Clearing downloads on android

How to clear Android internal storage from the files you don’t need anymore

Written by: Ilia

Data recovery specialist, guest author, journalist.

There are two cases indicating that your phone lacks internal storage:

1. Apps performance isn’t good enough and Android OS operation is slowed down;
2. The phone displays a message saying that actions need to be taken in order to free up your storage space.

Phone internal memory has fixed storage volume and increasing it seems to be impossible. However, in this guide we’re going to tell you how to clear storage on your phone from the files and apps you don’t need anymore.

By freeing up space on Android memory, you’ll save time and your phone / tablet performance drawbacks won’t be bothering you anymore as well. The whole “cleaning” process will take just 20 minutes of your time if not less.

Error: not enough memory on your mobile device

Usually Android displays this message if a process or an application lack free space on your phone internal storage space.

Lack of free memory can expose itself by constantly freezing up during device performance. You probably won’t notice it right after purchasing a new phone, but over time with dozens of mobile apps being installed onto it and after accumulating a lot of “trash”, these freeze ups will become quite evident.

A following question arises: do the given technical characteristics of any phone «lie»? If not, then why do other owners of the same smartphone / tablet have no problems concerning this case?

Figuring out how much free storage space is left on your Android

When you receive a notification claiming that internal storage is insufficient, a following question arises: how much free storage space do you have and which part of it is occupied?

You can check the amount of free storage space via your mobile phone settings. In order to do this, open Settings – Device Maintenance – Storage – Storage settings – Device memory. Carefully study the data and pay attention to the following figures:

• Total space shows the amount of Android internal storage space
• System memory shows the minimum amount of space needed for system to properly operate
• Available space indicates how much space is left from the whole internal storage space.

Accordingly, if there isn’t enough built-in memory, you have to make the amount of free storage space equal to the volume of System memory, so that the system won’t show you the corresponding error.

In the following chapters, we’re going to tell you

how to clear space on Android phone.

How to clear phone memory: tips & tricks

You can delete what you don’t need anymore via operating system built-in tools and through third-party apps. They analyze the occupied space and help to identify files which can be safely deleted.

Remove barely used apps from Android system memory

We’re pretty sure that there are some apps installed on your phone which are barely used. Their size can be up to hundreds of megabytes (including cache).

You can uninstall useless apps via a standard App Manager (Settings – Apps) and free up space on Android phone by the following way.

On Android 8, it’s pretty convenient to use a free utility Files Go in order to detect not needed anymore apps. It’s available for download on other OS versions through Google Play.

How to uninstall not used apps via Files Go:

1. Go to Unused apps section,
2. Sort your apps by modification date or their size,
3. Mark not needed programs and click Uninstall in order to delete them.

Transferring files onto a memory card

Phone internal storage, as it has already been mentioned, has fixed volume, so you have to constantly check whether there is enough free storage space for the correct apps and OS operation.

Generally, Android memory can be divided into two parts: internal and external. External memory can be easily increased, fortunately nowadays sd cards aren’t inexpensive at all (for $25 you can buy a memory card with the capacity of 256 GB).

We recommend you to transfer onto a memory card photos, videos, documents and other large files which you don’t have to necessarily store on internal memory. Moreover, it’s safer to store them on a memory card.

Actually, you can transfer files via any filemanager both through your phone or PC.

Transferring not used apps from internal to external memory card

You can transfer apps via Android application manager. The most convenient part of it is that you free up internal storage space without uninstalling barely used apps.

By transferring apps, you’ll save a couple of hundred megabytes of free space. Since the cache is also transferred alongside the app, the amount of space you save is significant.

Basically, with the introduction of Android Marshmallow version everything has become much easier. You simply have to format the memory card as internal storage via the settings. There is no need to do anything else, as Android OS will figure out which apps to store on the memory card on its own.

Advice. Install FolderMount application

FolderMount program expands the volume of your phone internal memory. It works also on Android 4.2.1 and above, while its counterparts don’t support a multiuser mode. Root is required for this app work.

Deleting app cache

In some cases app cache takes up an unbelievable amount of free space on your phone memory.

