How to delete unnecessary files from your mobile
Let's start with the procedure for delete unnecessary files from your mobile, that is, from the procedure by which to go to delete the single files that are no longer needed. I assure you that it is much simpler than you imagine.
Android
If you use a smartphone Android, you can delete the individual files you have on the device memory (or on the SD installed in it) via a common File Manager: there should already be one integrated into the operating system of your phone, but I recommend Google Files which is free, produced directly by Google and full of interesting features aimed at deleting useless files.
To delete files from your phone with Google Files, install the app in question start it, grant it all the permissions necessary for its operation and proceed as follows .
- If you want to delete a specific file (e.g. a file you downloaded from the Internet), select the tab Shop by Department located at the bottom and choose whether to browse the contents on the smartphone based on the type (Download, Images, Video and so on) or to the folders in which they are hosted by selecting the phone memory or the SD from the menu Storage devices (at the bottom of the screen). Then select the files to delete (by long tap on the first and touching the others), press the icon basket that appears at the top right and come on confirmation.
- If you want to delete the heaviest files on your smartphone, go to the card Clear, scroll down, tap the button Select and release relative to the box Large files, select the files to delete and press on Delete (twice in a row) to complete the procedure.
In the tab Clear There are also other useful functions of the app, such as those to locate and delete unused apps, the downloaded files and multimedia content. I'm sure you will find it an excellent ally to free up space on your device.
iPhone
- iPhone have a File Manager integrated, simply called File, which however does not offer many features. That said, know that you can use it to quickly delete the data downloaded to your "iPhone by" or those saved in some apps.
To do this, start the app Fillet using its icon (the blue folder) on the Home screen, tap on the tab Shop by Department (below) until you are shown the menu with all the positions that can be managed and press on the item iPhone (in order to view only the files actually hosted on the device memory) or on that iCloud Drive (to view the files you have on iCloud Drive, as part of these will surely be downloaded to the device memory as well).
Find, therefore, the file to delete (you can view its size under the icon), perform a prolonged tap on the same, select the item Delete from the menu that pops up and give confirmation. To select multiple files in series, press the item instead Select (top right), tick the items to remove and press the icon of basket (below) and on the voice. Beware of that by deleting the files from the iCloud Drive folder, you will delete them from your online space and therefore from all devices connected to it. The same goes for the files in the folders of other cloud storage services (eg Dropbox).
Unfortunately, the Files app does not include a tool to view the heaviest files on the iPhone, nor does it give access to the folders of all the apps: this is because Apple's mobile systems make applications work in separate "seboxes", so each app has some sort of internal memory in which it keeps its files.
To find out which apps may contain the heaviest files, therefore, you need to turn to the menu Settings> General> iPhone Space, which shows the list of apps that take up the most memory. By selecting some of these apps, you may also be able to see the weight of the files saved in them and delete them; otherwise you will have to go "by intuition", open the apps that take up the most space one by one and delete the files they host, if you don't think they are more useful.
Photo and video
Photo and video they are among the contents that generally take up the most space on a smartphone, so it might be convenient for you to know how to delete them.
That you have the app Google Photos (agolable for Android and iPhone), the app the Gallery Android default or the app Gallery of iOS, the steps you need to take are roughly the same. Then open the app in which you keep photos and videos and activate the multiple select content: you can do this by performing a long tap on the first element to be selected and then ticking the others or by pressing the button Select and then ticking all the contents to be selected.
Once this is done, click on the icon basket or on the button Delete / Deletefrom confirmation And that's it. The deleted photos and videos will almost certainly end up in a sort of "trash can", where they will be kept for 30 days or more before being actually removed from the smartphone memory: to delete them immediately, go to the Recycle Bin / Recently Deleted of the app you use to manage photos and videos, select the contents to be permanently deleted and press the button for delete them.
Please note: if you haven't yet, I highly recommend using a cloud photo and video backup service, such as Google Photos or iCloud Photos. By doing this you can always have your content within reach of your smartphone but without taking up too much space on the device memory.
If you have space problems on your mobile, WhatsApp could be one of the main culprits of this, or rather, it could be the superfluous videos and voices that you surely still have saved in memory.
