system memory android. What to do if there is not enough free space in the memory of an Android mobile device, how to fix the situation

There are two symptoms when the internal memory on the phone is sorely lacking:

  1. Applications and Android slow down,
  2. The phone displays a message that you need to take action and free up the occupied space.

The internal memory of the phone has a fixed amount, and it (seemingly) cannot be increased. However, in the guide, we will tell you how to clear the internal memory of the phone from unnecessary files and applications.

By increasing the free space in the Android memory, you will save time and stop noticing the brakes on your phone and tablet. The whole “cleaning” will take about 20 minutes.

Error: insufficient memory on mobile device

Usually, Android issues such a message if a process or application does not have enough free space in the internal memory of the phone.

Lack of memory can make itself felt by constant freezes. If this is imperceptible when buying a phone, then over time, after installing dozens of mobile applications and fouling with “garbage” you begin to notice it.

The question involuntarily arises: do the characteristics of the phone “lie”? If not, then why does the same smartphone / tablet work stably for others?

Checking the amount of free memory on Android

When a notification about insufficient internal memory appears, the question arises: how much memory is available, how much of it is occupied?

You can check the free space through the settings mobile phone. To do this, go to Settings - Options - Memory (Settings - Device Maintenance - Storage - Storage settings - Device memory). We carefully study the data, paying attention to the following figures:

  • Total space - the amount of internal memory Android
  • System memory - the minimum amount of space reserved for system operation
  • Available space - how much space is left in the internal memory.

Accordingly, if the built-in memory is not enough, you need to increase the memory on the phone to the size of System memory so that the system does not give the corresponding error.

In the following chapters, I will tell you how to clean the internal memory on Android.

Clearing the phone's internal memory

You can remove the excess using the built-in tools operating system and through third party applications. They analyze the used space, help identify files that can be safely deleted.

Removing apps from Android system memory

Surely your phone has applications installed that hang dead weight and are not used for their intended purpose. Their size can reach hundreds of megabytes (including the cache).

You can remove useless programs through: Options - Settings - Application Manager (Settings - Apps).

In Android 8, it is convenient to use the free FIles Go utility to calculate unnecessary applications. For other OS versions, it is available for download via Google Play.

How to remove unnecessary applications in FIles Go:

  1. Go to the Unused apps section,
  2. Sort applications by modification date or size,
  3. To uninstall, mark unnecessary programs with checkmarks and click Uninstall.

Video instruction for uninstalling applications:

Transferring files to a memory card

The internal memory of the phone, as already mentioned, has a fixed amount, so you need to constantly check whether there is enough free space for the applications and OS to work correctly.

In general, Android memory is divided into internal and external. It is easy to "upgrade" external memory, since sd-cards are inexpensive today (you can buy a 256 GB memory card for $25).

Actually, you can transfer files through any file manager - through a phone or PC.

Move unnecessary applications from internal to external memory card

As an alternative to CCleaner, it's convenient to use the aforementioned Files Go app.

How to increase memory on Android manually

To manually clear the phone's memory, any file manager is suitable. We recommend ES Explorer or Total Commander.

Be careful and only delete unnecessary user files in Android internal memory that you created/copied yourself.

So, open the file manager, go to the root of the internal memory, start searching and deleting unnecessary things.

Which files it is desirable to delete (transfer to a memory card) in the first place:

  1. Photos, videos, voice recorder recordings and other documents stored not on sd, but in internal memory;
  2. Documents received by mail or through social networks (most often they are saved in the Download folder);
  3. Electronic books and other files saved third party applications to the device memory
  4. The contents of the folders DCIM, bluetooth, sounds.

We use Storage Analyzers (for clarity)

For clarity, we recommend using the Files Go application or any other storage analyzer for Android, which will show which files take up the most disk space and where they are located in the form of a diagram. Among these applications, we note:

Transferring photos and videos to Google Photos

It is photos and videos that “eat up” the most space on the phone, due to them you can quickly free up space on the memory card or in the built-in storage. If your phone doesn't support a memory card, move the files you don't access often to the cloud. The Photos app, or Google Photos, is the best for this. It automatically uploads photos to the service, where they are available in their original quality through a browser or application.

