Is your phone’s memory always full, even though you keep deleting files? I had the same problem once, I kept on emptying the trash on my Android device to no avail. My phone slowed down and it was annoying to see my phone lag every time I use it.
Here’s the thing. Optimizing your device is essential for anyone trying to improve the speed of the phone, to do this you’ll need to delete unnecessary files and apps, clearing the cache of apps you don’t use can also help improve performance. Even though there’s no actual “recycle bin” on Android, there are a couple of tips and tricks that you can follow to empty your “trash” files.
I found out that there’s an observable difference in performance when I optimized my phone. I listed down methods that worked for me. See how I did it with my phone below!
There isn’t a Recycle Bin on Android?
While there is one on PCs, the developers of Android decided not to include it. The main reason for this is the limited storage space that a smartphone has. There isn’t really a need to keep files to delete separately. However, some apps that are synced to your phone’s data – like Google Photos – have their own system for managing recently deleted files.
Improve performance by emptying trash on Android
Your Android device holds on to unnecessary files that you can delete to clear up some memory. Here’s how you can free up some space by learning how to empty trash on Android.
Step 1: Clearing your cached data
First, what is cached data? It’s an intermediary data saved by your device to optimize your experience. While it does make your usage faster, it takes up memory on your phone that you can use for other purposes. So, if you need to delete your cached data to free up some space, here’s how to do it.
To delete all of your cached data, access the “Storage” tab in your settings and press “Cached data.” You’ll be given an option to delete all of your cached data.
- Go to Settings,
- Tap Apps,
- Select the app
- Press the Clear Cache button.
You can repeat this process on apps that use up a lot of data if you need to. (e.g. social media apps, etc)
Step 2: Deleting downloaded files
Majority of us download files and forget about it. Even if you don’t use them, they still take up some of your internal memory. To clear up your storage, you need to delete them. Just go to your Downloads folder and select the files you don’t need anymore. You’d be surprised by the amount of storage you can clear up.
Step 3: Uninstalling unused apps
We all have apps on our phones that we don’t use anymore. Ask yourself if you need them? If you need to clear out some memory, uninstall the unnecessary apps that fill-up your storage.
- To uninstall unused apps, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings
- Tap Apps.
- Select the app you want to remove
- Tap the “Uninstall” button
You can repeat this process for all the apps that you don’t need.
Third-party apps
There are plenty of apps that you can use to optimize your device, but if you want to empty trash on Android, then I recommend the simplest ones. All you need is an app that can organize and arrange all of your data.
Also, as a countermeasure, I decided to include this app so you can recover any deleted files that you unintentionally delete.
Many apps can help you manage your phone’s storage and access deleted files, but for this article, I’ll recommend the Recycle Bin App. After you install it, you’ll be able to access the connected SD card or the internal memory through the app.
Additionally, you’ll be able to see all the recently deleted files. You can recover the data you’ve deleted, or you can remove their temp files to free up more space.