Is your smartphone low on space? Do you have so many apps that it is difficult to find the one you want, when you need it?
By decluttering your smart phone you will be able to optimise your phone’s storage and reduce time wasted trying to locate particular apps, contacts and files.
Below are a number of tips we have put together in order to ensure you will never waste time or valuable storage space again.
Find out what apps are taking up the most memory
In order to create more storage space on your phone, you should first find out what’s draining your memory.
On an iPhone, go to Settings > General > Usage. At the top of the screen, you’ll see your available storage, followed by a list of apps that are taking up the most space.
Android phones will have a similar usage menu, which can be found under “Settings” or in the “My Device” app.
Delete unused apps
Some apps can take up a substantial amount of storage. If you have apps on your phone that you hardly use, or have three apps which serve the same function, you should consider deleting them. Remember that you can always reinstall deleted apps later on, even those that you have paid for.
Delete self-created content
It doesn’t take long for your photo gallery to get out of hand. Spend some time going through your photos, deleting duplicate images or those that are no longer relevant. In order to ensure your gallery never becomes unmanageable, we recommend transferring your data to computer storage and doing a photo cull every 4-6 weeks. We suggest you go through your videos on a regular basis too- a lot of storage space can be taken up here.
Update your apps
There is nothing worse than having an app which automatically quits on you. Through updating your applications, the risk of glitches is reduced considerably. If you’re using an iPhone, updating your apps also removes the red bubble which pops up when you haven’t updated.
Organise your apps into folders
Utilising folders to store your apps is a great way to declutter your phone, especially if you group apps based on frequency of use or app similarity. If you are unsure of how to create a folder, follow the instructions below.
For iOS: Hold down the app you would like to move into a folder until it begins to jiggle from side to side. Then, still holding the app down, slide it on top of another app and drop it into the grey box that has appeared around it. Your phone will automatically name the folder based on the apps you have grouped together. However, if you would like to rename the folder, just open it and hold your finger over the title.
Titles can only be a total of 10 characters before they collapse, so try to create folder titles which are short and succinct.
For Android: If your Android phone is running on the 4.0 version of the operating system, you can create a folder by selecting and holding the home screen. When the new folder appears, drag and drop your apps into it. On the 4.4 OS, just slide an app icon over another and drop it in the folder.
Other storage saving actions
Clearing your browser history, deleting outdated contacts, old text messages and voice mails are also ways you can declutter your phone. While these actions will make only minor changes, they are still worth considering if you have limited storage space available.
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