Your Android phone needs free space to work properly, and so do your backups: when storage runs low, a backup can stop before it finishes. Clearing some space off the phone is usually all it takes.
If you would prefer to watch rather than read, this short video walks through freeing up space on an Android phone with the Files by Google app. The steps below cover the same ground, along with a few other ways to clear space.
Step 1: See what is using your storage
Start here, so you clear the things that are actually taking up the room:
- Open your phone's Settings app.
- Tap Storage. On Samsung phones, tap Battery and device care, then Storage.
- You will see how much space is free, and a breakdown by category — Images, Videos, Apps, Documents, and so on. The biggest categories are where to spend your effort.
Step 2: Free up space
Any of these will help. Do as many as you need — a spare gigabyte or two is a comfortable target.
Remove apps you no longer use
In Settings → Apps, sort the list by size. Uninstalling one or two large apps you have stopped using often frees more space than deleting hundreds of photos.
Delete duplicate files
- Install and open the Files by Google app from the Google Play Store.
- Tap the Menu button (three lines) in the top left.
- From the pop-out menu, tap Clean.
- Tap the option that says "Delete Duplicates".
- On the screen of duplicates it found, tap "All Duplicates" near the top to select them all.
- Tap "Move Files to Trash" at the bottom of the screen, and confirm.
- Important — empty the Trash, or the space does not come back. Files moved to Trash stay on your phone for 30 days before they are deleted automatically. To reclaim the space now: tap Menu, tap Trash, select the files, tap the Delete icon, and confirm.
While you are in Clean, the other suggestion cards there — junk files, large files, downloaded files, unused apps, memes and screenshots — are worth working through as well. Each one ends the same way: the files go to Trash, so empty the Trash afterwards.
Clear out downloads
In Files by Google, tap Browse, then Downloads. Anything you have already used — installers, PDFs, saved videos — can usually go. Empty the Trash afterwards.
Step 3: Check the space and run the backup again
- Go back to Settings → Storage and check the free space. Aim for at least 1 GB.
- Open the app again and start your backup.
If your phone still shows very little free space after all of this, the Trash or Bin in one of your apps is the usual culprit — those files are still on the phone until it is emptied.
If you need any additional assistance, please contact Picture Keeper Support.