Solutions: Internal storage automatically getting low in Android

You bought the latest Android phone and it says you have 12 GB of free internal storage. That’s a lot of space and you are thinking it will be more than enough for your apps, music and videos. Barely a month and you get the “not enough space” error. You check your apps and files and find that they are using just 5GB. You wonder, what’s eating up all that space? How do I get it back? Well, the internal storage automatically getting low issue is faced by many Android users and now you can try out the following methods to get most of your internal storage back:

Methods to fix the internal storage automatically getting low issue

Method 1: Look for LOST.dir folder in your internal SD

If you frequently transfer lots of files between your Android device and PC or MAC, chances are there are huge recovered corrupted files in your LOST.dir folder. In my case, I had about 2GB of those. Is it safe to delete them? Yes. Deleting the Lost.dir folder will not cause any harm. However, if important files such as Clockword Recovery files are corrupted, chances are that they have ended in Lost.dir, you might want to try and recover them. Follow this thread if you have wanted to recover your lost clockworkmod recovery files.

No matter how many times you delete this folder, chances are it will be recreated each time you transfer files and mount/unmount your device. You can prevent those large files from piling up in LOST.DIR by always safely ejecting or unmounting your android from the PC or MAC and by avoiding  dismounting or ejection at the middle of a transfer

Method 2: Look for large thumbnail files in DCIM folder in the internal storage

A common issue experienced by many android users is that their pictures and videos folder (DCIM) increases in size by itself i.e. even when no picture or video is taken. It appears that over time large thumbnail files are created by your default gallery and have sizes that are far greater than the actual images. This is some sort of bug which still awaits a solution. However, as a temporary fix, you can simply delete the large files in the mnt/SDcard/DCIM/.thumbnails folder. I freed a total of 1.5 GB by deleting those files.
You might also want to install Quickpic and use it instead of default gallery to browse and view pictures. Quickpic gallery loads up very fast, has a clean interface and is currently the best gallery replacement for your Android. Download Quickpic 

Also Read: HOW TO FREE UP STORAGE SPACE ON ANDROID SMARTPHONES

Method 3: Install Cleanmaster to delete junk files

Cleanmaster is a really nice app which will clean your system cache, residual files from apps previously uninstalled or deleted and also delete your unwanted search histories, call logs etc. I saved over 600mb via this app. However, you might want to de-select some cache files that are important. For example- I use Pulse reader and once your news are loaded in the app, you can view them without network connection later. Hence, before cleaning, I uncheck Pulse from the list of caches.

Run System Cleaner App for android like Cleanmaster at least once a week to avoid system cache from piling up later. Download

Method 4: Move apps to external storage or SDcard using Link2SD

Link2SD is a simple application which will allow your rooted Android to force move apps to external storage or SDcard, This will save you lots of internal storage. With Link2SD even system apps are converted into user apps so that you can move them out of phone memory. This means you can now install apps beyond the limited internal system memory. Download Link2SD here

Also read: Convert installed apps to APK files

Note: It is better to partition your SD card for storing apps on your SD via Link2SD.  It is very easy to partition if you have Clockworkmod recovery installed. Most rooted devices have this.

Also read: How to flash a custom recovery on Android device and How to Install Cyanogenmod

• First, turn off or restart your phone into recovery mode.
• From there, select advanced->partition SD Card.
• From there, select how much space you want to allocate for that partition. Alternatively, you can install and use partition tools on your PC. There is one called. From the mini tool wizard you can select your SDcard, format it and then partition it into primary and extra partition using the “Create” button.
• From there, select Fat32 as your SDcard’s file system and allocate space for your primary partition and secondary partition. 
• Now when you open Link2SD you can select your new partition.
• Then, select the apps from the internal storage that you want to move to your SD.
• Then click on the action button to and click create a link.
• Now, check all the three boxes and click “OK” to create links.
• Now all your internal storage apps are moved to SD card.
• To make your external SD as default storage for apps and games, go to settings -> Auto Link -> Now, Check all three boxes and press ok.

As you can see, I managed to free more than 4GB of space by following these methods to clean unwanted files eating up my android’s internal storage. Go ahead and try these solutions and free up loads of space in your Android device.