How to delete cache from internal storage:

1. You can find out how much one or another app consumes via Settings – Apps section.
2. In the list of installed apps click on the one that bothers you.
3. See how much of the space is occupied via Storage section.
4. To clear the cache, click on Clear Cache button.

Delete unwanted files via Piriform CCleaner

CCleaner will free up storage space on your phone and at the same time clear space on Android from temporary files and app cache, find large files and tell you how to optimize your device internal storage. The program is free and you can download it here. It’s very easy to use the above mentioned Files Go app as a counterpart to CCleaner.

How to increase internal storage of Android phone by deleting unnecessary files

Any file manager is suitable for manual clearing of your phone storage. To free up memory on Android, we recommend ES Explorer or Total Commander.

Be careful and delete from Android internal memory only unnecessary user files which you’ve created / copied yourself.

So, go to any file manager, open the root of internal memory and start searching for files and deleting the ones which are not used anymore.

The files that should be deleted (or transferred to a memory card) first of all:

1. Photos, videos, recordings and other documents stored on internal memory instead of a sd;
2. Documents received by email or via social networks (most often they are saved into Download folder);
3. E-books and other files stored by third-party apps in your device memory;
4. The contents of DCIM, bluetooth and sounds folders.

Using Storage Analyzers

In order for you to easily get how to do it, we recommend using Files Go app or any other storage analyzer for Android, which will show you in the form of a diagram the files occupying the most space as well as their location. Among those apps we’ll highlight:

Transferring photos and videos to Google Photos

Photos and videos in particular “eat” the most space on your phone. If your phone doesn’t support a memory card, transfer to the cloud the files you don’t need to have on you phone all the time. Photos or Google Photos apps suit these purposes the most. They automatically upload photos to the service, where they are available in their original quality via a browser or an app.

Apart from Google Photos, you can turn your attention to such alternative apps as Dropbox, Flickr or Microsoft OneDrive.

Even when the photos are only available on the server, you can easily get access to them if you have Internet connection. And most importantly, it’s actually a very convenient and fast way to free up memory on Android phone!

Memory clearing: Q&A

1. My phone lacked internal memory, I transferred half of the photos to a sd card, but after it has been done I opened them and they were all blurry. I tried to transfer them back to Android internal memory, but nothing has changed. How do I return the original photos, i.e. without any corruption?

2. I was in need to free up internal storage space on my phone, so I decided to clear it. I transferred a part of data (photos, music) to a memory card. Now the files can’t be read, even though the phone recognizes the card. How can I bring back the photos at least?

3. My phone is Samsung A5. I had no clue how to increase internal memory, so I transferred via my laptop folders with music and some files from the internal memory to a sd card. After that, when trying to open the folders, I found all of them empty. Neither my phone nor my computer can see the files and music. The amount of phone free internal memory didn’t seem to lessen after that. How can I find the files?

The answer. Probably, you’ve copied onto the memory card thumbnails instead of their originals. The original photos may have remained on phone internal memory. If it’s not the case, DiskDigger program will help you to cope with it.

If there isn’t enough space on your device memory, you should copy some files onto your computer (by creating a backup copy) and only after it’s done transfer the files to a memory card. You might find useful reading the guide on

how to clear internal storage on Android (see the text above).

My phone is Sony Xperia, when I open Play Market in order to download any program, it says «not enough space on your device memory» and «

phone storage is full», even though the sd card I have is with the capacity of 16GB! What should I do to clear phone storage?

The answer. Most likely, the error «not enough memory» arises due to the fact that there isn’t enough internal memory, as this is where the installation files are downloaded from Google Play.

1. We advise you to transfer the largest files from Android internal memory to a sd card.
2. Uninstall barely used apps via file manager or Files Go.
3. Use CCleaner utility to clean your phone memory from unused files.

I was cleaning my phone memory and deleted a lot of files. And now I can’t have a look at the Gallery through Android, as it shows: «Insufficient storage available». How do I fix it?

The answer. Likely, while cleaning you’ve deleted the folder with photos on your memory card (SDCARD/DCIM/CAMERA). You can recover files from there via CardRecovery or PhotoRec.

