Have you noticed that the more you use your mobile phone or tablet, the slower it becomes over time? How not to notice! The slowdown of your Android device is related to several factors: the number of apps you have installed, the free space you have left in the terminal’s internal memory, or the number of apps and games you have open in the background. And what about temporary files?
Temporary files are all those residual files that remain on your phone when you uninstall an application. They accumulate over time, causing slowdowns and occupying storage space. The data that remains in the cache of an app would also enter this same bag. It goes without saying that if you have many apps, the volume of megabytes can be considerable. How can you erase the temporary files on Android to gain fluency and free up some space on your device?
How to delete temporary files on Android
In Windows, the process of deleting temporary files is the order of the day. However, on Android, it is not so common, and many times we end up accumulating thousands of files that we absolutely do not need at all.
Use a cleaning app
The truth is that Android has a lot of cleaning applications, which means that there is a demand for these types of utilities. One of the best is “Files by Google,” a free and ad-free file browser that also includes a comprehensive debris and temporary files cleaning tool. Let’s see how it works.
- Once the application is installed, click on the ” Clean ” button that you will see at the bottom of the screen.
- From here, you can delete temporary files that are taking up space. You can also delete photos and videos that you already have a backup copy of in the cloud (for example, in Google Photos) and applications that you no longer use. Likewise, it will also show you a list of very heavy files so that you can assess whether it is worth keeping them (otherwise, it will give us the option to delete them to free up space).
- In the lower menu, if we click on “Explore.” You can also access the “Downloads” folder. There tend to accumulate many files that you could delete. Take a look and delete everything that you no longer need.
In addition to “Files by Google,” Android also has other cleaning tools, although most are saturated with ads and extra features that we probably don’t need. In this sense, our recommendation is to opt for utilities from well-known developers with a minimum of prestige:
- Norton Clean: Locate and remove junk files, cached system debris, unnecessary items, and application cache.
- AVG Cleaner: Delete old files, uninstall applications and delete photos/videos of poor quality or that you do not need.
- Avast Cleanup: Optimize phone performance by removing residual files and applications that we no longer use.
Delete the cache of the most used apps by hand
If you are a bit lazy or do not want to install any cleaning app, you can clean the cache of the apps you use the most by hand. This will help you free up space and speed up, and improve the fluidity of applications.
Clearing the cache is a method that works especially well with web browsers (Chrome, Opera, Firefox, etc.) and social networks (Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram) since they are applications that tend to accumulate many temporary files.
- Enter the “Settings” menu of your Android.
- Navigate to “Applications and notifications” and locate the app whose cache you want to empty.
- Click on “Storage and cache” and select “Clear cache.”
- Repeat this same process with all the apps you use regularly.
As you can see, deleting temporary files from the cache is very easy to carry out, and although it can be a bit tedious, the results are immediate. A highly recommended habit when you begin to notice that the phone no longer performs like the first day.
