Summary :

Is your Android phone giving you the insufficient storage available error when you are using it? When this issue happens, do you know how to deal with it? Here, you can read this post from MiniTool to learn how to handle it effectively.

So to ensure the smooth running of the device, you need to clear junk files on Android phone. For iPhone users, please read the page of clearing iPhone junk files with 1 simple click. The whole task of deleting junk files from the phone is simple and straightforward - but only once you know what you are doing. Use Android’s Built-in Storage Tool. RELATED: Managing Your Device's Storage and Backups. Have you every been running out of storage space on your Android phone? Yet you hardly have any apps on the internal memory? Something is filling up your storage space and it's probably several hundred log files. If your anything like me, you will try your hardest to find out what is happening, and why so that you can fix it and share the solution.

My Phone Says Insufficient Storage But I Have Space

Now, let’s start with a real-life example as follows:

The total space of my app is 10 MB, and after installation, it will take less than 20 MB. In Galaxy Note I, while updating my app, it's saying Insufficient Storage Available, where there is 214 MB of free space in device memory (internal). It happens even trying to download a new app.stackoverflow

This is definitely an error relating to Insufficient Storage Available. What do you think about it?

As it is well known, the internal memory of an Android device is never as ample as it appears. For a device with 32GB of storage, a lot of storage is occupied by the operating system, preinstalled apps, as well as the wasted space based on how the OS formats the storage medium.

As a result, when trying to install or update an app on your Android, you could be told that there is insufficient storage available even though the app takes less space than what is actually available on your Android device. (Sometimes an alternative version of a similar error such as 'this device doesn't have enough space to download' may appear when downloading an app.)

However, there is actually enough storage space available to update or install your required app but not enough space to execute the process.

This is also the answer to the question – “why does my phone say memory full when it isn't”.

Have you encountered this issue: SD card not full but says full and nothing on it in a camera? Now try to recover data from the target SD card and fix it.

Is your Android phone also suffering from insufficient storage error? If yes, don't worry! You are not the only one and we also receive many feedbacks saying Android storage space running out but it's not. Here, we will walk you through 7 simple solutions to quick fix this issue.

Insufficient Storage Android Fix

Solution 1: Clear App Cache to Free up Space on Android

In general, the lack of working space is probably the main cause of having insufficient storage available for Android users. Usually, any Android app uses three sets of storage for the app itself, the app's data files and the app's cache.

If the cache is too large in size, it will occupy a huge part of the space although it is reported that the occupied space is the free space on Android device. In this case, emptying your app cache is a useful way to fix the Android insufficient storage error.

How to clear the app cache? Follow the steps:

1. Open Settings firstly from the home screen and then go to the Applications or Applications manager
2. Then you can see all the downloaded apps on your Android device are listed as well as how much storage space they are taking up.
3. Tap Menu or More to sort these apps by size so as to check which one takes up the most storage.
4. Tap the specific app to see the storage space occupied by the app, its data (the Storage section) and cache (Cache section).
5. Tap Clear Cache to empty cache to free up some space.
6. Repeat the same process for each app.

Additionally, you can also delete all the cache files for all your Android apps together. To do this, navigate to Settings > Storage > Device Memory. Then tap Cache data and Delete to wipe all cached data from all your apps.

After finishing the operations above, you won't complain to us 'my phone says insufficient storage but I have space'.

Solution 2: Transfer Photos/Videos from Android to Computer

If you find that your Android device is having insufficient storage available, one of the best solutions is to move some large files including photos, videos, audios, etc. to your computer so as to free up Android storage. To do this, you need a piece of third-party data transfer tool.

Luckily, this free Android data recovery software - MiniTool Mobile Recovery for Android which is developed by MiniTool Team is worthy of being recommended. This free tool can be not only the Android data recovery software to recover deleted files but also the data transfer tool to save the existing files to a computer.

Besides, it can be used in all Windows OSs including Windows 10/8/7 and supports multiple Android phones and tablets, for example, Samsung, Huawei, Sony, LG, Google, etc. Now, it's up to you to download this freeware for data transferring to fix the insufficient storage available issue.

