FREE UP HIDDEN SPACE ON YOUR PHONE & TABLET

What you need: Android phone or tablet Time required: 20 minutes

Googlerecently released a handy, free Android app called Files Go that lets you find and delete files that are taking up storage space, including duplicates and downloads. It also identifies which apps haven’t been used in the last

month, so you can uninstall any you no longer need in one go. The app is a beta version but it worked perfectly well on our phone, helping us recover more than 10GB in a matter of minutes and making it noticeably faster.

STEP Install and open the 1 app ( www.snipca. com/26338), tap Agree, Allow, then OK 1 . At the top, you’ll see how much of your storage space you’ve used 2 . The app has two main sections - Storage and Files 3 . In the ‘Duplicate files’ section you’ll see how much space you can free up by deleting those files 4 . Tap this to see all your duplicate files - photos, videos, music, PDFS and downloads. By default, these are displayed as large thumbnails.

STEP Tap the View icon 1 2 to see them as a list, with file size and date saved. The Sort icon 2 lets you sort these files by name, date or size. Tick ‘Smart suggestions’ 3 to delete the older versions of all your duplicates (untick any duplicates you want to retain). At the top, you’ll now see how much space you can free up by deleting your selected files 4 . Tap Delete 5 , then Delete again to confirm. You’ll see a summary of how much space you’ve regained. Now return to the main section.

STEP The app also lets you identify and delete 3 your apps’ temporary files 1 , plus files you’ve downloaded 2 and ‘large’ files (over 10MB) 3 . In each case you’ll see how much storage space you can regain by deleting them 4 . Tap a section and – as in Step 2 – you’ll see two buttons at the top right to change your view and sort your list. To delete all listed files in one go, tick ‘All items’ at the top. You can then untick any items you want to retain. Finally, tap Delete, then tap Delete again to see how much space you have recovered.

STEP On the main screen, you’ll also see sections for apps that 4 download files to your device, including Whatsapp and Skype. This is useful because apps like Whatsapp don’t display all the media files it downloads in one convenient location. Select the apps on the main screen, then as in Step 2, adjust the view and sort settings 1 to suit your needs. Tick ‘All items’ 2 , untick any you want to retain, tap Delete 3 , then Delete again to confirm. We recovered about 2.5GB by deleting 3,219 unwanted files 4 from Whatsapp alone.

STEP Next, tap the Files 6 tab 1 . You’ll see seven options – Downloads, ‘Received files’, Apps, Images, Videos, Audio and Documents 2 . Tap any of these to see further options. For example, tap Videos 3 to see all videos on your device, as well as tabs at the top to see videos you’ve created or downloaded using specific apps – your Camera, Whatsapp, Skype, email and so on (see screenshot in Step 7).

STEP Next, tap the Find Unused Apps section. You now 5 need to grant Files Go permissions, so tap Go To Settings to open the ‘Apps with usage access’ section 1 . Tap Files Go 2 , then tap the ‘Usage access’ slider to turn it on. Tap the back button 3 to return to the app, then tap the ‘Unused apps’ section. You’ll now see a list of apps you haven’t used for a month (and the date you last did). Tap to select the apps you don’t use (or tap ‘All items’ at the top), then tap Uninstall. You’ll need to tap OK to confirm uninstalling each app one at a time.

STEP It’s easy to share or delete multiple items at once 7 from any of these tabs. First, tap and hold an item to select it 1 , then tap other items you want to share or delete 2 . To share them, tap the share icon 3 , then select the app you want to use. To delete items, tap the bin icon 4 , then tap Delete. Alternatively, select one item, then tap the three dots 5 to see options to rename the file or see information about it (location, file size and date you created/downloaded it). ●