In addition to Google Photos, you can look at alternatives such as Dropbox, Flickr or Microsoft OneDrive.

Even when the photos are only available on the server, you can easily access them if you have an internet connection. And most importantly, it is really convenient and fast way free up a couple of gigabytes of internal memory!

Clearing memory: questions and answers

1. The phone did not have enough internal memory, I sent half of the photos to the sd card, after that I open it, but they are all kind of muddy. I tried to transfer back to the internal memory of Android, but the pictures are the same. How can I return the old pictures, i.e. so that it was cleaned up as before without any distortion.

2. I did not have enough internal memory in my phone, I wanted to clear it. I transferred data (photos, music) to a memory card. Now the files are not readable, although the phone sees the map. How can I get at least a photo back?

3. Phone Samsung A5. I did not know how to increase the internal memory, I moved folders with music and files from the internal memory to the sd card using a laptop. After that, when opening the folders, they all turned out to be empty. Neither the phone nor the computer sees files and music. The internal memory of the phone did not seem to decrease after that. How to find these files?

Answer. It is likely that you did not copy the originals to the memory card, but the thumbnails. The original photos may have been left in the phone's internal memory. If this does not happen, it will help you.

If there is not enough space in the device memory, you should copy the files to your computer (make a backup copy) and only then move them to the memory card. It will be useful for you to read the instructions on how to clear the internal memory on Android (see the text above).

I have a phone Sony Xperia, when I go to the Play Market, I want to download some program, the system writes that there is not enough memory on Android, although the flash drive is 16 GB! What to do?

Answer. Most likely, the "not enough memory" error on Android is due to the fact that there is not enough internal memory - this is where installation files are downloaded from Google Play.

  1. Transfer the largest files from Android internal memory to your sd card.
  2. Delete unnecessary applications through the file manager or Files Go.
  3. Use the CCleaner utility to clean junk files in your phone's memory.

Cleaned phone memory, deleted a lot of folders. And now I can not watch the gallery through Android, writes: "Storage is not available." How can I return it back?

Answer. It is likely that during cleaning you deleted the folder with photos on the memory card (SDCARD/DCIM/CAMERA). You can recover files from there using CardRecovery or PhotoRec.

What can prevent you from installing a new app from Google Play? Just a lack of memory. Suddenly, your Android smartphone writes “Not enough memory”, although there is space.
What to do? You can see that there are enough free megabytes both on the Micro SD card and in the internal memory. But how to explain this to a smartphone?

1. When memory is really low

In fairness, it must be said that sometimes a smartphone is right. For example, if you focus only on the space on the map, and the installation of the application is not provided there. Or if the application needs additional space to work.

Then like it or not, you have to free up space. There are several proven ways to do this:

  • Remove unnecessary applications. This question is already exclusively for you: perhaps the old games are no longer so interesting? Or do you have several applications installed that duplicate each other?
  • Move apps to Micro SD card when possible. On this topic, we have.
  • Clear the cache using special utilities (for example, CCleaner). Sometimes it takes up surprisingly much space, being, in fact, unnecessary.
  • Clear memory manually using Root Explorer or another file manager. This approach is very effective, but requires knowledge. Deleting the wrong files will make your smartphone inoperable. Therefore, before manual cleaning, be sure to make a backup.
  • Reset the entire system and reinstall applications via Titanium Backup. This is somewhat more hard way. For it, you need to have installed application Titanium backup. Do backups all applications with settings. Reset the system completely. Install Titanium Backup again and restore applications from backups. This method does a good job of cleaning the system of garbage and often adds several hundred megabytes to free memory.

2. When there seems to be enough memory

There are situations when a smartphone or tablet refuses to install an application not only on a memory card, but also in internal memory. At the same time, there is enough free space. How to force Android to face the truth and still install the application?