Step 1: Open MiniTool Mobile Recovery for Android Free on your computer.

Which one module you need to choose from the main interface, Recover from Phone or Recover from SD-Card? Both of them are OK. If your photos, videos or music files are saved to Android internal memory, please click the first section.

Step 2: Connect the phone having the Android storage space running out issue to the computer via a USB cable. Then, analysis operation to your Android device will be performed.

Step 3: To save your photos, videos or other data to a computer successfully, you need to enable USB debugging by following the instructions based on corresponding Android version.

And then you should allow USB debugging on the computer. We suggest checking the Always allow from this computer option to avoid authorization next time.

Step 4: Choose one scan method.

• Quick Scan can be used to scan your Android device in a fast way but it only allows moving contacts, short messages and call records to a computer.
• Deep Scan is designed to scan the entire device so that more files can be transferred but this way costs much time.

Here you should choose Deep Scan to scan and save photos, videos, and audios to your computer in case of insufficient storage available.

Step 5: Then, MiniTool Mobile Recovery for Android will start scanning your device. Afterwards, you can see all the found file types are marked in blue. Just choose the file type you want to extract, check all items and click Recover.

MiniTool Mobile Recovery for Android Free Edition has a limitation: it only allows saving 10 files of each type each time. When phone storage is full, we suggest using its advanced edition to transfer more files.

After getting the license, click register in the scan result interface and register this freeware.

Step 6: Click Browse to specify a storage path or directly save your selected files to the default place in your computer by hitting Recover.

After finishing all the above steps, enter the Android phone and delete all the files you have saved to the computer. Then, the insufficient storage error can be solved.

If lots of pictures or videos are stored on the SD card, causing insufficient space on external storage, you can also use the Recover from SD-Card feature to save deleted and existing files to your computer.

1. Connect the Android SD card to your computer.
2. Select the target card to scan.
3. Choose the pictures or videos to save them to the specified path.

Or you can connect your SD card to a computer and directly move files on the SD card to it.

Solution 3: Save Pictures & Videos to External SD Card Instead of Internal Memory

Photos and videos consume a lot of storage on the Android device. In addition to moving them to a computer, you can fix the issue of Android storage space running out by saving your pictures or videos to an SD card.

Is it possible to recover deleted Instagram photos? Now, in this post, we will tell you how to use MiniTool software as well as other two ways to do this job.

If you have already stored photos and videos on the phone's internal storage, you should firstly remove them to the SD card. After that, change the default storage for the pictures and videos to the SD card.

To do this, go to Settings > Camera Settings. Then, select Storage location to change it to SD card or Memory card if the default storage path is Device.

Solution 4: Uninstall Unwanted Apps

Sometimes the 'Android storage space running out but it's not' issue is caused by the overwhelming amount of data stored on your phone’s internal memory. If you have many apps on your Android device and use them simultaneously, cache memory on your phone can be blocked, which leads to Android insufficient storage.

In this case, you can choose to uninstall some unwanted or unused apps to free up storage space. This operation is very simple.

To uninstall an app, go to Settings in your Android phone, and enter the Apps section to get a list of all apps that have been installed on your device. Also, you can sort them by size. Then choose the app you don't need and click Uninstall to remove it.

If you have many apps need to be deleted, repeat the above steps to free up some space to fix insufficient space.

Solution 5: Move Apps from Internal Storage to SD card

Some of you may not want to uninstall any app and would rather search for insufficient storage available Android fix without root. Here, simply moving some apps from the internal storage to your SD card is a good option. This can add space to the internal memory of your phone and solve the “can’t install app insufficient storage available” problem.

1. Go to the Settings menu on your Android device.
2. Tap on Apps.
3. You can still arrange all apps in order by taping Sort by size. Then, choose the app and tap Move to SD card.
4. Repeat the operation to remove the apps which are taking up much storage space.

Solution 6: Use an Cleaning App to Free up Android Space

Sometimes some junk files occupy much Android space, causing insufficient space on the device. In this case, you can use a cleaning app for Android to clean some junk files and optimize your device.

The app can be MobileGo, CCleaner, etc. Just download one from Google Play Store to remove some cache, junk or unwanted files.

