The dreaded “out of memory” notification can be a stressful event, especially if you’re trying to do a major update or take your next picture. The last thing you want to do is delete precious pictures that haven’t been backed up yet. With spring upon us, it’s the perfect time for spring cleaning: digital edition.
One of the easiest things you can do is purchase an external mobile flash drives designed specifically for phones. Sandisk makes the iXpand drives for the iPhone, and it also makes USB C and microUSB memory sticks that stick directly into the charging ports of your Androids or iPhones. These drives are particularly easy to use because you don’t need to understand how to back up your photos or videos to the cloud. Simply transfer your files after you connect the drive to your smartphone and then download them to your PC or Mac.
For those who want to go the free route, the best options are using cloud storage. Google Drive and Photos are two free apps to store documents and photos for both Android and iOS devices. Apple offers free backups up to 5GB, if you use iCloud, and charges if you need more storage in multiple increments. Both options allow you to free up space to the cloud and offer access from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection. Google Photos even offers a tool to free up space once the photos have been backed up ensuring you keep your memories around forever.
Certain Android devices, Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge and LG V20, allow for expandable storage through a microSD card slot. External storage can go up to 2TB on smartphones, but most shouldn’t need more than 128GB extra space.
Lastly, you should delete old apps, movies, music and emails you no longer use or need. Chances are you use a very limited selection of apps and the ones you aren’t using are taking up valuable space. Go into your settings and browse through the “apps” section to see just how much space each app is using. Delete the ones you use the least first.
Once you’ve freed up space, make sure you get your updates completed. You need them to make sure the bugs are fixed and security leaks are sealed. All of these steps take no more than 30 minutes to complete and can save you time in the future.