According to one study, about 42% of people say that they run out of storage on their phones and don’t have room to add anything else.
Do you find yourself in that category and constantly Googling how to free up phone storage? Thankfully, you can do a little bit of Android maintenance and clear your Android cache.
But what is cache memory? And how do you get rid of it? Keep reading to find out how!
What is Cache on an Android?
Cache is just information that stays on your phone but comes from a website or an app. This cache helps the phone load websites or apps faster, but it does take up some of the storage space on your device.
The cache can be all kinds of things including images, files, and scripts. When the cache is stored on your device, the website or the app will read the cached file on your phone and use that to speed up the loading time.
Difference Between Cache and Data
With most Androids, you’ll be able to clear both of them out easily, but Android separates them as two different things.
For example, if you’re using Spotify, your phone will hold cache about the information on artists that you’ve listened to, the album art you’ve looked at, and what search history you’ve looked up. If you clear the cache for that Spotify app, all of that cache will take longer the load.
However, the app will also store data, which is things like your settings, login info, and the database. If you clear those out, on an Android, it will also clear cache and your data. Doing both of these will give you a clean slate as if you had just downloaded the app from the app store.
Advantages of Clearing Cache
Some people wonder if they should do it since it will make websites load slower and you could have some issues with the app or website again.
However, clearing out the cache can help you if you are having any specific issues with a website or app. If you can’t log in, the cache may be storing one of your old passwords and preventing you from logging on. When you clear the cache, you can log in with your new password without any issues!
Another reason that people clear out the cache is that it will free up actual space from your Android. If you never clear out the cache, it will just take up all your storage and prevent you from downloading new apps or taking new photos.
When you clear out this space, you can also speed up your phone.
How Often Should You Clear Your Cache?
Instead of worrying about it every day, make sure that you come up with a good schedule that works for you. For example, some people do it at the end of the week, but some people do it every month. Cached files are there to help things load faster, so you may want to keep some of them for the apps that you frequently used apps.
It’s best that you clear out the cache manually for yourself so that you know exactly what is going to be deleted. For example, you don’t want to actually delete anything that has your personal information in it because this could leave you with security issues.
How Do You Clear Cache?
There are a few different ways that you can clear cache on your Android phone.
You can either go from app-to-app and clear it all out individually, or you can go into your Android settings and clear out everything at once.
To do this, go to the device settings on your Android. If you click on “Storage Memory,” you’ll be taken to a page that shows you how much storage is left on your device and which apps are taking up the most space.
You should also see an option that says cached data that will tell you how much cached data is taking up your storage. Once you do this, a pop-up will show up. It will ask you if you want to clear out all of the cache data on your phone. If you hit okay, it will take a minute or two to clean everything out.
Every phone will be different, but in general, these steps will help you get rid of all your cache.
Be Wary of a Cache-Clearing App
Some people also don’t want to keep up with clearing the cache from their own phones, so they download some cache-clearing apps. While some of them out there work, you need to be careful about which ones you use because they can steal your data.
A lot of apps out there only take your data and send it to other servers rather than actually clearing out your cache.
You should make sure you always read the privacy policy and terms of the agreement before you download any of these apps. A lot of them will tell you that they can speed up your phone magically, but you should be wary of that.
Learn More About: What is Cache Memory?
These are only a few things you need to know when you’re wondering, “What is cache memory?” But there is plenty more for you to learn!
We know that dealing with technology can be difficult, but we’re here to help you figure it out!
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