How to free memory on the Galaxy S4 to get more storage space

There will come a time when all those photos, apps and your ever-expanding music collection take their toll on your Samsung Galaxy S4. All of the free space you once had has gone. What can you do? Thankfully, you can get back on track very easily and reclaim valuable megabytes, even gigabytes. Here's how to free up storage on the Galaxy S4 to make more room and improve its performance.

We'll share our top tips for freeing up storage on the Galaxy S4.

Remove unused apps

This is the quickest and easiest way to free up space. You might be surprised to discover just how much space some apps occupy. Be ruthless: if you don't use an app or game anymore, uninstall it.

Getting rid of apps is an easy way to free up storage on the Galaxy S4.

Head to Settings > More > Application manager and take a browse through the list. Here, you can see how much space each app is taking up, and the bar at the bottom of the screen shows how much free space you have. Just tap any app you no longer need and then hit Uninstall. Work your way through the list, repeating the process.

Clear caches

While you're looking at the list of apps you have installed and want to keep, there's something else you can do to free up space – clear the app's cache. The app's cache can quickly accumulate hundreds of megabytes, and when you have a large number of apps installed, that adds up to a large chunk of storage space.

App caches can quick spiral out of control, so have a clear out from time to time. 

Tap Settings > More > Application manager and tap each of the listed apps in turn. In the Cache section you will see how full the cache is. Claim back this space by simply tapping the Clear cache button. You can also use the Clear data button to free up even more space, but this will completely reset an app to the state it was in when you first installed it, removing all your settings and data, so approach with caution.

Delete music and photos

If you listen to music on your phone, you've probably given up a good deal of space to store your favorite tracks. And we all know how easy it is to fire off a huge number of high resolution photos that quickly gobble up lots of space.

Photos take up lots of space – delete them or move them to your computer. 

Open up the Gallery app and browse through the various albums. You'll almost certainly be able to track down a few shots that didn’t turn out quite as planned – perhaps you hit the shoot button too early, or maybe your hand moved mid-shot. In gallery view, switch to file selection mode by tapping and holding on the first image you would like to delete.
You can then select any other images (or videos) you would like to delete. Tap the trash can button at the top of the screen to get rid of them. Similarly, you can open up the Music app and delete any albums or individual tracks you no longer need.

Use a MicroSD card

A great way to gain more storage is to add a MicroSD card to your Galaxy S4. To install it you just need to pop off the rear of the case and you'll find the MicroSD slot next to the SIM port. Once installed you can store all manner of files on your new card, but it's also possible to move apps you already have installed onto it to help free up space without actually having to get rid of anything.

Apps don't have to stay on your phone, you can move them to a memory card. 

When you've added a memory card, go to Settings > More > Application manager and locate an app. Tap it and then tap the Move to SD card button. You can repeat the process for as many apps as you like. It is worth bearing in mind that this will affect the performance of some apps, but you can always move a particular app back to phone storage if it proves to be problematic. The move option will not be available for all apps.

Delete downloaded and miscellaneous files

As you browse the web, it's very easy to download PDFs and other files that you look at once and then never need again. It's worth taking a look in your Downloads folder to see if you have anything you can get rid of.

Check for forgotten downloads that could be eating up your storage space.

Go to the Downloads app and long press on a file you don't need, tap any extra files you want to delete and hit the trash can icon.
Using all of these tips, you might well be surprised at how much space you can free up.
Were you able to free up a lot of space? Did you notice an improvement in performance? Let us know in the comments.