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Free up space on your phone
What you will be able to do In 7 minutes, you'll know how to spot what's filling up your phone, and free up space without losing a single memory.
"Storage almost full" is the message that always shows up at the wrong moment. Storage is the phone's memory: the more it fills up, the less room is left for a photo, an update, or a new app. Most of the time, it's photos and especially videos that weigh the most, followed by the apps' cache, a kind of temporary memory that grows on its own, and by apps you haven't opened in a long time. We're going to sort things out together, category by category, on a screen we designed ourselves. Nothing here is real: no photo, video, or app will really be deleted.
Simulated screen
I practice
This screen was drawn by us. Nothing is sent, nothing is installed, and no real brand is shown.
The situationYour phone shows "Storage almost full" right when you wanted to take a photo.
The interactive exercise needs JavaScript. The written step by step, just below, says exactly the same thing.
The written step by step
The same steps, in words, to read or print. This sheet works even without the exercise.
What's taking up all the space
Your turn Tap the category most likely to free up space for you.
You tap "Photos and videos", 9.2 GB, the biggest category. It's the one that offers the most space to recover, and it's the one we start sorting with.
Empty the trash
Your turn You don't want to recover any of these deleted photos. Tap whatever really frees up the space.
You tap "Empty now": the 214 items disappear for good, and the 1.1 GB they occupied is freed up at once.
The big videos
Your turn Tap the one that frees up space without losing anything that matters.
You delete the video filmed by accident, never watched again in two years: 1.4 GB freed up at once, without losing a single memory.
Duplicate photos
Your turn Tap the one you won't miss if you delete it.
You delete photo 2 of 3, slightly blurry: photo 1, sharp, keeps the memory intact, and space is freed up.
Clear a cache
Your turn You want space, not to give up this app. Tap the right move.
You tap "Clear cache": 1.8 GB is freed up at once, and the app keeps working exactly as before.
A forgotten app
Your turn Tap the one with the most reasons to go.
You uninstall the card game, never reopened in eight months: 2.3 GB freed up, and no one will miss it.
The sheet to keep
- Storage is looked at category by category: photos and videos almost always weigh the most.
- A deleted item stays counted in storage for up to 30 days, as long as the trash hasn't been emptied.
- Videos, even very short ones, often weigh more than a large number of photos.
- Among several nearly identical photos, you keep the sharpest one and delete the others.
- Clearing an app's cache frees up space without uninstalling it or losing its conversations.
- An app never opened in months is the first one to uninstall.
The reflexes in this skill
I make a copy of what matters
Photos, documents, contacts: anything that exists in only one place can disappear along with the device. A copy somewhere else turns a breakdown into a minor inconvenience.
I stop before I click
Urgency is the sign of a trap. A message that counts down the hours is trying to stop you from thinking. Putting your phone down for two minutes costs nothing, and it is almost always enough.
Two questions to check
Nothing is graded, and nothing is saved anywhere except in your own browser.
You've deleted several blurry photos, but storage still says almost full. Where do you look next?
See the answer
In the storage breakdown, category by category, to see what weighs the most
The storage breakdown shows exactly what's taking up space: photos, videos, apps, cache. It's what points to where to act first.
An app you use every day has a very heavy cache. What do you do?
See the answer
I clear its cache: it keeps working normally
The cache is a temporary memory that the app rebuilds on its own. Clearing it frees up space without touching either its conversations or its settings.
I've done it
Check this box once you can do this skill on your own.
Your progress stays in your own browser.