Why Is My Phone Always Out of Storage?
Weekly Wheaties #2621
In this newsletter:
📝 Post: Why Is My Phone Always Out of Storage?
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: Google I/O
🗞️ In Case You Missed It: The “A” Team of Tech News
😎 Pick of the Week: Board Games and More
📦 Featured Product: Chess Boards
📝 Why Is My Phone Always Out of Storage?
Most of us don’t realize how much digital clutter we accumulate on our phones on a day-to-day basis until they start begging for more space. It may be relatively easy to add more space to a computer, but on a phone, it’s essentially impossible. Many people resort to upgrading their phone, but there are things you can do out of habit to keep your empty storage to a minimum.
As cloud storage has increased, so has our ability to store more files online. The problem is, our phones haven’t always followed with increased storage, and we may run out of storage locally on our devices. As the cameras on our phones take better quality pictures and videos, the file sizes have increased drastically. Chances are, you have a lot of pictures on your phone that are taking up a lot of storage. And if you’ve had your phone, or maybe more specifically the same account or phone number, you also probably have a ton of text messages taking up a lot of space.
To get a recap on how cloud storage works, check out my post: Understanding Where Your Data Lives and How the Cloud Works. I highly suggest using a cloud storage service. Any of them are fine, and I always suggest the one that fits within your greater account, whether that be Google, OneDrive, iCloud, etc. This is also a great place to have a backup or a second location to store data should you wish to have multiple services.
A general rule of thumb for backing up files is the 3-2-1 Rule. I explained this a bit more in depth in my post: Deleting Your Photos, Not Your Memories. While photos, pictures, and video typically take up the most space on your phones, there’s a few other things you can look into to save some space, both on your physical phone and in your cloud storage of choice, should it be getting full, too.
Regardless if you’re on Android or iOS, simply going to the settings menu of your phone will help you figure out what is taking up the most space. Typically located under Settings > General > Storage. You may also use your setting’s “Search” feature and look for pages that mention ”storage”. This may be noting file sizes for pictures, video, music, apps, movies, or even software for the OS itself. If you have updated your phone recently, a restart is sometimes required to delete older files from the system to allocate more space.
In regards to your media, videos take up a lot more space than photos. There’s also a very high chance you have duplicate copies of photos, or at least photos that are similar to other ones, in your camera roll. You can use one of a hundred apps to help locate duplicates for removal, but I find manually going through every month or so not only gives you a better result, you can look back at memories, delete unneeded photos, and perhaps remember to share a picture or two with a friend or family member you forgot about.
But before deleting pictures or videos you want to absolutely keep, be careful. Both Google and Apple are subject to the same problem many people face. If you backup your photos from your phone to your cloud storage and you delete them in one location, they may delete them in another. You need to be very careful that your photos are actually backed up before deleting them as to not accidentally delete the photo from your phone and your backup location.
Regarding text messages, I know some of you have text chains that go back to 2007 from the first iPhone. Ask me how I know. The text itself takes up space, but more often what’s happening is - if you have a text chain that has pictures or videos in it, and you saved those pictures or videos, you’re actually storing them twice. Meaning, if you backed up the pictures or video on your phone or a cloud storage service, you can delete the pictures and video within the text itself or simply delete the text message thread. You also could back up that text message thread using a third-party app. There are a lot of third party apps for this, and many of them require a fee. Some will only backup the text, and not media, thereby saving space. Others may help backup all media separately.
Another place to check for lost storage is within the apps installed on your phone themselves. The app may take up a ton of space simply from downloading it, but a lot of apps also have cached data. Cached data is temporary information apps store locally to make things load faster later. This is data is stored on your phone from just using the app, but can be removed easily. For example, if you have the Facebook app on your phone, every time you scroll and see video or pictures, they may be stored on your phone in the background (if even as a thumbnail). This can be fixed by one of two things: either by emptying the cache data within the app, or within the settings of your phone. Another option is to delete the app completely from your phone and reinstall it. That is the cleaner way, but you’ll also have to re-login to the app itself, so make sure you know your passwords.
Since apps can take up a lot of space, it will also help to audit your downloaded apps every now and then. You can do this from your phone’s app drawer or within the settings. I also recommend deleting apps you haven’t used in a while or no longer need so they may not be used to track your location or share private information. If you stumble upon an app you’re not familiar with, search for it in the app store and make note to match the app’s icon. A simple way to verify the exact app is to long press on the app, and “Share the app” with yourself via text message. When clicking the link, you’ll be routed to the app’s download page.
Your phone is the physical manifestation of your home’s junk drawer. It’s full of screenshots you forgot about, duplicate photos from family events, old videos, unused apps, and years of cached data. Make it a habit to keep your phone cleaned up:
Backup and remove old media
Delete duplicate photos
Clear app cache
Remove unused apps
Audit large text threads
Restart after updates
So, when was the last time you cleaned out your phone the same way you clean your house or office?
🗞️ ICYMI: Google I/O
Last week, Google continued sharing what’s new with Google I/O across the spectrum of services, including new ways to create and get things done in Google Workspace like voice features for Gmail, Docs, and Keep, Google Pics, and a new AI Inbox.
Gemini 3.5 Flash became Google’s new fast model for agents, coding, and long tasks
Gemini Spark introduced itself as a 24/7 personal agent that can work across Workspace apps
Search got information agents that monitor the web, plus mini apps for ongoing tasks
Antigravity 2.0 turned coding agents into a managed desktop, CLI, and SDK workflow, plus the ability to launch a team of parallel coding agents
AI Studio now lets you generate full Android apps
Watch the Google I/O '26 Keynote or the I/O '26 Recap on YouTube.
🗞️ ICYMI: The “A” Team of Tech News
AI is reshaping science, software, and the economy
Apple unveils new accessibility features, and updates with Apple Intelligence
AT&T announces new $15/month ‘Build-a-Plan’ wireless plan
😎 POTW: Board Games and More
I think it’s safe to say there are probably millions of board games and video games available to play on the number of systems made and sold over the last few decades. Board games are an interesting world of their own because some games may leave production. Board Game Arena offers a digital way of playing physical board games on the web. Some games require a premium membership, but only the host of the game needs one (not all players). Check out some board games adjacent picks below:
📦 Featured Product
If you like the board game Picks of the Week, but may want to go old school, how about a simple chess board? They make magnetic wooden sets, glass sets, and even sets that help teach you how to play. The ChessUp 2 board integrates with Chess.com and allows you to play another person or the computer while helping learn basic gameplay and openings.
