Your Guide to Freeing Up Storage on Digital Devices
Computers, tablets, and smartphones have a limited amount of available disk storage. Some users do not encounter problems with running out of free space because they do not bother keeping that much stuff on their devices.
On the other hand, there are plenty of people who would love to have more total storage available because the default setup seems to never be enough.
If the problem sounds familiar and you want to find solutions to it, this article should be quite useful. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective ways to deal with storage issues on your digital devices.
Deleting Duplicates
Duplicate files are tricky because you might not even be aware of their existence. A good example of this could be images that you take on your smartphone. Tapping the camera button multiple times snaps the picture and creates a few copies of the same image.
Check the photos folder and find out if you have duplicates. Delete them manually to free up the space.
As far as other devices go, there might be different cases of when you or even an operating system creates a duplicate file. Since keeping track of these things can be too tricky, you might need to find a software solution, such as a duplicate checker, that can find redundant files for you.
Taking Care of Temporary Storage
Temporary storage is another example of files that you might have an overabundance of on your computer or mobile device.
Cache, app extensions, plugins, and other temporary system junk is more or less useless.
Clearing temporary junk frees up the drive space a little while also leaving the system with fewer files to overload it, and that helps with the overall performance.
Similar to the duplicate file problem, this one is also tricky. You usually need to tinker with settings to access temporary data. And even then, you might accidentally delete an important file without even realizing what happened. If you are not certain which caches can I delete Mac OS or another operating system created over time, leave it be.
Avoiding Large Media Files
Keeping large media files on your devices is not a modern approach to media consumption. These days, it makes little sense to bother downloading and storing movies, TV shows, documentaries, and other media directly on your peripherals.
Instead, you would be better off sticking to streaming services. Netflix, Disney+, HBO, Hulu, Amazon, and other networks offer classic shows and movies as well as original content to attract new users. For music, there is Spotify and even YouTube.
By relying on streaming networks, you do not have to worry about cluttering your computer or smartphone with media files. Instead, download a dedicated application or open an Internet browser and log in to your account, where you can watch and listen to media without needing to download it.
In addition to solving potential storage issues, you will also discover a much more convenient way to consume media.
Using External Storage
External storage offers a decent alternative. Instead of figuring out which files you can delete permanently, why not consider which files you can transfer to a different location?
There is no need to keep everything on the computer, tablet, or smartphone. A file can be accessed later and in a different location.
There are two notable types of external storage—physical accessories and clouds.
In the case of physical accessories, you will have to purchase an external hard drive or a USB flash stick. Connect the accessory to your device and copy files there. The next time you need to access the data, connect the peripheral and transfer the files back.
Now, in the case of cloud storage, everything is much easier as you get to benefit from a digital approach to managing files.
Moving and modifying files directly in the cloud is an added benefit, not to mention that you do not have to worry about purchasing actual physical storage accessories.
It can be a bit off-putting to pay a monthly or yearly fee to access enough storage on your account (free accounts only get a few gigabytes), but the extra price for convenience is more than justifiable.
One final thing to mention is that both cloud services and physical storage accessories can also be used as a means to back up your data.
Scanning for Malware
The last bit of advice is to use antivirus software to scan your devices and confirm that they are not affected by malware.
Certain cybersecurity threats find their way into digital devices and begin to slowly consume the available storage. Little by little, they continue to consume free space and do not stop unless you eliminate the threat.
Overall, malware and other security issues are significant issues, and they should be solved right away. Be sure to have antivirus software that is there to assist you.