Android 7. The file system consists of apps and cache. It’s used as a mean to increase the capacity of memory. All downloads are saved in the internal memory. How can I transfer them to a card?

Please, go through the manual on how to save downloaded files on a memory card automatically. In order to do this, you have to change the settings of the browser you’re using and make changes in the Android OS settings.

The phone was lacking internal memory so I transferred half of the photos onto an SD card, then I opened them and saw that they all were blurred.

You might have copied thumbnails instead of the originals onto your memory card. The original photos may still be in the phone internal memory. If they aren’t there, the DiskDigger utility will help you.

There wasn’t enough internal memory on the phone, so I wanted to clear it. I transferred data (photos and music) to a memory card. Now the files are unreadable, although the phone sees the card. How can I return at least the photos?

If there is a lack of space in your device memory, copy the files onto a computer (create a backup copy) and only after this step you can move them to a memory card. We highly recommend reading the manual on how to free internal memory on Android (see the text above).

I have a Sony Xperia, when I open the Play Market willing to download an app, the system notifies that there isn’t enough memory on Android, although a 16 GB flash drive is inserted!

Most likely, the error «not enough memory» on Android is occurring due to the fact that there isn’t enough internal memory and this is the place where installation files from Google Play are downloaded.

1. You should transfer the largest files from your Android internal memory to your SD card.
2. Or delete unnecessary apps via File Manager or Files Go.
3. You can also use the CCleaner utility in order to clear unnecessary files from your phone memory.

When I was cleaning my phone memory, I deleted a lot of folders. And now I can’t open the Gallery via Android as the OS states that «The storage is not available». How can I get the files back?

It’s likely that you have deleted the folder with photos from your memory card (SDCARD/DCIM/CAMERA). You can recover the files from there using the CardRecovery or PhotoRec programs.

I can’t install any app from the Play Market. The Android OS reports that there is no space on the phone, although all the apps have been moved to an SD card and there is definitely enough space on it (9 GB).

You have run out of free space in your phone internal memory. Therefore you have to delete the files stored there. Use any File Manager for this purpose (for example, Total Commander or ES Explorer).

We also recommend deleting unneeded apps from your phone memory or, as another option transfer them to your SD card via the standard Android App Manager.

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10 Best Android Cleaner Apps To Clear RAM And Cache In 2021

Routine maintenance is not a necessity in Android, but it surely is a good idea to brush up your Android phone from time to time. That’s where Android cleaners come in. They can boost a device’s performance, enhance battery life, and get rid of junk files.

But do these Android cleaning apps really work? In some cases, they are helpful. For instance, cache files pile up over time and need to be cleared. Also, junk from ads and image thumbnails take up a lot of space.

Android cleaner apps do an excellent job of finding unnecessary files and helping you delete them. But using them for RAM cleaning is obsolete since newer versions of Android take good care of that.

If you are using a budget phone or an older phone whose performance has slowed down, take a look at this list of the best cleaner apps for Android in 2021.

10 Best Android Cleaner Apps 2021

• SD Maid
• Norton Clean
• CCleaner
• Files by Google
• Droid Optimizer
• Ace Cleaner
• AVG Cleaner
• Avast Cleanup & Boost
• All-In-One Toolbox: Cleaner, Booster, App Manager
• One Booster

1. SD Maid

SD Maid is probably the most underrated phone cleaner app. The app is known for in-depth cleaning of junk files on Android.

For that purpose, it offers a wide range of tools to manage extra files. Once done with the cache, you can take care of duplicate files, files left by previously installed apps, manage current apps and more. It is also a brilliant device storage analyzer, giving users a detailed overview of the device’s storage. These widgets help in speeding up the cleaning process.

You can also schedule the cleaning process using this clearer app for Android. However, the Scheduler and a few other features are only available to SD Maid Pro users. While the user interface is clean and structured, it might take some time to get the hang of it.

Play Store Rating – 4.4
Downloads – Over 10 million

Special Features of SD Maid

• Comes with a file explorer
• Optimize database
• In-depth file cleaning

Download SD Maid

2. Norton Clean

The Android phone cleaner app is developed by Norton, who is well-known in the security industry for its anti-virus tools. It is one of the best android cleaner apps without ads. You can trust the cleaner app for its efficiency as well as for safeguarding user privacy.