There are several ways that might work:

  • Clear cache Google Apps Play and Google Service Framework. Open the Settings menu, select these two apps and clear their cache. After that, restart your smartphone. If there is free space, the device will now be able to use it.
  • Uninstall Play Update. To do this, go to Settings, find the Applications item there, and Google Play in the list. Tap on it and in the page that opens, select the "Uninstall updates" button. It is recommended to do in case clearing the cache did not help.
  • Clear Dalvik cache. Turn off your smartphone and turn it on in Recovery mode (usually you need to hold the power button and the volume button to do this). Select Wipe cache partition from the menu. If you have not encountered this before, then we will tell you: the touch screen does not work in this mode, you need to select it with the volume buttons. In this item, select the Advanced Options sub-item, and in it - Wipe Dalvik Cache. This action will flush the Dalvik cache and not only free up some space, but also help the system work efficiently with the existing one.

To avoid such problems in the future, you can use the Link2SD or Folder Mount utilities, which will help you virtually merge the Micro SD and internal memory into a single array. Remember that in this case the memory card becomes virtually non-removable, so before this operation, get a sufficiently voluminous Micro SD.

The Android operating system is installed on most mobile devices. It's no secret that smartphones and tablets can easily replace a computer or laptop in terms of their capabilities thanks to powerful hardware and a large amount of memory. There are a huge number of applications for this OS. AT Play Store That is, according to official statistics, almost 2 million programs have been downloaded. many owners portable devices, especially inexperienced, install a lot and store a large number of photos, videos and other files. Features of the mobile operating system over time lead to an error reporting an insufficient amount of free memory. As a result, it is almost impossible to use a smartphone or tablet, as the speed of work slows down, and it simply does not work to save any file or update installed programs.

There is nothing wrong with the “not enough space in the device’s memory” error - it can be easily fixed

What can be done when this error appears on Android, despite the fact that in fact there is still free space left? Let's find out why this message appears, and also consider ways to solve the problem.

Reason for the message

If you have, most likely, it has a decent amount of internal storage. The best choice devices with at least 16 gigabytes of memory are considered. However, not everyone can afford to purchase such a “capacious” device, so they have to be content with 8 or even 4 gigabytes. And if someone has an old gadget, the amount of storage can be measured even in megabytes. Obviously, the more space, the better. But even if you have enough internal memory, this does not mean that you will never have such a problem. Most likely, you will encounter it a little later.

The Android operating system is designed so that applications and temporary files use internal memory first, even if you have an SD card installed. latest version The operating system generally has a problem with full support for a flash drive. Apparently, Google wants to follow the path of Apple, abandoning memory cards altogether.

For the first time, the “not enough space in the device’s memory” error can be encountered on the very first day of work, trying to install a large number of programs from the Play Store. If you managed to avoid this, the entire application cache (temporary files) will gradually occupy the device's memory during operation.

Even if you transfer applications to the card, some of the files necessary for work will still be stored on the internal drive. The more often you use programs, the faster free space can run out. The leaders in memory consumption are games, especially modern and demanding ones, as well as browsers and various instant messengers. For example, if you actively communicate through WhatsApp, which is popular in Russia, chats and received media files will gradually fill up the free space. Some applications are not transferred to an external drive at all, since the developers did not provide this possibility.

So, what can be done if the system writes that there is not enough free space, although in fact it is?

How to free up memory

You can free up device memory on Android using various means, both built-in to the system and third-party utilities. Let's consider each of the options.

Clearing temporary files

The most accessible option to fight for free space on the device is from temporary files using the settings menu. To do this, go to Settings and open the Memory section. You'll see how much space is left, how memory is allocated, and how much space each type of content takes up. To clear the cache, click on the corresponding item in the menu. After a few seconds, the system will show how much space has been freed up.

Some mobile device manufacturers install additional utilities that cannot be downloaded from the Play Store, equipped with a system cleanup function. Explore the capabilities of the firmware, and if necessary, use it for its intended purpose.

