Google Photos on Android with new "free up device storage" option
Media, photos and videos, can take up huge amounts of storage space on mobile devices thanks to high-definition cameras being built in to modern smartphones.
Storage space on the other hand, especially when it comes to low-end and mid-end smartphones, has not caught up with these improvements yet, and if you run a phone with 8GB or 16GB of storage, you may notice quickly that it is not sufficient to hold a large number of photos or videos due to the size of the data.
Since media is not the only type of data that is taking up space, you also have applications and music for instance, you may run out of disk space more often than not depending on use.
This matter is even more pressing if the device does not ship with extra storage options. Your options in this case are to manually export media files regularly, for instance to a laptop, or to use cloud storage to do so.
Then you need to delete these backed up files to free up device storage to make room for new media.
Google Photos is a popular choice for Android devices, not only because it is included by default on many Android devices, but also because it is offering unlimited cloud storage space if you sacrifice a bit of quality for it.
Anyway, the company added options to free up space on Android using the application in mid-2015, and has recently improved those options further.
If you check the settings of the Google Photos application, you find a new option there that allows you to free up device storage directly by deleting all backed up photos on the device.
You don't lose access to these photos and videos because they are still available online linked to your Google account.
Free up the storage
To free up storage on your Android device by deleting photos and videos on it that are already backed up, do the following:
- Open the Google Photos application on your device.
- Tap on menu, and select Settings
- Tap on "free up device storage".
- A prompt is displayed after some scanning that reveals how much storage space you will recover when you proceed.
- Select delete, and then delete again.
This removes the photos and videos from the device. Note that some may still be cached by the Photos application afterwards, but that the majority won't show up anymore in the app.
Users may also receive an Assistant card if they have selected to back up photos in high quality (reduced quality) when the storage space of their device runs low. This was previously only the case when original quality was selected.
The Google Photos web application offers another welcome change, as it provides you with options now to convert all original photos stored by the service to high quality.
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?