Clearing Space On Android Tablet

Conker2015

Member
Apr 1, 2015
4
1
I don't know anything about android tablets, so I'd appreciate some advice, please.

A friend of a friend's android tablet is running out of storage space, and I was asked to clear some space on it. I don't know what tablet it is exactly (I wrote it down and lost the paper), but it's a Samsung with a 10" screen, running Android 4.4.4. It has 8GB of storage, 2GB or so of which seems to be a system partition, and the other 6GB for data and storage. The owner has bought a 64GB sd card (which does work with the tablet, it's not incompatible) intending to use the sd card for storage, and I've tried to get the tablet to use the card as it's primary drive instead of the tablet's inbuilt storage (the 8GB), but she doesn't know how to do this, and nor do I.

I've cleared as much space as I can from the tablet's inbuilt storage, but it's not much, as I don't know what's safe to delete. I downloaded the android version of Ccleaner, as the PC version is fantastic for getting rid of old temporary files, but it didn't report many expendable files at all on the tablet. I've moved what apps I could to the sd card, using the app manager's inbuilt function, but it seems like some must be run from the tablet's inbuilt storage, and anyway I don't think they're too big. I think there must be a lot of expendable files, such as old temporary files, or full archive files that were used to install stuff but now the archives can be safely deleted, but of course I don't know how to judge such files.

Are there any good (and free) programs that can scan the tablet and find disposable files, please? And are there any good tips on what to manually delete to save space?

I don't have the tablet with me (she uses it every day), so I can't test it at the moment, but when I see her next I'll give any suggestions here a go.

Thanks for any answers.
 

Traveller

Administrator
Staff member
Jun 16, 2012
2,858
982
There's no way to get the tablet to use the MicroSD in place of the onboard storage. Android doesn't work that way. Thus the remaining 6GB is where all your apps will be stored, and you're correct. While some apps can be moved to SD, many of them require the onboard storage to work.

As to there being a lot of "debris" left over from installs, Android apps don't leave temporary files like a Windows device does. That's not to say they don't leave stuff behind, because they do. But it's not stuff someone unfamiliar with Android is going to notice.

The best app for cleaning out a device is SDMaid. The problem is that you may have to use the Pro version to do what you need to be done.
 
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