To remedy, regardless of the operating system you use on your phone, open the famous messaging app and go to its settings (on Android via the ⋮ button located at the top right; on iPhone via the homonymous tab located at the bottom right), then move to Data usage and storage> Storage usage.
You will then be shown the heaviest chats you have on your phone: select them one by one and delete their attachments. To do this, press on the item Free up space / Manage, check the boxes relating to the contents to be removed (eg. Video, audio messages and photo, which are, in that order, among the heaviest content ever), tap the button Delete items and by confirmation.
This will bulk delete all selected videos, voices, photos and / or other items from related chats. If you want more granular control and only delete certain content from your conversations, go to the tab Chat of WhatsApp, select one conversazione, do tap on name of the same (above) and go up Media, link and documenti.
At this point, select the tab Media and you will be shown all the multimedia attachments present in the selected chat. Then do a prolonged tap on miniature of the first content to be deleted (or press the item Select, if you have an iPhone), touch the other contents to remove and press in succession on the icon of basket on your pulse Delete for me but I will complete the procedure.
How to delete temporary files from mobile
Now we deal with the temporary files (the so - called cache) that apps keep to speed up their operation and load faster data that may be needed often. These data, in general, are quite "light", but added together they can take up a lot of space on the smartphone memory.
Android
Android allows you to clear the cache of apps in a very simple way. Just open the app Settings (the gear icon located on the Home screen or in the app drawer), go to App / Applications (Or App > App) and select the various apps agolable.
Once you have selected an application, go to Memory I awarded Clear cache (above this button you should find indicated the total space occupied by the temporary files of the chosen app). Be careful not to press Clear data or you will delete all the data in the application, restoring it to the factory state.
Other temporary data that tend to take up a lot of space are those relating to Internet browsing: to get rid of it, you must start the browser you usually use to surf the Net and act on its settings.
For example, if you use Chrome, you have to press the ⋮ button located at the top right, go up Settings> Privacy> Clear browsing data, tick the options of your interest between Cached images and files (recommended) Navigazione timeline and Cookie and dati dei siti and premere on pulsating Clear data. For more information, I leave you to my guide on how to clear history on Android.
If you are looking for an all-in-one solution that allows you to delete all Android temporary files in one go, try SD Maid: one of the very few "cleaning" apps that can be trusted (always if used sparingly and carefully). It is free, but only in its basic version: to take full advantage of it and get the cache cleaning of third-party apps, you need to purchase a special license for just under 4 euros.
It also allows you to find large files, optimize app databases such as Spotify, and much more. To use it for cleaning temporary files, start it, grant it all the necessary permissions, press the button Scan, wait for the scan to finish and press in sequence on Run now and Run.
iPhone
iPhone does not allow for clearing cache files for each individual app like Android does. However, it tends to manage the issue quite intelligently by automatically removing temporary data when needed (this should allow you to have no errors related to the space full due to this data). In addition, there are some apps that have a stealone option to clear the cache: some have a special button in their settings, others allow you to reset the cache on next boot using a special lever that can be found by selecting them in the menu Settings of iOS.
Those on which you can always go to act, however, are the navigation data: to delete them in Safari, apri l'app Settings iPhone (the gear icon located on the Home screen), go to Safari> Advanced> Website Data and tap on the items Remove all website data and Remove now. Alternatively, to only clear data related to certain sites, do one swipe from right to left on the sites whose data you want to delete and tap on the item Delete that appears on the right.
Still in the Safari settings menu, you may find it useful to turn off the option for save the contents of the reading list offline, which over time, can take up a lot of space on the smartphone memory
always stay away from apps that promise to free up space, optimize iPhone, free up RAM etc. In most cases, they only do damage!
How to permanently delete files from mobile
Would you like to delete a file from your smartphone safely, making it unrecoverable as you often do on your PC, and therefore are you looking for some app suitable for the purpose?
In reality, due to the nature of the memories used in smartphones, this operation is not necessary e, indeed, it can be even harmful. Considering, then, that some versions of Android and iPhones support encryption of the entire disk (which on iPhones is always active by default, while on Android it can be activated in the cryptography and credentials), I advise you not to download any secure data erasing apps.
The only thing I recommend you do is delete the files you no longer need, use a good code or, better yet, an unlock password and use the phone as usual: you will see that no deleted files will be recoverable by any snoopers.
And if you have to sell the device, remember to format it properly