Norton says it has analyzed the junk file behavior of millions of apps and therefore removes junk files with accuracy. The cleaner for Android looks for residual files left behind by deleted apps, cache files, and more. It also allows users to remove pre-installed apps. On top of that, you will get recommendations to delete apps that you rarely use.

All in all, Norton is one of the best phone cleaning apps since removing residual junk files will ultimately give you a performance boost.

Play Store Rating – 4.6
Downloads – Over 5 million

Special Features of Norton Clean

• Option to clear cache of individual apps.
• Allow users to move apps to SD cards
• Helps in removing bloatware

Download Norton Clean

3. CCleaner

The phone cleaning app not only does wonders for Android but also for Windows 10 PCs and macOS. You can remove junk, clean your phone’s RAM, and reclaim more space using CCleaner. It’s one of the best free cleaners for Android.

It gives you the option to uninstall multiple applications at once. The Storage Analyzer feature gives you a better idea of how the space on your smartphone is being used.

Apart from the essential cleaning functions, CCleaner for Android also features a system monitoring tool. It lets you keep an eye on the CPU usage of different apps, the RAM being consumed by apps, and the device’s temperature levels.

While it’s a great cleaning app for Android, CCleaner has also been criticized for annoying users with intrusive ads and once collecting user’s data without their consent.

Play Store Rating – 4.7
Downloads – Over 50 million

Best features of CCleaner

• The new update manages system permissions in a better manner
• System analyzer provides extra benefits
• Options to check the individual impact of each app on storage
• Batch uninstallation of apps

4. Files By Google

Files by Google is an easy-to-use trusted phone cleaner app for Android users. While cleaning junk files, the app recommends users to delete old memes, photos, unused apps, and a lot more.

The best part about File by Google is that it’s primarily a file manager and offers a fast offline file-transfer service, making it the perfect all-rounder. On top of that, there are no ads. In other words, it’s the best android cleaner app without ads.

It has a friendly interface that helps users manage their files and folders. But going back to cleaning, the app sends useful suggestions for files to erase before users run out of space. However, you might feel the lack of certain cleaning features compared to the other best Android cleaner apps mentioned here.

Play Store Rating – 4.6
Downloads – Over 500 million

Special Features of Files By Google

• Smart recommendations for cleaning files
• Also, a file manager that offers a fast offline file-transfer service
• Helps you find files faster with smart filters

Download Files By Google

5. Droid Optimizer

Droid Optimizer is one of the oldest and most lightweight cleaner apps for Android. While the UI may look a little old, it does a brilliant Android cleaning job on most smartphones. The app also features a dark theme, if you’d prefer that way.

The Android app has a dashboard on the front detailing the RAM as well as the free space left. While cleaning your Android, you can terminate the background process with one tap. You can also set up the app on auto clean up.

The best part about the app is that you can also look at apps that may have been given sensitive permissions. Also, the app is ad-free.

Overall, Droid Optimizer is one of the best cleaner apps for Android that you can use in 2021.

Play Store Rating – 4.4
Downloads – Over 1 million

Special Features of Droid Optimizer

• Check which Android apps have critical permissions
• One tap cleanup

Download Droid Optimizer

6. Ace Cleaner

A simple but effective Android cleaner app, Ace Cleaner can give you a new experience in phone optimization. With its highlighting features like Ace Clean, Ace Boost, Quiet Notification, Battery Saver, and CPU Cooler, the Ace Cleaner can boost and maximize your phone’s performance.

It has a fantastic duplicate photo cleaner that can find similar photos in your storage and gives you the option to delete them, to retain your favorites and clean up space. With multiple features and an intuitive UI, it’s easily the best android cleaner of 2021.

Play Store Rating – 4.6
Downloads – Over 10 million

Special Features of Ace Cleaner

• Ace Boost to stop apps that automatically start
• Integrated DND mode for muting notifications
• A specialized cleaning tool for Facebook
• Integrated app lock

Download Ace Cleaner

7. AVG Cleaner

AVG Cleaner is another one of the best Android cleaner apps you can try. Apart from cleaning junk, it also acts as a file manager, a memory booster and an intelligent photo analyzer that removes bad quality or duplicate photos.