Using special cleaning utilities

There is a whole section in the Play Store dedicated to applications for deleting temporary files and monitoring system status. Enter the Play Market, enter Cleaner in the search bar and download the required utility. The leaders in popularity are Clean Master and SD Maid. They give control over the system and allow you to free up a significant amount of device memory. Some features require . To clean up, run the application, select the appropriate menu item, mark the files that you want to delete, and wait for the process to finish.

Clearing the cache through Recovery

Sometimes it turns out that cleaning Android with standard system tools, as well as third-party programs, does not bring results - the error still appears. In this case, you can try clearing the system cache. Switch your Android smartphone or tablet to Recovery mode. To do this, simultaneously hold down the power and volume buttons up. The key combination may differ for some brands and models. You can find information on how to put the device into Recovery mode on our website.

In the main recovery menu, select the Wipe Cache Partition section, and after the process is completed, reboot in normal mode. As a result of the procedure, personal data will not be affected, and memory will increase, since all temporary files will be deleted.

Move apps and files to SD card

one more effective method can be the transfer of applications to a memory card. This may slow down the performance of applications. It should be remembered that some manufacturers deprive the user of the function of transferring programs using standard system tools. In this case, you will need to get root rights and use third-party utilities.

Let's immediately consider the process of transferring to a USB flash drive using standard means. Enter Settings - Applications. After a few seconds, you'll see how much space each program takes up, and you can sort by that parameter. Find the application you are interested in in the list, click on it. If the transfer is possible, you will see an active "Move to SD card" button. Transfer the largest programs, and then do not forget to clean the device using the appropriate programs. You will get more free space on your internal storage.

If some application cannot be transferred, get root rights and try to transfer data using the Link2SD utility. Remember that you will use such software at your own peril and risk, and in case of their incorrect operation, you will be responsible for the damaged device.

Removing unnecessary or rarely used applications

Despite all your efforts, is there still not enough memory? Make a revision installed programs on your Android device. Perhaps you have software that you use very rarely or do not use at all, but it takes up precious space. Open the application settings, select the program that you want to this moment not needed and remove it. If you are actively using social networks, we advise you to use mobile versions site through a browser, instead of installing clients. The same Facebook can take up to 400 megabytes.

Reset app preferences

With prolonged and active use of some applications, their size can grow to indecently large. Such a sin is seen in many programs. We advise you to periodically delete the data of the most "gluttonous" programs. Thus, precious megabytes will be released, and the stability of Android will increase. To do this, go to Settings - Applications, select desired program from the list, and then click on "Clear data". All settings will be reset.

In some cases, only resetting the settings of all programs can help, especially when the system is unstable due to overcrowded memory, giving other errors along the way. To do this, open Settings - Applications - All, press the menu button and select "Reset settings".

Reset system settings to factory settings

Well, the extreme, but the most effective remedy is resetting the device to factory settings. You will lose all data, but your device will work like new. You can perform a reset both through the settings menu and through the Recovery mode. In the first case, you need to go to Settings - Recovery and reset - Reset settings. In the second - transfer the device to, select wipe data / factory reset. After that, go through the process of setting up your Android smartphone or tablet from the very beginning.

Conclusion

Obviously, the low memory problem is popular among Android device owners. This problem can be solved in several simple ways, but in most cases it will not be possible to completely get rid of it. We can only hope that Google in its future updates of the operating system will make sure that the internal drive is not clogged with any garbage.

How often do you encounter this problem? Share your experience with it in the comments.

The problem of lack of free space on the phone is relevant despite the fact that the volume of the built-in storage is constantly growing. After all, along with it, the size of programs, photos and videos increases, which in high resolution weighs several gigabytes. However, there are tricks that will help free up space without deleting applications, while the device will start working much faster. Read the article before freeing up space on your Android phone, and you will be able to destroy the "garbage" in the gadget in 10 minutes and optimize the performance of the drive.

Deleting the cache

Cache - components that carry additional application data, such as page thumbnails, photo previews, and other materials that the software needs to work faster. The other side of the coin is that it weighs a lot and does not always help the system to work faster, sometimes even vice versa. Therefore, it can be safely destroyed without harming performance.

