How to Clear Smartphone Memory: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

The smartphone is an essential part of daily life, but over time, these handy devices can start to slow down. Apps may take longer to load, storage space may run low, and photos or videos may refuse to save. These issues affect both Android and iPhone users.

The answer to these challenges often lies in freeing up memory – but how exactly do you do that? Here’s a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to clearing up memory on your smartphone, whether it’s an Android or an iPhone.

Understanding Smartphone Memory: Types and Differences
Modern smartphones have two main types of memory: RAM and built-in storage. These memory types serve distinct purposes, and understanding the difference can help you clear the right type of memory when your phone starts slowing down.

RAM is temporary storage. It stores information that apps and the operating system are actively using. The more RAM your phone has, the more apps it can handle at once without slowing down. If you notice apps lagging or stuttering, clearing the RAM is a good place to start.

Built-in Memory is where the operating system, apps, games, photos, videos, and other data are stored. Unlike RAM, built-in storage is permanent (unless you clear it). iPhones don’t allow you to add more storage, but many Android devices do offer the option of expanding storage with a microSD card. If your device warns that your storage is almost full, it’s time to clean up your built-in memory.

Here’s how to clear the memory on iPhones and Android devices.

How to Free Up Memory on an iPhone
Unfortunately, iPhone users don’t have the luxury of memory-cleaning apps that work efficiently and are free. Thus, the only way to free up space on your iPhone is to manually clear memory. Let’s walk through the steps for freeing up memory on an iPhone, specifically using the iPhone 13 mini as an example.

Step 1: Clear the RAM
There are two main ways to clear RAM on your iPhone – one with a reboot and one without. Both methods only unload apps from RAM without closing them. You can easily reopen these apps whenever necessary.

Option 1: Without Rebooting
For models without a physical Home button, you’ll first need to enable the virtual Home button. To do this, head to Settings → Accessibility → Touch, and then toggle on AssistiveTouch. This adds a virtual Home button to your screen.

Once AssistiveTouch is enabled, go to Settings → General → Power Off. Next, press and hold the Home button (physical or virtual) to return to the main screen. The RAM will now be cleared.

Option 2: Restarting the iPhone
Restarting your iPhone also clears the RAM. To restart models from the iPhone X onwards, press and hold the volume up/down button along with the side button until the “Power Off” slider appears. Slide to turn off your phone, and after about 30 seconds, press the side button again to turn it back on.

Step 2: Clear Built-In Memory
Before deleting anything from your iPhone, it’s important to know what’s taking up the most space. To check, go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage. Here, you’ll see a breakdown of what’s occupying your phone’s memory, and you can begin to take action.

Most likely, the biggest space-hogging culprits will be apps, photos, videos, and files from other apps (like mail or social media). Here’s what you can do with each:

Cloud Storage for Photos and Videos
If photos and videos are taking up too much space, consider using cloud storage to free up room. By enabling “iCloud Photos” and selecting “Optimize iPhone Storage,” your full-resolution photos and videos will be stored in iCloud, and smaller versions will remain on your iPhone. To do this, go to Settings → Photos → iCloud Photos and turn on “Optimize iPhone Storage.”

Unfortunately, iCloud storage is limited to 5 GB, and upgrading to more storage comes at a cost. You can also use third-party services like Yandex Disk, which offers 5 GB of free storage and up to 3 TB with a paid plan. Install the Yandex Disk app, log in, and enable automatic photo uploads in the settings to back up your media.

Delete Duplicate Photos
iPhones can automatically detect duplicate photos with iOS 16. To get rid of duplicates, open the Photos app, tap on “Albums,” then scroll to the “Duplicates” section. If duplicates are found, you can choose “Merge” to combine them and keep only the best-quality version.

There are also apps like Clean Master and Smart Cleaner that can help, though most require a paid subscription.

Clear App Cache
Another way to free up space is by clearing the cache of apps. Many apps – especially messengers and social media apps – accumulate a lot of temporary files. While iOS doesn’t allow clearing the cache for all apps at once, you can remove cached data from apps like Telegram and WhatsApp without deleting them entirely. To clear Telegram’s cache, for instance, go to the app, select “Data and Storage” → “Storage Usage” → “Clear All Cache.”