Solution 7: Factory Reset Your Device

If you have tried all the above solutions but still encounter the insufficient storage available error, you may fix the problem by factory resetting.

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap System > Reset or Backup & reset.
3. Tap on Factory data reset and Reset phone or Reset tablet. If there is a need, input your PIN, pattern, or password.
4. At last, tap on Erase everything.

Note that this method can wipe all data stored on your Android device. Thus, you had better back up your important data firstly. If you forget to make a backup beforehand and lost many important files after factory resetting, what should you do?

MiniTool Mobile Recovery for Android can still be your good assistant. As professional Android data recovery software, it can help to effectively recover deleted files including contacts, messages, videos, photos, music files and more to your computer.

How can you recover deleted videos Android? This post will introduce you different ways to get deleted Android videos back with third-party software.

Verdict

Are you encountering the insufficient storage available issue on the Android phone or tablet when installing an app? Now, it is the time to try the above seven simple ways to fix Android storage space running out and optimize the performance.

Have some problems when using MiniTool Mobile Recovery for Android to move files or recover data? Or have any suggestions to fix the insufficient storage error? Please let us know by sending an email to [email protected] or leaving your idea below.

The junk files make your phone run slowly, less storage space for your photos and music and worst of all there will be limited space for you to install important apps. For now, there may be enough free space for everything, but eventually you will be required to organize your Android phone and get rid of all the junk files that serve little or no purpose in your phone. So to ensure the smooth running of the device, you need to clear junk files on Android phone.

For iPhone users, please read the page of clearing iPhone junk files with 1 simple click.

The whole task of deleting junk files from the phone is simple and straightforward - but only once you know what you are doing. You could either do it manually or use a tool like AVG Cleaner. Here, we briefly outline how to go about either method.

Remove Android Junk Files in Phone Settings

Speaking of deleting junk files, many users would think of removing useless apps or unwanted files at first time. This would be a feasible way but must not the effective one- you need to find out the unwanted file or app from the menu and then remove them one by one. This would be time-consuming and inefficient and you have other choices actually.

In this case, to remove the junk files more effortlessly or effectively, you can choose to clean the junk files once rather than delete the file one by one. It is not a hard task at all- you can go to Settings App in your phone to clear cached data or factory reset the device.

1. Clear cached data

Cached data is also a kind of junk files which also takes up a lot of storage space of your phone. Therefore, you can select to delete the caches of all applications on your phone to release the phone space. You can complete it with simple clicks. Now just go with the steps below to clean the app caches on your Android phone.

- Go to Settings app on your phone and then click on the option Storage.

- After that, you will see a list of options on the interface. Here you need to elect the option Cache Data or Saved Data.

- Then a screen will appear to ask for confirmation to remove everything stored within the caches. Just confirm it to begin the removing process.

This means will help to erase all the app caches on your phone. However, cached data is just a part of junk files and if you want to get rid of the useless files more completely, you may need to factory reset your phone.

2. Factory reset your Android phone

Factory reset would be the most powerful way to clean Android junk files. By using this way, you are not only able to wipe all the files on your phone but also can erase all the phone settings. After accomplishing the process, your phone will run as a new device. But meanwhile, you will lose all the data and settings so you need to backup the wanted files in advance. After backing up your desired data, you can start the resetting process now. The followings are the detailed steps for your reference.

- Enter the Settings App on your Android phone.

- In this section, you should tap on the option Backup and Reset and then continue to choose Factory Data Reset.

- Next, you can go on to tap on Reset phone option. After that, you may have to type in your PIN again.

- Then you need to click on Erase Everything to begin the erasing process.

- Once the process ends, you can restart your phone and then set it up.

You may also want to know:

Recover Samsung Galaxy Data After Factory Reset

How to Delete Junk Files from Android Phone in One Click

The methods we mentioned above doubtlessly can help you to delete some junk files on Android phone but both of them are not thorough and quick enough. Then is there any way to clean junk files on Android more quickly and completely? The answer is Yes! But to achieve this goal, you need to use a professional Android data cleaner as your assistant.

