by Alex Perez
Spring cleaning is a time-honored tradition where you sent aside some time to clean, tidy, and declutter your home. This is viewed as more than the standard cleaning of the home and is meant for a more in-depth cleanse where you also get rid of a bunch of stuff that maybe you haven’t used in a while or no longer need. This means cleaning areas you don’t usually clean and tidying up storage areas and the like. There are some disputes on when and where this started, but the practice of spring cleaning has been around for a long time.
When going about spring cleaning, it can be overwhelming to clean everywhere, and one place that is often overlooked, happens to be a place you may not even consider: Your phone or tablet. Mobile devices have become so commonplace and are a vital part to many people’s everyday routine, but it is easy to forget that the storage space on these devices is limited. Modern smartphones and tablets no longer include expandable, ability to add an SD card for extra storage space, so what space you have, is really all you have. The solution to this issue is the inclusion of cloud storage.
iCloud, Samsung Cloud, and Google Drive are some common solutions for smartphone users to offload some of their files to make room on the device itself for updates and other important information. However, even these cloud storage solutions have their limits, so it is best to ensure you are not overloading the cloud storage and the storage on your device with too much. Freeing up space can help improve the functionality of your device and make it easier to find the files you need. Whether it is a photo you took a few years ago, or a video from a recent trip, having less on your phone makes it easier to access the photos, videos, and documents you have saved.
If you want to clean out your phone storage, the first step would be, to go through all your files, and delete anything you no longer want or need. For example, you could start by going through all your photos and videos and just deleting the ones you don’t want. This can include all those different shots that your friend took that were either blurry or had people’s eyes closed, or videos that were supposed to be pictures, but you didn’t realize you had been recording the whole time. These should be easy to delete and will help clean out a good amount of space right off the bat. After you have done this with photos, videos, music, documents, and apps (again, things you know for sure you don’t want or need), now is the time to go through and figure out what is left that you didn’t want to outright delete but may also not need to have saved to your phone in order to save space.
This part may be more challenging but is necessary. So, let’s say you went on a big family trip a few years ago and have all the photos and videos from that trip still saved to your device. These would be great to have backed up to your iCloud, Samsung Cloud, or Google Photos/Drive instead of on your device. Doing this, will ensure you still have those to look back on, but they aren’t taking space up on your device’s storage, because let’s be real, how often do you go back and use or look at these photos on a daily basis? Did you go to a concert a year ago and record some videos of the performance? Have you also forgotten that did this and haven’t watched those videos since you filmed them? These might be files that could be backed up just in case, but don’t need to be on your phone.
The next thing to do would be to go through apps. There is an app for almost everything, and I personally feel like I am always downloading a new app to use it once or twice and then forget about it. For example, my wife and I bought a new board game, and it seemed really complicated but we saw that there was an app that you could download that could help explain the rules and it also had an interactive tutorial for the game. So, I downloaded it, we tried out, and now we know how to play the game. Have I deleted that app yet? No. Do I think I am going to use that app again any time soon? Also no. Thus, deleting that app should be a no-brainer. However, there are some apps that you may have that you are not sure you want to delete. If you haven’t used in a while and don’t think you plan to use it any time soon, a good rule of thumb would be to uninstall it. You could always re-install it if needed. However, if you are unsure how long it has been since you have used an app, there is a way to clear out apps that have gone unused.
For iPhones check this guide out on how to set up your phone to deleted unused apps automatically. For Android follow this guide to help clear up space and removed unused apps. https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS10002029/
The last thing I would recommend is to ensure you have your cloud backup set up so that going forward, you know the files you have saved on your phone will also be saved in the cloud. For more information about backing up your device see the links below:
iPhone: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108366
Android: https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/9149304?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid
Samsung: https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS10002780/
If your cloud backup is messy and/or full, just repeat the steps outlined above for clearing up space. If you are unsure of using cloud storage or want to have an extra backup, physical backups are a good option too. You can always transfer files from your phone or tablet to a computer, flash drive, or external hard drive.
For iPhone, check out this guide here. For Android, check out this guide here.
And there you have it! If you’re ready for spring and want to do some spring cleaning, don’t forget your smart phone or tablet. Just follow these simple steps and you will be on your way to freeing up space for more of your adventures and memories!