  1. Go to "Settings - Storage".
  2. Select "Cache data" there, and you will be prompted to permanently delete all materials.
  3. Agree.

After a couple of moments, the process will complete.

You can also clear the cache of an individual program.

  1. Go to "Settings - Storage - Applications".
  2. Choose something that takes up a lot of space there, see how much the cache weighs.
  3. If it weighs a lot, then click "Clear Cache".

Third-party programs on Android help you do this automatically, but at the end we will explain why you should not use them.

Uninstalling unnecessary software

There are probably many programs on your phone that you never use. But they take up space in the system, their processes hang in the background, loading the processor, which can cause slowdowns.


In general, this is already enough, but open more "Applications" and view them all. Try to remove as much unimportant software as possible. Especially pay attention to games that take up a lot of space and instant messengers, which often “wake up” the smartphone and leave services in random access memory. Do not hesitate to remove such components.

If you have root rights

Vendors like to put their own software on smartphones, but usually it takes a lot and hangs in the RAM, so it must be demolished.


This can greatly increase the speed of work and free up the internal memory of the device.

Transferring data to a memory card

If the phone supports it, we recommend storing music, videos and images on the MicroSD. Almost all programs, such as "Camera", browsers, services for listening to podcasts, etc., can store data on a flash drive or in the device's memory. Do not be lazy, go to the software settings, look for an item where you can choose which memory to save to, and install the MicroSD.

From the computer, transfer the information immediately to the USB flash drive, so that later you do not have to deal with transposition. Documents already stored in the internal memory can be transferred very easily.

  1. Open the built-in file manager or download Total Commander, ES File Explorer.
  2. Run it, open the folder with videos and photos, usually it is called "DCIM".
  3. Select the desired components and click "Cut", navigate to the directory where you want to move them, and click "Paste".

Do the same for other large documents.

Transferring applications to a memory card

Most of the programs can be thrown on MicroSD. But some software is not adapted for storage on it, for example, system applications. Also note that the speed of removable media is lower, so games may run slower, and messengers may incorrectly send notifications after such a release of the drive.

  1. Go to Applications.
  2. Select the program you want to transfer, tap on it.
  3. Click on "Move to memory card".

You can also reset all data from any mobile devices to the card, including music, videos and photos.

This solution is suitable if you want to seriously clean the ROM.

How to expand internal memory?

Starting with Android 6.0 and above, it was possible to combine internal memory with a flash drive to expand storage.

  1. As soon as the card is in the smartphone tray, swipe the notification curtain down.
  2. Click Customize.
  3. There you can choose to either merge the memory or leave the flash drive as portable media.

Attention! If you choose the second path, the phone will format the memory card and change its file system. So don't forget to make a backup.

Use of third party services

In the Play Market, you can download many "magic" services to free up memory on Android. However, most of them harm rather than benefit, for example, CleanMaster indiscriminately kills the necessary processes, shows how much space has been freed up, but constantly hangs in the background even after you clear the "garbage".

The Android version of CCleaner shows itself better, which cleans up space in the system memory, but the built-in utilities replace it well. Of the useful, it is worth noting Google Drive, Yandex Disk and Google Photos. They allow information to be transferred to cloud storage to clear your phone's memory and access your data.

In Telegram, you can create a private channel and upload files there. A good alternative to cloud drives. From there, you can always download components from any device.

Google Photos deserves special attention, which allows you to store photos and videos in the "cloud", which are instantly loaded if you want to watch them. Extremely handy program that greatly saves space on your phone. You can upload an unlimited number of photos to high quality and 15 GB in original size. Also deleted files disappear immediately, so what you erased can still be restored.

What to do if the phone starts to slow down and freeze? How to clear the internal memory of Android and unload the RAM? Such questions are very relevant, because now many have an Android phone or tablet. But there is a way out, and it is below.

Why is there not enough memory?

The memory on the phone and tablet, as well as on the computer, is divided into 2 types: for data storage and operational. Do not confuse them, as this different types and they perform different tasks.

