When you need additional space on your phone for a new app or a movie, you may already have a system in place that you use.
This could involve deleting an old game or some old pictures, but you might discover that your storage is becoming a lot more streamlined over time and you might be having trouble finding something on your Google Pixel 4A that you can delete.
One thing you might want to consider is using the storage cleaning feature on the device to remove some old files that you don’t need anymore.
You can use the storage cleaner on the Pixel 4A by going to Settings > Storage > Manage storage > Clean and letting Google scrub old or unnecessary files from your device.
this is a nice, automated process that can give you that little bit of extra storage that you need to be able to download whatever file you want.
Our tutorial below provides additional information on freeing up storage automatically on the Google Pixel 4A.
How to Use Files by Google on the Pixel 4A
- Open the App menu.
- Select Settings.
- Choose Storage.
- Tap Manage storage.
- Touch Clean.
- Tap Clean to confirm.
Our guide continues below with more information on using the cleaning feature for your Google Pixel 4A storage, including pictures of these steps.
If you also use an iPhone then our article on how to delete passcode on iPhone 13 can show you how to make it easier to log into the device.
How to Free Up Some Storage on the Google Pixel 4A (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed on a Google Pixel 4A in the Android 11 operating system.
Step 1: Swipe up on your Home screen to open the Apps menu.
Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the list and select the Settings option.
Step 3: Scroll down and touch the Storage button.
Step 4: Tap the Manage storage button near the top of the screen.
Step 5: Tap the Clean button.
Step 6: Touch Clean again to confirm that you want Google to clean up old files.
As indicated on this notification window, this can use some data and battery as the cleaning is being performed.
Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion about using the cleaning feature on the Google Pixel 4A to delete temporary app files.
More Information on Using the Manage Storage Feature in Android 11
Using the Manage Storage feature on your Pixel 4A is a good way to free up a small amount of space, but you might find that it isn’t as effective as you had hoped if you need to free up a lot of space.
When you use the clean feature described above, the majority of what Google is going to delete are temporary app files. These are things like cache or temporary files that are no longer needed by the apps, but which are still present on the phone.
If you need a lot of room on your phone then you are going to need to be a bit more aggressive in deleting items. This includes the removal of large apps that you aren’t using anymore, as well as deleting media files like pictures and videos.
These are the files that usually take up the most space on the device and are the ones that you need to delete when you need several GB of space for a new app or something.
Since the cleaning feature used battery and data, it’s probably best to do it at home or work where you can connect to Wi-Fi and charge your phone.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing technology how-to articles and tutorials for over a decade. He has extensive experience in information technology both in small business and as a consultant.
His articles have appeared on dozens of websites and been read millions of times.
He covers many different topics concerning technology, but focuses primarily on smartphones, consumer software, and consumer electronics.
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