. Next, click “Reset settings” and wait for the procedure to complete.

Results

Memory problems vary, and so do their solutions. Start diagnosing your system by performing the simplest steps and removing unnecessary games, applications, photos, videos and other files. Don't forget to add a memory card, clear cache and folder .thumbnails. If this doesn't help, try more drastic measures.

In modern smartphones, the average amount of permanent memory (ROM) is about 16 GB, but there are also models with a capacity of only 8 GB or 256 GB. But regardless of the device you use, you notice that over time the memory begins to run out, as it fills up with all sorts of junk. Is it possible to clean it?

Initially, out of the indicated 16 GB of ROM, you will only have 11-13 GB free, since the operating system itself takes up some space, plus, it can be supplied with specialized applications from the manufacturer. Some of the latter can be removed without causing much harm to the phone.

As you use your smartphone over time, your memory quickly begins to “melt.” Here are the main sources that absorb it:

• Applications you have downloaded. After purchasing and turning on your smartphone, you will probably download several applications from or third-party sources. However, many applications do not take up as much space as they might seem at first glance;
• Photos, videos and audio recordings taken or uploaded. The percentage of fullness of the device’s permanent memory depends in this case on how much media content you download/produce using your smartphone;
• Application data. The apps themselves may weigh little, but over time they accumulate various data (most of it important for operation), increasing their share of the device's memory. For example, you downloaded a browser that initially weighed 1 MB, and two months later it began to weigh about 20 MB;
• Various system junk. It accumulates in approximately the same way as in Windows. The more you use the OS, the more junk and broken files begin to clog the device’s memory;
• Residual data after downloading content from the Internet or transmitting it via Bluetooth. Can be classified as a type of junk file;
• Old versions of applications. When updating an application in the Play Market, Android creates a backup copy of its old version so that you can rollback it.

Method 1: Transfer data to SD card

SD cards can significantly expand the memory of your device. Now you can find small copies (about the size of a mini-SIM), but with a capacity of 64 GB. Most often they store media content and documents. It is not recommended to transfer applications (especially system ones) to the SD card.

This method is not suitable for those users whose smartphone does not support SD cards or artificial memory expansion. If you are one of them, then use these instructions to transfer data from the permanent memory of your smartphone to an SD card:

If you do not have the opportunity to use an SD card, then you can use various cloud Internet storages as an analogue. It’s easier to work with them, and besides, they provide a certain amount of memory for free (about 10 GB on average), but you will need to pay for an SD card. However, they have a significant disadvantage - you can work with files that are saved in the cloud only if the device is connected to the Internet.

If you want all the photos, audio and video recordings you take to be saved directly to the SD card, then you need to do the following manipulations in the device settings:

1. Go to "Settings".
2. There select the item "Memory".
3. Find and click on "Default memory". From the list that appears, select the SD card currently inserted into the device.

Method 2: Disable automatic Play Market updates

Most apps downloaded on Android can be updated in the background via Wi-Fi. Not only can new versions weigh more than old ones, but older versions are also saved on the device in case of failures. If you disable automatic application updates through the Play Market, you will be able to update only those applications that you consider necessary yourself.

You can disable automatic updates in the Play Market by following these instructions:

However, some applications from the Play Market can bypass this blocking if the update is very significant (according to the developers). To completely disable any updates, you will have to go into the settings of the OS itself. The instructions look like this:

You should not trust third-party applications that promise to disable all updates on Android, as at best they will simply perform the setup described above, and at worst they can harm your device.

By disabling automatic updates, you can not only save memory on your device, but also Internet traffic.

Method 3: Cleaning up system junk

Since Android produces various system garbage, which over time greatly clutters up the memory, it needs to be cleaned regularly. Fortunately, there are special applications for this, and some smartphone manufacturers make a special add-on to the operating system that allows you to delete junk files directly from the system.

Let's first consider how to clean the system if your manufacturer has already made the necessary add-on to the system (relevant for Xiaomi devices). Instructions:

If you do not have a specialized add-on for cleaning your smartphone from various debris, then as an analogue you can download a cleaner application from the Play Market. The instructions will be discussed using the example of the mobile version of CCleaner:

Unfortunately, not all applications for cleaning junk files on Android can boast of being highly effective, since most of them only pretend to delete something.

Method 4: Factory reset

It is used extremely rarely and only in emergency situations, as it entails the complete removal of all user data on the device (only standard applications remain). If you decide to use this method, it is recommended to transfer all the necessary data to another device or to the cloud.

Freeing up some space on your phone's internal storage isn't that hard. As a last resort, you can use either SD cards or cloud services.