My phone had less than 3 GB of free space, so I deleted several apps and around 10 GB of videos. However, the available space still hasn't increased, and the storage statistics sometimes show even more space being used when I check them. What could be causing this, and how can I actually reclaim the space?
4 Answers
Deleted photos and videos may still be sitting in the device’s Trash or Recently Deleted folder. Empty that folder manually, since many phones keep deleted items for around 30 days before removing them permanently.
Storage totals can take a while to update, especially after deleting a large amount of data. Give it a few minutes and restart the phone so it can recalculate the storage properly.
Check whether you removed the files from the phone itself or only from a cloud photo service. Also look at app caches and large downloads, since those can quietly consume several gigabytes. Your phone’s storage settings should show which apps or categories are using the most space.
Some apps keep cached files, offline videos, downloads, or temporary data even after you remove other content. Clear caches where appropriate and make sure an app was fully uninstalled rather than just removed from the home screen.
I hadn’t considered that the files might still be counted after deletion. I’ll check the Recently Deleted and Trash folders.