"Other" file takes quite a big space in our android phone, in situation where your internal storage are running low, I believe you will think if you can figure out what and where the other file is, you will get very big free internal storage space.
For example below my other files is about 23 GB which hurts my internal storage space a lot.
What Is Other File On Android?
Other file is any files which cannot categorized into Apps & data, images, audio, video, system & downloaded content.
Other file on android system usually generated by messaging application like WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, etc. Which usually contain backup files.
All of your application cache and photo thumbnail also included into other file, that's why the other file usually getting bigger overtime.
Can We Delete Other Files for Free Space?
The answer is yes, we can get free storage after deleting other files. But, we must be careful when deleting other file to make sure you're not loosing important data.
Below is the safe way to delete other file and optimize your internal storage to get free space up to 20GB.
How to Delete Other File On Android?
Run Cleaner
Usually current android has preinstalled junk cleaner by the vendor, this apps very useful to clean unused cache.
For example on Xiaomi phone the cleaner apps is inside security menu. Just open security apps > tap cleaner, it will automatically scan and delete unused cache file. On other vendor if you don't find under security apps, you can try to find it out on file manager.
Delete Gallery Trash Bin
If you delete your photo from gallery, actually it is not directly deleted from your storage but it just moved to other location called trash bin. It will be automatically deleted in certain days, weeks or months depends on settings, which means consuming your storage.
If you're sure don't really need the photo in trash bin you can delete it to free up some storage.
For example in Xiaomi device you can open gallery > albums > trash bin > delete all.
Delete Apps Cache
Cache always generated by apps, the more you use the more cache will be generated. Apps which usually generate big cache is video streaming, music streaming, social media, also chatting.
To delete cache per apps you can go to settings > apps > choose apps for example YouTube > choose clear cache.
Uninstall Unused Apps
Android phone usually has pre-installed apps like Facebook, Netflix, google drive, google music, etc. If you never use it it is recommended to uninstall it.
If you have other apps or games you never use it is also recommended to delete it, besides give more storage it will also free your RAM.
Delete WhatsApp .msgstore
.msgstore is an automatic backup file generated by WhatsApp which contain text, picture, video, audio docs, etc. This .msgstore backup size is vary from 500MB to 2 GB or even more depending on how often you chat.
You can find .msgstore backup on folder android > media > com.whatsapp > WhatsApp > Databases.
There are two format of .msgstore
- Safe to delete: msgstore-yyyy-mm-dd.1.db.crypt14.
- Don't delete: msgstore.db.crypt14 because it's contain today chat backup.
Delete .protected_image Folder
Actually I don't really understand what this folder is, but it contains a lot copies of photos from gallery. I already try to delete this folder and it is safe, no photo from my gallery is missing, and I can free up quite much storage.
Although you delete this folder, it will regenerate and getting bigger overtime, you can delete regularly to get more internal storage space.
More Extra Free Internal Storage.
If you feel the free space is still too low, you can get more free internal storage probably below will help you.
Use SD Card.
Many android phones has SD Card slot, if yours has the slot it's not bad to buy SD card and use it to get additional storage, because as I know current android smartphone can handle SD Card storage until 512 MB even 1 TB which very promising for the long-term use.
Yes, currently we cannot move apps to SD card on Android (except you do rooting), but you can move your media files like photo, video or music which requires a lot of storage space.
Backup To Cloud.
If your android phone don't have SD Card slots or you don't want to use it, you can get more free internal space by backing up your photos & video to the cloud, for example google drive.
You can backup your photo & video to google drive automatically by following below steps:
- Download Google Photos from Play store.
- Login with your google account.
- Open Photos Settings.
- Turn On Backup & Sync.
- If Backup are complete, choose free up space.
Your photos & videos will be deleted from internal storage, but don't worry it's already on google drive.
You will always be able to see your photo and video on google photos apps.
Summary
We can get more internal storage space by deleting other files. But we cannot delete other files directly, we should follow some steps to delete ir safely.
We also can optimize our internal storage space by using SD Card and cloud services. I can get about 10 GB free internal storage space by following above steps, but it will be different across android phones can be more or less depends on trash files on your android phone.
Thanks for visiting, hope this article will help you to get more internal storage and feel free to share this.