Delete Useless Files Windows 10

Super Tool to Clean Junk Files on Android:

If you want to clear junk files on your Android phone more quickly and thoroughly, you can turn to this all-in-one cleanup tool -MobiKin Eraser for Android. Not only can it allow you to clear junk files on Android phone in one click, but also you can clean temp files, log files, etc. In addition, it supports almost all kinds of Android models like Samsung, LG, HTC, Huawei, etc. Now you can follow the instructions below to start clearing junk files on Android phone to have a try.

Step 1. Install the software and connect to PC

First of all, please be sure the software is downloaded and installed on your computer or laptop, and then you can launch it directly.

After that, you can connect your Android phone to the computer via USB cable or Wi-Fi and go with the prompts to make the connected device recognized. Now you can see an interface like this:

Step 2. Select Erase All Data mode

After your Android device has been detected by the software, you can choose the cleaning mode as you like. To complete that, you can click 'Medium' select Low Level, Medium Level or High Level in the pop-up window as you like. After that, you can click 'OK' to confirm your option.

Note: For Android devices, the software now only supports the Erase All Data mode, so it is strongly recommended to make a backup of your important data on Android device in case of unexpected data lost. And the software will be improved with more functions for Android soon.

Step 3. Delete the Android files

Finally, just type 'delete' and hit 'Erase' on the 'Erase All Data' interface and then all the junk files on Android will be cleared from your Android phone immediately.

How to Clear Junk Files on Android Phone Using AVG Cleaner?

Go to the Google Play Store and look for AVG Cleaner. Download, install and fire it up. You will be presented with easy options of clearing junk from the phone. Use the steps outlined below.

Step 1: Cache clean

Just as the name suggests this method cleans all the cache data on your Android phone. This cache mechanism has the limitation of allowing quick buildup of useless files on your device. The solution therefore to run this process frequently.

Phone Storage Is Full Please Delete Useless Files Free

Step 2: Communication clean

This is an effective method of getting rid of all your call record and messages threads. However little space your call logs and message take in your Android phone, they still need to be removed frequently in order to increase the search speed of your phone.

Step 3: Deeper clean

This method is removing all the residue contents left behind by your SD card after you have uninstalled it from your device.

Step 4: Mark clean

The method is meant for cleaning up your browser history, Google maps, Google markets, and search records of Gmail and clipboard records for the sole purpose of protecting your privacy. With this kind of method, you can individual select the items you wish to do away with.

You may be interested in:

Top 6 Must-Have Android Cleaner Apps

How to Manage Storage on Android

What If You Wrongly Delete Some Important Files During the Clearing Process?

It is common that users would wrongly delete something important while removing junk files on their devices. But don't be nervous if you make a mistaken deletion since the lost data can be easily recovered with the tool- MobiKin Doctor for Android (Win & Mac). With it, you can recover more than 7 kinds of file on Android, including contacts, messages, music, images, videos and so on. No matter the files are lost due to wrong deletion, factory reset or root, it can help you to retrieve them with simple clicks. You can download its free trial to have a try.

Here's the tutorial about how to extract data from Android phone:

Step 1. Establish a connection your Android phone and computer

Use a USB cable to connect your phone to computer and then launch the suggested software on PC.

Step 2. Make your phone be recognized

After the connection, you need to enable USB debugging on your phone so that it can be detected. Here, if you want to recover contacts, messages or call logs, you need to root your phone as well.

Step 3. Preview the files

Once the program detects your phone, the files saved on the device will be listed on the main interface. Here you can tap on the wanted folder in the left panel to locate its contents and then preview the data.

Step 4. Restore the wanted data

Finally, you should tick the files that you want to restore and click Recover to get back your desired files.

The Bottom Line

These are all the methods that we would like to suggest you to clear junk files on Android phone. You can select one of them to remove the unwanted files from the device easily. But in case of data loss, you'd better backup the important data on your phone beforehand or you may permanently lose them. After deleting these useless files, you will be able to better enjoy your phone. Hence, don't hesitate to have a try!

If you have any problem about the methods above or have other better ways to remove the Android junk files, please share with us!

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