Gransnet forums

Technology

Phone running out of storage space.

(36 Posts)
Nadateturbe Thu 03-Dec-20 08:53:12

I'm not sure if anyone can help with this but here goes.
I have a Samsung J3 2016. Great little phone, but it's running out of memory. I have an SD card and I save photos and videos to that and also transferred messenger. Phone keeps telling me to delete unused applications to free up space. But how do I know which ones to delete? When I try to do so I get a message that this may affect operation of some functions.
My OH has the same problem and now his Whatsapp won't work as he can't download the update.
Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do? Would it be easier just to get a new phone.
Thanks for reading. I hope I've explained it clearly.

nadateturbei Mon 07-Dec-20 12:09:53

Greciangirl I deleted facebook on OH phone did updates on wharsaipp, then reinstalled FB. You need to delete something that uses a lot of mbytes.
Thanks Sashabel and everyone else.So many useful tips. Will also look at clean Master.
SD cards are good and easy. But older phones won't let you move so much to a card.

Sashabel Sun 06-Dec-20 10:08:43

I've also got the Samsung J3 and have disabled the following with absolutely no detrimental effect on my phone -
Dictionary
Duo
Excel
Google Play Movies
Google Play Music
One Drive
Power Point
Skype
Word
You Tube

In addition, if you go to "Device Care" in your settings and you can free up some space under the "Memory" button. Also take the opportunity to Optimise your phone and check on the security

Knittynatter Sun 06-Dec-20 08:21:50

Why don’t you print out your favourite photos? I’m guilty of hording photos on my phone but they never really get looked at so I make an effort every month to print out my favourite ones and delete the others. Modern technology is amazing but a printed picture is a joy! The apps I use are FreePrints and Photobooks - others are available.

lynx Sat 05-Dec-20 13:27:52

I have the same problem with my J3 2016 so thank you all for your suggestions! And to the o p for putting the question!

maddyone Sat 05-Dec-20 12:41:07

Can up you save your photos and videos to the cloud?

25Avalon Sat 05-Dec-20 11:24:06

You could get a photo stick which will store all your photos and videos, delete duplicates and store in date order. You can get ones that upload from your phone and your computer. The cheapest option is to upload your photos from your phone to your computer and buy the photo stick that just uploads and stores from your computer so it is backed up.They cost about £30 so could make a nice Christmas present. I am going to ask dd to get me one, probably The Photostick which has good reviews.

pce612 Sat 05-Dec-20 11:21:37

Move all of your photos etc onto a pen drive or your computer. Should free up a lot of space.

Greciangirl Sat 05-Dec-20 11:21:35

I have the same problem on my IPad.

It won’t update the software until I delete some apps etc.
I have deleted apps and messages but still no update.
I don’t understand enough to mess around with it.

Gwenisgreat1 Sat 05-Dec-20 11:09:51

I subscribe to Know-How (Pc world- Currys). It costs around £70 per year. They save me a fortune those technicians. They 'got into' my Macbook which wasn't working well, it took quite a while as I watched things flitting on my screen. It's now only half full. Its a phone in service, it's usually a clear speaking technician at the other end - I can't speak highly enough about their service!! One of the numbers is 08000121909. Good Luck!!

inishowen Sat 05-Dec-20 11:02:24

I had the same problem. My daughter helped me go through it and we deleted all the videos my granddaughter had put on. Problem solved.

Jillybird Sat 05-Dec-20 10:53:38

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tallyann1 Sat 05-Dec-20 10:10:54

Yes had my old iPhone for about seven years and eventually ran out of storage despite deleting what I could.. I then paid 79p a month for more but that soon filled up and in the end just had to buy a new phone with loads more storage .. it’s really annoying because it really was all the updates that filled up the phone...

Nadateturbe Fri 04-Dec-20 14:19:49

Making headway with deleting stuff especially whatsapp. Have now 850mb free! Still haven't worked out how to safely choose apps to delete or transferring to my SD card. I have transferred messenger. I had already transferred photos videos documents. Getting there. Thanks for encouragement

MissAdventure Thu 03-Dec-20 21:06:37

I had the same problem with my j5, even though I have always had Samsung phones.
The j5 was the worst for getting bogged down with 'stuff'.

Each model seems to improve one bad feature and lose two good ones.

diygran Thu 03-Dec-20 20:01:27

Am having same problem on my Samsung J5. Have SD card and photos on cloud but still have little storage.
Today husband and I were shopping for update phone for him. He bought samsung A21s which has 32gb storage plus 32gb card. My J5 only has 8gb.
Dearer phones now have 128gb or more.

Luckygirl Thu 03-Dec-20 19:46:26

You can save the photos (which take up lots of space) in the cloud or download to your computer and save them there or write to disc or other backup from there.

Nadateturbe Thu 03-Dec-20 19:14:28

Gardenersdelight2 ( what a lovely name) thanks. I wish I had read that half an hour ago. I had a chain of long messages with a friend goung back to 2016 But will be useful for others.

Gardenersdelight2 Thu 03-Dec-20 17:45:28

You can delete all messages/ pictures in one go if you go to the three white dots at the top right corner of a chat then click on more, then clear chat.
If you want to keep some messages or pictures in a chat hold don on particular ones to highlight and across top of screen a bar will appear with different symbols if you tap the star the items will be saved until you unsafe them
Hope that helps?

nadateturbei Thu 03-Dec-20 17:28:55

Thanks again!

chelseababy Thu 03-Dec-20 16:47:41

Also you can delete the cache. I think on the Samsung you have to go into each app to do it but it frees up some memory

MissAdventure Thu 03-Dec-20 16:11:16

You can also uninstall updates on apps that you don't use much.

Grannynannywanny Thu 03-Dec-20 16:07:36

Another point worth checking in phone settings is whether it’s set to save every WhatsApp photo and video clip to the phone. I was doing that for months before I realised I had the normal photo album plus a WhatsApp photo album. Every photo and clip I received was being duplicated to there. I adjusted the WhatsApp settings and it no longer happens.

Nadateturbe Thu 03-Dec-20 16:02:53

Deleting whatsapp messages and photos has helped a lot. I will try texts now. It all takes time and energy. And is tiring on the eyes.
I have an SD card but my phone doesn't let me transfer much, probably because its 2016.
I solved the Whatsapp problem on OH phone by uninstalling Facebook, which allowed me to update WhatsApp, and then reinstalled it. My OH is on a guitar group on FB which is important to him.
There are lots of good helpful ideas here to explore,. So thank you everyone. Very much appreciated. ?

MissAdventure Thu 03-Dec-20 11:51:42

There are apps you can get, such as 'cleanmaster' which will clean out anything not needed, alert you to photos which are almost identical, and allow you to do a 'quick boost' by just pressing an icon.

Also, you can move things to your storage card, rather than the phone's internal storage. I have ebay installed and it's on my SD, but when it updates automatically, it reverts to being stored in the phone.

It may be worth checking out what is stored where.

Grannynannywanny Thu 03-Dec-20 11:34:05

I’m a terrible hoarder on my phone. I currently have over 4,000 photos and video clips. I enjoy browsing through them. I do have them all backed up so there is no need for them all to be on the phone but I don’t delete till I’m almost out of storage.

I recently noticed that my text messages amounted to 3GB and I deleted them. WhatsApp messages and photos creep up at an alarming rate. I’ve currently got 14gb lurking there so I’m overdue a clear out.