Free up space on Android by backing up and deleting media
Depending on which Android device you own, you may either have plenty of space at your disposal or not that much. While some devices support flash memory cards that you can use to increase the storage others don't ship with this option.
My Motorola Moto G phone for instance does not and since I made the decision to purchase the 8 GB model, runs out of storage space regularly.
When I look at the space distribution, apps, media such as video and images, and music, use most of the storage with apps and media sharing using both more than a Gigabyte of storage space.
In fact, pictures and videos use more space on the device than apps. Last time I checked, they used about 1.4 Gigabyte of storage while apps used 1.21 Gigabyte and audio files 571 Megabyte.
Here is how you look that up on your device:
- Tap on the all apps button on the device.
- Locate Settings here and tap on it.
- Find Storage under Device and tap on it.
It takes a couple of seconds to calculate the used storage but in the end you will see a distribution table just like the one on the screenshot above.
What may be even more interesting is the option to tap on any type to display a list of files or programs that use that storage.
If you select pictures, videos for instance, you get the option to display them in the default gallery app or another app installed for that purpose.
Backing up and deleting media
You have two core options to free up space on your Android device. If you do not need to backup the media before you delete it, skip the backing up step.
Most users likely want to back up media though before it gets deleted.
- Back it up manually - Connect your Android device to a computer, open a file browser and copy all media files from it to the PC. The advantage of this method is that you do not need third party software and can store the data directly on your computer. The disadvantage is that it is not automated.
- Use a cloud provider like Dropbox - This is an automated option. You can configure services like Dropbox or Google Drive to back up pictures and videos automatically. The disadvantage is that your data gets stored in the cloud on remote servers.
Deleting the pictures and videos
Once you have backed up the media -- or not -- you can delete it on the Android device. If you have used Dropbox for instance you can safely delete the media without affecting the backup. The reason is simple: since the files are backed up and not synchronized, they remain on Dropbox even if you delete the source files on the Android device.
There does not appear to be an option though to automate the process further by deleting photos and videos as soon as they have been uploaded to a file hosting service on the Internet.
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?