
Applications such as Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp can fill your phone’s storage without you realizing it. This is because, by default, these programs download a lot of content on your Android automatically. However, it is possible to prevent this from occurring.
Messenger and social networking apps often have settings to prevent unnecessary files from taking up space in your phone’s memory. See, in the following tutorial, the step by step of how to avoid this problem and prevent your smartphone from being slow and freezing on a daily basis.
Android: five tips to gain more space on mobile
How to free up space on your Android’s memory
On WhatsApp: stop automatic media download
Step 1. In WhatsApp, go to the conversations tab and then tap the menu at the top right of the app. Select «Settings». In the categories, choose «Data usage».
Access the data usage settings on WhatsApp – Photo: Reproduction / Barbara Mannara
Step 2. Find the «Automatic download» category. It is now possible to prevent files from being downloaded to your phone without your prior choice. The same procedure needs to be done in the items «When to use the data network», «When connected to Wi-Fi» and «When roaming». You will touch each one and deselect all categories that you prefer not to automatically save, such as «photos», «audios», «videos» and «documents. Confirm with» Ok «.
Remove photos, videos and more media to avoid automatic downloading on Android – Photo: Reproduction / Barbara Mannara
With this procedure you will continue to receive these files and media in conversations with your friends and groups. The difference is that to download you will need to touch each one and there will be no automatic download. As a bonus, you still save mobile data when the app doesn’t download these media by itself.
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On Facebook Messenger: prohibit automatic downloading of media in the gallery
Step 1. Open Facebook Messenger on Android and tap the profile icon at the top right of the app. In the list of resources select «Photos and media».
Access the Facebook Messenger photos and media menu – Photo: Reproduction / Barbara Mannara
Step 2. To not automatically download all the images received in the conversations in the gallery, disable the key next to «Save photos», keeping it in «gray». It is also possible not to save the new photos registered with the Messenger camera. To do this, turn off the switch next to «Save captured photos».
Disable automatic photo download in the Android gallery – Photo: Photo: Reproduction / Barbara Mannara
Your friends will still be able to send the photos and videos to you, but you will only save whatever you want to the phone gallery.
On Instagram: stop saving a copy of the photos posted in the feed or Stories
Step 1. Open Instagram on Android and tap the «Profile» icon. Then select the menu button, indicated by «three dots» at the top right of the app. To prevent automatic media downloads, find the «Settings» category, then disable the key next to «Save original photos» and «Save video after publishing» in the social network feed.
Open your Instagram profile settings and disable automatic photo and video downloading – Photo: Photo: Playback / Barbara Mannara
Step 2. An adjustment can also be made in Stories to help save space on Android. To do this, scroll up the same settings screen and tap on «Story Settings». At the end of the list, disable the key (grayed out) in the «Save shared photos» function.
Prevent automatic download of Instagram stories on Android – Photo: Photo: Playback / Barbara Mannara
Facebook: clear the cache for internal navigation
Facebook offers an internal browser to access links on the social network. However, some access data is saved in the cached application and cookies. It is not known how much space it occupies, but in doubt it is worth doing a cleaning over there too.
Step 1. Open the app and tap the menu, indicated by three lines. Find «Application settings». Then select «Delete browsing data from your phone». Just confirm to do the cleaning.
Clear Facebook’s cache and cookies on Android – Photo: Photo: Reproduction / Barbara Mannara
Extra tip for those who have Android: clear the cache of apps on the system
The user can also do a manual cleaning of each application, erasing the cache saved on the phone. These files can take up a lot of space on the device, with remnants of accessed images, videos, unimportant data and more.
Step 1. Access the «Configure» app in the Android application menu. Then, find the «Applications» item.
Open application settings on Android – Photo: Photo: Playback / Barbara Mannara
Step 2. Select the app you want to clean. In this example we will use Facebook. Touch the «Storage» option.
Access the application storage on Android – Photo: Photo: Reproduction / Barbara Mannara
Step 3. Note that the space occupied by that application’s cache will be shown. To delete, tap «Clear cache». The counter will be reset and the space will be released on the cell phone.
Clear the application cache to free up space on Android – Photo: Photo: Playback / Barbara Mannara
Repeat the same step by step to clear the cache of all messenger and social media apps on Android. You can also do this faster using CCleaner, Clean Master on your phone or another application.