Unless you’ve spent big on a 1TB model, running out of storage on your Samsung phone is only a matter of time. But the fix doesn’t have to involve deleting your favorite photos or apps; One UI includes a few options that make reclaiming space easy.
7
Empty the Trash
The first step you’re likely to take when your Samsung phone starts screaming for storage space is getting rid of old screenshots, blurry photos, random videos, and those dozens of memes saved for reasons you can’t even remember. But if your phone’s storage still doesn’t budge, it’s likely because those deleted files aren’t actually gone.
Instead, deleted files remain in the Trash folder for 30 days before they’re permanently removed. It’s a handy feature in case you delete something by mistake. But if space is tight and you are certain about not wanting those deleted files, clearing the Trash folder on Android can make a noticeable difference.
To clear it, go to Settings > Device Care > Storage > Trash. Tap on Gallery to view your deleted photos and videos. If there’s anything worth saving, you can restore it from here. Otherwise, open the three-dot menu and select Empty to clear everything at once. Don’t forget to do the same for the Trash in the Files app; just make sure you don’t need anything since this will permanently delete it.
6
Remove Duplicate Files
Over time, your Galaxy phone may end up with some duplicate photos, videos, and documents. This can happen when the same file is downloaded more than once, or images are shared across apps and saved multiple times, for instance.
Each duplicate file might not take up much space on its own, but together, they can consume a surprising amount of storage. Thankfully, you don’t need any third-party app to delete duplicate files from your phone.
Head to Settings > Device Care > Storage > Duplicate files. Tap All in the top-left corner, and your Samsung phone will automatically select the duplicate versions of each file, leaving the originals untouched. Once done, tap Delete to remove them. By default, those files will move to the Trash folder, so don’t forget to empty it afterward to properly free up the space.
5
Archive or Uninstall Apps You’re Not Using
It’s easy to overlook how many apps and games sit on your phone, including those you downloaded for a one-time need and haven’t touched since. Removing such unused apps or games can free up space faster than you’d think.
Samsung phones make it simple by highlighting apps you haven’t opened in the past 30 days. To view them, head to Settings > Device Care > Storage > Unused apps. Then, scroll through the list to find and select the apps you don’t need, and hit Uninstall to confirm.
For certain apps, you’ll also see an Archive option. This removes the app but keeps its data intact, so if you reinstall it later, everything will be just as you left it. If you don’t want to do this manually, you can set the Play Store to automatically archive unused apps. Head to Play Store Settings > General and enable the Automatically archive apps toggle. This feature will quietly offload apps you haven’t used in a while, without deleting their data.
4
Clear App Caches
Even the apps and games you use regularly can benefit from occasional cleanup. Each time you scroll through social media, stream videos, or play games, those apps store bits of temporary data—called cache—to help speed common operations up next time.
Over time, cached data can quietly build up and take away a major chunk of your storage. While most Android phones make you clear the cache of one app at a time, Samsung’s One UI offers a faster solution. Instead of going through apps individually, you can wipe all app caches at once.
Go to Settings > Device Care > Storage > App cache. Tap All in the top-left corner to select every app, then hit Clear caches to remove the temporary files. If there are a few apps you’d prefer to leave alone—perhaps ones you use all the time—you can deselect them before confirming.
Clearing the cache on your Android phone won’t delete any of your personal data, login info, or saved settings; it simply clears out temporary files. Apps may feel slower for a while after doing this, since cache files prevent them from having to download common data over and over.
3
Delete Old Offline Files You Don’t Need
Apps like Google Maps, Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, and many others make it easy to download content for offline use. This way, you can listen, watch, or navigate even when there’s no internet connection. That convenience, though, comes at the cost of storage.
Over time, a playlist you saved for a trip or the offline maps you downloaded can add up to a ton of storage space. It’s all too easy to forget to remove them once you no longer need them.
To clear them out, start by checking the apps where you’ve likely downloaded content. In Spotify, go to your Library and remove downloaded albums or playlists you no longer listen to. In YouTube, open Settings > Downloads to clear out old videos. Netflix has a Downloads tab, and Google Maps lets you manage offline maps under Settings > Offline maps.
2
Move Large Videos to the Cloud
Your Samsung phone’s camera is great for recording in 4K, but all those sharp, high-quality videos can quickly eat up storage space. If deleting them isn’t an option, you can move some of the larger videos to the cloud to give your phone some breathing room.
The Samsung Gallery app includes built-in OneDrive integration, making it a convenient option for storing those large videos. OneDrive gives you 5 GB of free storage, but you can upgrade to the Microsoft 365 Basic tier for 100GB of storage at $2/month.
If you prefer Google’s cloud services, the Google Photos app lets you back up large video files individually. To find them easily, open the Storage menu, tap Large files, and use the dropdown filter to select Videos.
And of course, you don’t have to limit yourself to large videos—feel free to move photos or other files as needed. Once you’ve moved those large files to the cloud, you can delete them from your phone’s local storage. Just remember that if you only have a file in one location, it’s not truly backed up.
You might also prefer to move large files to your PC, or consider buying a USB-C flash drive you can connect to your phone to offload videos.
1
Get Rid of Those “Other Files”
When you’ve checked your Samsung phone’s storage breakdown, you may have noticed the Other files category quietly taking up several gigabytes. This section can be a bit of a mystery because it’s a catch-all for data like system files, cached data, app leftovers, and temporary files that don’t fall into more obvious categories like photos, videos, or apps.
Some Other storage usage is normal. But if it’s taking up an unusually large amount of space, the most effective way to reclaim it is by performing a factory reset. The good news is that Samsung offers a temporary cloud backup feature that’s free to use and stores your phone’s data for up to 30 days. It backs up your apps, settings, messages, call history, and even your home screen layout.
You can use the cloud backup feature to safely perform a factory reset without losing data. And once you do, you’ll likely see that Other storage category shrink significantly.
Running out of storage space on your Samsung phone doesn’t just mean less room for apps and photos; it can also lead to sluggish performance. The good news is that Samsung’s One UI offers all the necessary tools to free up space without having to erase anything important.