Having enough storage space on your Samsung Galaxy J2 is important for installing apps, taking photos, downloading files, and more. Here are some tips to help you free up storage space on your J2.
Check Your Storage Usage
First, it’s helpful to understand how your storage is being used. Go to Settings > Device maintenance > Storage to see a breakdown of space usage by apps, images, videos, audio, and more. This will show you which types of files are taking up the most room so you can focus your cleanup efforts.
Clear Cache and Temporary Files
Cached data and temporary files can build up over time and take up valuable storage, especially from apps and your browser. To clear cached app data, go to Settings > Apps and tap on each app to access its storage. Then tap “Clear cache” and “Clear data” if the options are available.
To clear your browser cache and temporary files, open the Chrome app (or your preferred browser) and access its settings. Look for options to clear browsing data, cached images and files, cookies, and site data and tap to clear them out.
Offload Unused Apps
Apps you never or rarely use are just taking up precious space. You can uninstall apps completely or use the Offload feature to temporarily remove them. Offloading keeps app data in case you want to reinstall later. Go to Settings > Apps, select the app, and choose Offload.
Remove Downloaded Files
Files you have downloaded from the internet, like PDFs, images, videos, and more can quickly consume storage over time. Periodically go through your downloads folder and delete files you no longer need.
Also check other folders like your camera gallery, screenshot folder, audio files, and more. Delete obsolete files, images/videos you don’t need, and clear out any junk.
Transfer Photos and Videos
Your camera gallery tends to take up more and more space as time goes on. You can manually back up photos and videos to cloud storage, your computer, or an external hard drive. Then remove them from your J2’s local storage.
Some options for uploading or transferring your media files include:
- Google Photos – Auto-backup and sync with cloud storage
- Dropbox – Upload files to store in the cloud
- USB cable – Transfer files to a computer
- External SD card – Move files to portable storage
Turn Off Auto-Sync for Cloud Services
Apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and others can automatically sync files and data to your phone’s storage. While convenient, this can quickly consume local storage. Check their settings and consider turning off auto-sync.
You can then choose to manually load specific files as needed instead of everything syncing automatically.
Use Streaming Instead of Downloads
When listening to music or watching videos, streaming content uses less storage than downloading files directly. Use apps like YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services to minimize local media files.
Disable any auto-download options that apps may have for music, podcasts, and video content.
Back Up and Reset Your Phone
If you’ve tried all other options and still need more room, consider backing up your phone and then performing a factory reset. This will wipe your data and restore your J2 to original factory conditions.
To backup, make sure your contacts, photos, videos, and other personal files are transferred to your Google Account, SD card, computer, or cloud storage. Also be sure to deactivate accounts before resetting your device.
Then go to Settings > General management > Reset > Factory data reset. Read any prompts carefully and select Reset to erase all data from the device storage.
Expand Storage with an SD Card
If you need more than the 8GB or 16GB of built-in storage on your J2, you can expand the available space using a microSD card. Make sure to purchase a compatible, high speed card with enough storage for your needs.
Turn off your phone, insert the SD card into the slot, then reboot. The card should automatically mount and be available for storing files after formatting it.
You can set your camera to save new photos and videos directly to the SD card. Move files and media from internal storage to the card when you need more room.
Delete Large Files
Very large files like high resolution photos, videos, app installers, and downloaded movies can quickly eat up gigs of storage. Seek out any files that are over 100MB in size or larger and delete them if they are no longer needed.
Sort your photos and videos by size – the largest files are likely very high resolution images and long videos.
Check your downloads folder and app installers. Remove any huge files you don’t actually need or use.
Remove Widgets
Home screen widgets can gradually use more storage in the background. If you have a lot of widgets, try removing some that are not critical. This can provide a small but helpful boost in available space.
Clear Messaging Attachments
Text message threads and group chats can accumulate attachments over time – memes, images, videos, audio, documents and more. Open conversations and delete old attachments to free up space.
Manage iCloud Storage
If you use Apple iCloud storage on your Samsung device, check what content is being synced and delete unnecessary backups, documents, photos and other files.
Disable iCloud Drive sync or specific apps like iCloud Photos to reduce the amount of cloud files stored locally.
Uninstall Bloatware
Bloatware refers to pre-installed system apps that come on your Samsung J2 and cannot normally be deleted. You can often disable these instead of completely uninstalling.
Go to Settings > Apps, select system apps you don’t use, and choose Disable. This prevents them running in the background and occupying storage.
Delete System Caches
Android stores system cache files that help quickly load apps and sites. Over time, these caches can grow and occupy storage. You can safely clear out these files in your storage settings.
Go to Settings > Storage > Cached data and tap OK to clear cached data. Your J2 will recreate any caches needed after you reboot it.
Conclusion
Freeing up storage space on your Samsung Galaxy J2 gives you more room for the apps, photos, videos, and files that matter. Follow these tips to delete unnecessary files and data, disable unwanted features, manage cloud storage, expand with an SD card, and keep your J2 running smoothly.