The cleaner app analyses the apps that are putting a toll on the battery and asks you to either stop them or remove them, depending upon your usage. Within the app, you can easily kill background apps, thus improving the device’s performance. Aside from that, the cleaner app also has battery saver options.

The best part is the app analytics which gives you a brief on how the app is draining battery and your usage analytics. Ads can be a little annoying, however overall it’s a great phone cleaner app.

Play Store Rating – 4.6
Downloads – Over 50 million

Special Features of AVG Cleaner

• Automatic cleaning settings
• File manager with storage analyzer
• Option to hibernate apps

Download AVG Cleaner

8. Avast Cleanup & Boost

Avast is another one of the top brass antivirus providers that also has a cleaner app for Android users. In terms of features, the app is pretty similar to AVG cleaner as it has a photo analyser, and an option to hibernate apps.

That being said, there are a few unique things about the app such as the integration of cloud storage and safe cleaning. You can also optimize the size of the images under the photo optimizer, however this feature is only available to paid users. If you are serious about getting rid of junk files, then Avast is the best cleaner app for Android in 2021.

Play Store Rating – 4.7
Downloads – Over 50 million

Special Features of Avast Cleanup

• Photo optimizer
• Battery profiles
• Cleaning adviser

Download Avast Cleanup

9. All-In-One Toolbox: Cleaner, Booster, App Manager

All-In-One Toolbox, as the name suggests, is a multi-purpose Android cleaner app that is capable of handling a lot more than just clearing up junk files. The app has more than 30 tools to increase the productivity of your smartphone. It has a system app uninstaller that works even without root. Boot Speedup is a feature that lets you choose which apps (including system apps) should start when you restart your phone.

The app manager comes with options for batch uninstalling or installing apps and moving apps from phone memory to removable storage. All-In-One Toolbox aims to bring you a faster, cleaner interface and is easily the best free cleaner for Android.

Play Store Rating – 4.5
Downloads – Over 10 million

Special Features of All-In-One Toolbox

• Photo compressor to reduce the space occupied by high-resolution pictures
• Phone hardware info checker
• Feature to identify large files stored on your device
• Option to delete empty folders and app leftovers

Download All-In-One Toolbox

10. One Booster

One Booster can be used as a cleaner app as well as an antivirus app. This way, you won’t have to download a separate anti-virus app for Android.

However, the junk cleaner is still One Booster’s main USP. You can remove junk files and cache with ease due to its intuitive user-interface. Other than that, there is also a CPU cooler which essentially clears RAM on your Android smartphone. There is also a battery saver which you can use to hibernate apps. However, get ready to watch full screen ads if you are about to use One Booster.

Overall, One Booster is one of the best Android phone cleaner apps for Android.

Play Store Rating – 4.7
Downloads – Over 100 million

Special Features of One Booster

• Includes anti-virus as well
• Fast to clear junk files

Download Cleaner for Android

Frequently Asked Questions

You can clear cache in Android by using an Android cleaner app. You can also do it manually by going into the Android storage settings or clearing the cache of a particular app under the app management settings.

The best way to speed up your Android device is to delete cache and junk files. Again, you can do it manually or with the help of an Android cleaner.

There is nothing an Android cleaner does that you can’t do manually. That being said, it does make the process easier.

We believe FilesGo is one of the best cache cleaners since it doesn’t have in-app ads and offers an easy-to-use interface. On top of that, it comes installed on certain devices so one doesn’t require a third party app to remove junk.

There are multiple ways to clear the RAM on an Android device —
– Killing background processes from the recent app menu
– “Force stop” apps in Android settings.
– Disabling animations and setting background process limits in Developer settings.

Use the File Manager app to see which unwanted files are taking up space on your Android device. Delete them manually or use any Android cleaner app.

Clearing the cache removes temporary files that are used to load things faster. However, on the bright side, it clears up the storage as well.

Did you find this list of Android cleaner apps for 2021 to be helpful? Share your reviews in the comments section below.

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