Can't free up any storage and it automatically refills back up!!!

[u/catboy519]

My phone has the full 128/128 GB storage now. And about 99% of that is system stuff and appdata for some reason, almost none of it is photos and videos.

If I want to, I could delete the appdata of some apps. But thats certainly not something I want to do, because for example if I delete the appdata of whatsapp then that means all chats are gone. I don't want that!!!!!

I don't want to delete anything that is valuable or necessary.

I already deleted the appdata of some apps like reddit and discord. But somehow the phone still crams the storage back up to 128 automatically every time, no matter how much I free up, a few days later its full again.

How can I possibly solve this? Time for a new phone even though storage is literally the only big problem I have with this one?

I'm a tech savvy person but I can't figure this one out. Fuck android and badly designed android apps tbh.

[u/Featherdust_]

How many larger apps run on your phone?

[u/catboy519 → u/Featherdust_]

Many. I've already deleted about everything that I'm willing to wipe or delete so theres not much left to free up.

[u/Featherdust_ → u/catboy519]

Yee, I freed up much space on my device aswell, rn 43,3gb/128gb

[u/catboy519 → u/Featherdust_]

I mean... for example, reddit was taking up about 1GB of space so I just deleted the appdata and logged back in.

Sounds nice, but its not much of a solution really. Because both reddit and all the other apps on my phone just see that extra space as an invitation to generate more appdata again and so my phone is back up at 128GB.

• I have to keep repeatedly clearing appdatas, which is very tiring tbh.
• Eventually, some of the apps where I DON'T want to clear or wipe the appdata, are be clogging up 99% of my whole phone storage.

Then is my choice really to either wipe appdata that includes things I don't wanna lose or else accept that my phone barely works?

While I'm ranting about android and badly designed android apps here,(so many of them),I'm also asking the genuine question for what the solution could be.

I don't want to wipe appdata for every app on the phone. I don't want to lose my notes, entire chat histories, and so on, obviously very obviously.

I also don't want my phone to be fully clogged up all the time, making it impossible for me to use most apps or update anything that forces an update.

Am I really out of options then? Does android with some big apps just absolutely suck here?

[u/thewunderbar → u/catboy519]

You're completely off base. App data is the data required for the app to run, clearing app data is not a solution. You also keep talking about how you have deleted everything you can, but are then worrying about an app with less than 1GN of storage use. That's not going to make a difference. And you're not clear on what's actually taking up the space on your phone.

This is not an Android thing. The same apps on iOS generally take up the same space.

Just because you, a random person on the internet, thinks that apps take up too much space or are poorly designrd, doesn't mean they don't take the space they do for a reason. If you think that, go ahead and write new versions of all of your apps then.

This isn't rocket science. You either delete things, or get a phone with more storage. 128 GB is not a ton of storage today. The OS and related files are almost 1/4 of that by itself. Then add in the dozens of apps, and yeah it gets to 128GB fast.

You have your options, you just don't like them, but that doesn't change what your options are.

[u/LoneSolipsist]

You don't sound like a tech savvy person by the way you're describing your troubleshooting. The app data for most apps won't take that much space, it's the cache that kills you.

My phone has.the same amount of storage as yours, and I've also got videos that I keep on it. Mine doesn't feel right back up when I delete trials, but it's yours does, it sounds like you have a rogue app.

Get rid of anything that wasn't installed through the Play store, for starters. Then get rid of any that you don't use that often until your space stops being used up. Then you'll know what the culprit is.

Don't blame Android for your lack of knowledge.

[u/Various_Excuse_4294]

Let's start with what phone do you have? Deleting appdata is not the solution. You need to remove apps, photos, videos. Or copy them to a USB stick or to an online storage. You only have 128gb, which is nothing nowadays. But your only solution is to make room with removing apps, photos or videos.

[u/TripleOGDroid]

cool story bro you have to have tons of apps to fill up 128gb on Android i have ove 65 gigs available and thats with plenty of apps and pictures and 12 gigs of music

[u/Sad_Low3239]

how about sharing a screenshot of your setting screen under "Device Care" → "Storage".

I have a Samsung S24FE which has 128GB and I have zero issues with memory. that screen will give you the explicit breakdown of you memory storage allotments. I have 194 apps. they take up 56gb.

[u/projectupload37]

My suggestion for you is to backup everything somewhere else and factory reset the phone.

Overtime a phone just gets filled up with junk.

After a factory reset. Don't install anything yet. I suggest you go in the settings and manage the pre-installed apps and uninstall or disable the ones that are unnecessary.

Then, you update the pre-installed apps you need and do a system update if there's one available.

After that, you can start installing the apps you need on the device.

[u/thewunderbar]

You have two options. Delete things, or but a new phone with more storage.

There isn't some magic pixie dust

And it's not an Android thing. Android gives users way more control. Go to to an iPhone subredit and you'll find the exact same kind of stories.