Save space on your Android phone? How to delete unnecessary photos

Are you starting to run into your phone’s storage limits? It might be time to take a look at the photos and videos you’ve taken. For example, you can delete photos and videos stored in the Google Photos app from your device. Fortunately, you don’t have to do this manually. We explain how the automatic Photos tool works.

“More storage and … more photos”

Phones with 64 MP or even 108 MP cameras are no longer an exception these days; photos from such camera sensors can quickly eat away at your internal storage. In addition, high-end phones from different manufacturers have more and more the ability to shoot videos in 8K. More detail in your photos and videos certainly brings benefits, but also comes with a number of drawbacks, including the storage required. Even if 128GB storage becomes the norm on Android phones, it will be a problem in the long run.

If all of your photos are stored in the Google Photos app, this actually offers the solution to the storage problem on your phone. Instead of saving the photos locally, you can delete the photos that are already in the cloud from your phone. So they’re backed up – they’re always available – but you don’t have your phone’s storage limitations.

Note that you may have configured the Photos app to save photos and videos with lower quality. While this isn’t a problem if you still have the original copy, it can be detrimental if the original copy is deleted and you still need the original later. So save important photos and videos elsewhere before you perform the steps below.

Free up space with Google Photos

The steps below will help you delete photos and videos on your phone which might take up a lot of space. Not all large photos and videos can be deleted. In most cases, the folders containing these photos and videos are not selected for backup. You can optionally “activate” this later, so that you can also delete these photos and videos by following the steps below.

1. Open the Google Photos-app
2. Click on top right on your profile icon
3. Choose setting with text Free X, XX Go
4. Then click down Free X, XX Go to delete photos and videos from your phone

Are you also facing storage limitations on your Android phone, or isn’t that bothering you yet? What tools would you recommend for Androidworld readers to clean up their “internal storage”? Be sure to let us know in the comments at the bottom of this article.

If you were actually looking for steps to free up space for Google Photos, these aren’t the steps you should take. Click on this link to learn all about the tools to clean up Drive storage on your Google account.