The longer you have your smartphone or tablet, the more you
discover what you can do with it. Unfortunately, the more you do with them, the
more digital clutter they tend to collect. Not only does this result in simple
tasks such as locating pictures turning into long and tiresome undertakings but
it also bogs down your device, making it run slower. These tips will help to
minimize the clutter that has collected over the ages on your smartphone or
tablet so that it can be used to its full potential.
1. Transfer photos from your device to the cloud
Pictures are among of the greatest offenders when it comes to phone
clutter. Now that so many people have high-end cameras right in their pockets,
they naturally tend to take quite a few photos. So, as your first order of
business, go through all of your photos. Sort them into albums, decide which
ones are worth keeping, which ones are worth backing up, and which ones you
don't care to see ever again. After you've done some weeding out, download a
backup program such as Google Photos, which allows you to save any pictures
you'd like to hold on to in the cloud rather than on your phone. Once you've
finished backing up all of your pictures, the program offers the ability to
clear up space by deleting photos from your device and saving them to the cloud
where you can still access them at any time.
2. Find out which apps you use -- uninstall the rest
The next order of business is going to be getting rid of any unnecessary
apps. The most natural and obvious place to start is just looking through your
apps folder and uninstalling anything you don't feel the need to keep. However,
a lot of people tend to leave apps alone that they haven't used in ages due to
the "well, I'm sure I'll use it again eventually" mindset. That is
why there's another process you can use for more efficient screening. First,
clear your home screen of any and all app shortcuts. From then on, any time you
want to use a specific app, find it in your apps folder and drag it back to the
home screen. After a couple of days or so, the apps that you use regularly will
be on your home screen and the ones left collecting dust in the apps folder can
be uninstalled. Remember, uninstalling the app doesn't mean you can never use
it again. If you find yourself in need, just locate it again in the app store.
3. Clear your device's cache
Another thing you can do to make sure you're freeing up as much space as
possible is clearing your device's cache. This one is a bit more subtle and
often overlooked if you're not entirely tech savvy. "Cache" refers to
the data that your device saves from different websites or applications to
access them more efficiently when you reopen them. That can be a good thing, but
sometimes data gets saved from sites or apps that you may never plan on
revisiting. In this case, the cache data being stored is simply wasted space.
The process of clearing your cache is going to vary between devices, but it
shouldn't be difficult to find. Try navigating to your device's settings and
locate the "storage" section. Here, you're shown how much storage
space is taken up and what exactly is occupying it. Sometimes there will be a
convenient "clear cache" button right on the front of this page!
Sometimes you'll have to click on each app in the section and clear their
caches individually. Either way, it's a short and straightforward process that
has the potential of freeing up a substantial amount of storage space.
Additionally, while you're in the storage section of your device, it's
good to take a close look at what is taking up the most space. This part can
show you if you have anything particularly cumbersome installed that you could
do without such as game data or photos. Take full advantage of cloud storage
services such as Google Drive to keep your documents, photos, etc. saved online
rather than on your device.
With these handy tips, hopefully you'll be navigating your smartphone or
tablet faster than ever before! No more scouring through hundreds of pictures
to find the screenshot you took last week or holding on to data from a game
that you haven't touched in a month. Make sure to keep this list handy so that
you can revisit it. Performing these steps on a regular basis will prevent your
devices from becoming bogged down again in the future.
Need more help with your technology? Visit our website or call 877.860.5831 x190
Robert Blake
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