Delete Unused Apps
If you have apps you no longer use, it’s a good idea to delete them. This will save space, but you may lose app data unless you offload the app first. Offloading retains the app’s icon and data, allowing you to reinstall it later without losing anything. To enable this feature, go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage and toggle on “Offload Unused Apps.”

If you prefer to offload specific apps manually, tap on the app name in the iPhone Storage menu and select “Offload App.”

How to Free Up Memory on Samsung Devices
Samsung smartphones come with built-in tools to monitor and optimize memory usage. For this guide, we’ll use the Samsung Galaxy A51 as an example. Samsung devices have a feature called “Device Care” or “Device Maintenance,” which displays memory usage and lets you optimize your phone’s performance with a single tap.

Step 1: Clear RAM
To clear RAM on a Samsung phone, go to Settings → Device Maintenance → Memory. From here, you can unload running apps by checking their boxes and tapping “Clear.” Alternatively, restart your phone by pressing and holding the volume down and power buttons together. This will unload all apps from RAM and may speed up your device.

Step 2: Clear Built-In Memory
To see how your built-in memory is used, go to Settings → Device Maintenance → Storage. Photos, videos, and apps are usually the biggest space consumers. Here’s what you can do:

Use Cloud Storage
Samsung users can back up their media using Google Photos. Simply open the Google Photos app, tap on your avatar in the upper right corner, and enable “Back up & sync.” You can then free up space by selecting “Free up space” after your media is uploaded.

Google offers 15 GB of free storage, but if you need more, you can upgrade to a paid plan for additional storage. Other cloud storage services, like Yandex Disk, can also be used for more flexibility in managing your photos and videos.

Delete Duplicate Files
To remove duplicates, go to Settings → Device Maintenance → Storage → Duplicate Files. You can then select which duplicates to delete to free up space.

Clear App Cache
To clear app cache, go to Settings → Device Maintenance → Storage → Apps. Select an app and tap “Clear Cache” to remove temporary files.

How to Free Up Memory on Xiaomi Devices
Xiaomi smartphones use the “Security” app, which helps monitor memory usage and optimize performance. To get started, open the app and tap on “Cleaner” to perform a basic cleanup.

Step 1: Clear RAM
To monitor RAM usage on Xiaomi, go to Settings → Desktop → Show Memory Status. This will display RAM usage in multitasking mode. To clear RAM, open the “Security” app, tap on “Cleaner,” and select which apps you want to close.

Step 2: Clear Built-In Memory
Like Samsung, Xiaomi devices allow you to see which categories of data are taking up the most storage. To check, go to Settings → About Phone → Storage. You can clean photos and videos using cloud storage, clear app cache, and perform a deeper cleanup using the “Security” app.

Cloud Storage
Upload photos and videos to Google Photos or another cloud service to free up space. You can upload up to 15 GB for free with Google Photos, or use alternatives like Yandex Disk for additional storage.

Clear App Cache
To clear app cache, open the “Security” app, tap on “Apps,” and select an app to clear its cache.

How to Free Up Memory on Honor and Huawei Devices
Like other Android devices, Honor and Huawei smartphones come with built-in tools to clean up memory. For example, the Honor 20 has the “Phone Manager” app, which provides optimization features.

Step 1: Clear RAM
To clear RAM on Honor and Huawei devices, press the square button at the bottom of the screen, then tap the recycle bin icon to close all running apps. Alternatively, restart the phone to free up RAM.

Step 2: Clear Built-In Memory
Go to Settings → Memory to view what’s taking up space. Use the “Phone Manager” app to perform basic cleanups, and upload photos and videos to the cloud to free up space.

General Tips for Clearing Memory on Android Phones
If your Android phone still shows memory issues after clearing apps and data, consider using the built-in optimization tools. Additionally, check the cache for apps like Google Play and Play Services, as these can sometimes cause memory errors.

Conclusion
Keeping your smartphone running smoothly requires regular memory management. Whether you own an iPhone or an Android device, following the steps outlined in this guide can help you free up valuable space, improve performance, and keep your phone running efficiently. Regularly deleting unnecessary files, using cloud storage, and managing app caches are all effective ways to maintain your smartphone’s health and extend its lifespan.