RAM is temporary memory that stores temporary data and commands. If the device is turned off, this information will be deleted. Also, the amount of simultaneously processed data, or in a simple way - speed, depends on the RAM. Each user must have noticed that the phone sometimes starts to think for a long time and freeze. This means that the RAM is overloaded, and it is not enough for normal operation. To avoid this, you need to clear the RAM. Android will work better from this.

The reasons for the lack of RAM are as follows:

  • many heavy applications are open;
  • a large number of unnecessary temporary files have accumulated;
  • programs that run in the background.

Memory for data storage is designed to store information. Physically, it is presented as an internal memory of the phone or as an external one - on a flash card. The reason for the lack of such is banal: there is too much information on the media (not necessarily necessary).

How to clean the internal and phone?

The answer to this question is very simple: just delete unnecessary files, pictures, videos, music, etc. But before clearing the internal memory of Android, you need to find these files. For example, ES Explorer or Total Commander will help us with this. We go, select files, delete. If there is no such program, then you must definitely download it, since it will definitely not be superfluous. The easiest way to download from the Play Market.

If the location of unnecessary data is unknown, and such a problem as clearing the internal memory of Android has not gone away, then you can use a specialized program, for example, CCleaner. We turn it on, click "Analyze" and wait for the results, after which we delete everything unnecessary.

It will also be right to move all unimportant applications from the phone's memory to the memory card. Go to settings\applications\downloaded, click on options and sort by size. Next, select desired application, click "Move to SD card".

Clean up RAM

Such a problem, a phone, is much more serious than clearing space on a flash drive, since the RAM is responsible for the speed of the system, and therefore for the normal operation of the device as a whole. Therefore, you need to clean it much more often. You can do this in several ways:

  • First of all, you need a specialized program, at least the same CCleaner. The order is the same: we start, click "Analysis", after "Cleaning", but at the same time we do not mark the data from the memory card. This program removes the cache and temporary files that interfere with normal operation.
  • Go to settings\applications\all, sort by size. Then select the application, click "Erase data" and "Clear cache". It’s not worth cleaning everything in a row, because after that not only temporary files are deleted, but also saved passwords, saves in games, etc.

  • Close unnecessary running programs. We press the house, after which a list of previously launched and running programs appears. With a slight movement of your finger to the side, close those that are not needed.

Cleaning programs

There are a lot of programs that are designed to deal with issues such as clearing the memory of an Android tablet or smartphone, optimizing the device and speeding up its work. As elsewhere, there are favorites, here, too, there are the most effective utilities.

(Cleanup Wizard)

A popular and very common program that can easily clear junk files, cache and data from internal memory. In addition, it has a very useful features, like speeding up games, cooling the processor, finding virus and spyware and many others.

CCleaner

We already know the application. In addition to cleaning, it has the following useful functions: deleting SMS and call logs, applications, optimizing and unloading RAM. Very easy to use.

If the previous options did not help in this matter, there is still a way out. The Cleaner - Boost & Clean is a great answer to frequently asked question How to clear the internal memory of Android. It will easily clear the cache, unnecessary garbage, clear the RAM and increase the speed of the device. In addition, it can be used to remove applications, clean up entries in contacts and SMS.

Close background programs

Quite a lot of RAM is eaten by running programs. It is not difficult to solve this problem, since special utilities will again help to clear the phone's memory to save battery power.

One of the most popular battery saving tool. It is useful in that it closes background programs that load the RAM and thereby slow down the mobile device.

An application with the same function - save battery power by closing unnecessary background programs. It has a simple and pleasant widget, on which cleaning will be launched by clicking on the silver circle with arrows.

However, these utilities do not close all unnecessary background processes, and if they do, then temporarily. There are such completely unnecessary pre-installed services as Facebook, Gmail, navigators and others. But you can't delete or disable them. To do this, you need to get super administrator rights, or root rights. But do not take off and run to get them. Because by negligence or ignorance, you can demolish important files that are responsible for the normal operation of the operating system, after which only flashing will remain or Therefore, you need to be careful with this.



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