How to Empty Trash on Android

Are you using your Android phone for a long time? There may be chances of getting irritating due to the lack of internal free space. And also, you may be looking for a trash bin for your Android phone. Unlike a personal computer like Windows or Mac, an Android phone doesn't contain any separate trash folder (or application) to store all the trash files. Hence, users need to do some extra tasks to clean junk and cache files from their smartphones.

Deleting the unwanted files and apps optimized your phone and also improve device speed. Cleaning the app's cache also improves your device performance and free phone memory. Although there is no real "recycle bin" on Android, there are some tips and tricks through which you can empty your "trash" files.

In this article, we will discuss how to access trash files and delete miscellaneous files easily on an Android phone.

Improve Android performance by emptying trash files:

After using Android phones for a long time, it stores many unnecessary files that you want to delete to improve device performance and free some space. There are numerous different methods through which you can empty trash on an Android phone. Some of the effective ways to empty trash are mentioned below:

Method 1: Clearing your cached data

The device's cache data are the intermediate data stored on the device to optimize your performance. Instead, cached improve device performance but takes up memory on your phone. So it is suggested to clear cached data to free up some device space.

To clear or delete all your cache data from your Android device, go to "Settings" and click on the "storage." You will see various types of data that occupied your phone's internal storage. Click on the "Cached data," and you will found an option to delete them.

You can also delete the cached data from each particular app one-by-one. If you wish to clear cache and free some space from every single app, follow the below steps:

1. Open the device Settings.
2. Tap on the Manage apps (the word may differ from device to device).
3. Here you will see all your apps available on your device. Click on the app from which you want to delete its cache.
4. Now, click on the Clear cache button to clear its cache data.

You can repeat the above steps for all your apps to delete cache from all your apps that occupied lots of phone storage.

Method 2: Deleting downloaded files

We often keep downloading something on our phones (such as photos, files, etc.). We use those downloaded files (photos) only for that particular time, and they remain in our phone's download folder, and they take memory space. We can free some memory space by deleting all those files. To delete the downloaded files from the download folder, go to the "download" section and delete all those files which are no more required.

Method 3: Use Smart Storage

Smart Storage is a new feature introduced since Android version 8. If you are using an Android version 8 or later version device, you will find this feature on it. This feature helps in deleting the duplicate and unwanted data from the phone's storage space that is already backed up to the cloud. To access Smart Storage and empty trash files, follow the below steps:

1. Launch your device's Settings
2. Look for the Storage option and click on it.
3. On the next screen, enable the Storage manager toggle button.

It will run the Smart Storage feature in the background and automatically delete the duplicate and unwanted contents.

Method 4: Remove Unused Apps from Phone

You may have installed lots of apps, and some apps come as pre-installed on your phone that may not be in use. Such unused apps occupied lots of storage space on your phone. If you want to free some storage space and empty trash, uninstall such unused apps from your Android phone.

There are different alternative ways to uninstall apps from Android phones. One such way is by long-pressing the app icon on home and tapping on the delete option (or moving it to the delete icon). Another way is by visiting device Settings > Manage apps (Apps) and click on the app you want to uninstall. Now, click on the Uninstall button and confirm your choice.

Method 5: Deleting Trash files from the Google Photos app

Google develops Google Photos as a native photo app for Android devices. Using this app, you can manage all your photos in different ways and keep backups. When you delete anything using your Google Photos app, the deleted items goes into the Trash folder. The deleted items are only available for 60 days; after that, they will be automatically deleted.

If you want to recover that deleted photos, you have to visit at trash folder on Android. Deleting the items available in the Trash folder from app creates space on your phone.

1. Launch your Google Photos app and then click on the menu (three horizontal lines) icon to view the options list.
2. From the available folders list, tap on the trash to find all deleted pictures perform through the Google Photos app.
3. Choose the photos which you want to delete permanently and click on the delete icon to delete them.

Method 6: Remove Junk Files from Gmail

Similar to the Google Photos app, your Gmail app also stores lots of trash files and removing them from the app frees up trash in the folder. When you delete any mail, it can't get deleted instantly, and it goes to the Trash folder. The deleted items stay in the Trash folder for the next 30 days and occupy the Android device's space. After 30 days, it will automatically be deleted from your email.

To free more space on your Gmail, visit the Trash folder and empty all trash emails from there. To do this, follow the given steps:

1. Open your Gmail application on your Android phone and click on the menu (three horizontal lines) icon available at the screen's top-left corner.
2. From the list of available folders option, tap on the Trash
3. Now, choose the email you want to delete and click on the toolbar's delete
4. If you wish to delete all emails available in the Trash folder, then select all of them at once and click on the Empty Trash Now option to delete all junk emails.

Method 7: Remove Unwanted Files from Dropbox

Lots of people use Dropbox to store data from their Android phones. Dropbox is cloud-based storage that is used to manage and backup important data. Its free version offers only 2GB of storage space, so it is suggested to regularly clean trash and junks file on your Android's Dropbox app. To empty trash files available in the Dropbox app, follow the below steps:

1. Launch the Dropbox app, go to the Trash folder and click on the trash icon available at the toolbar.
2. Here, you will see all your deleted data get stored. Now, select the data that you wish to delete from the trash folder of Dropbox and click on the delete
3. Finally, confirm your delete action and wait for few seconds to finish the deletion process.

Method 8: Use Recycle Bin App

You will found numerous third-party applications on the Google Play Store that help you to delete trash and miscellaneous files from your Android device. One such app is Recycle Bin using which you can manage your deleted data on your phone. Follow the following steps to access trash data from Android phone using Recycle Bin app:

1. Download and install the Recycle Bin application on your Android smartphone by accepting all the app permissions.
2. After installation, launch the app and access the internal storage or SD card to explore storage space.
3. Here, you will see all your deleted data on your Android trash. Select the files that you wish to delete and click on the Trash button.

Method 9: Use an SD Card

If you face a problem of limited internal storage in your Android phone, use an SD card. Using the SD card on your Android smartphone is another way to expand its storage space. Almost all Android phones are coming with an extra SD card slot to manage device data easily. Connecting SD card to Android phone can move photos, music, apps, etc., from internal memory to SD card. However, not all apps support transferring from internal storage to SD cards.

Method 10: Backup your data to another safe location

Another way to empty your trash from Android is by baking up your phone's data to another safe location. You may use your PC or other devices to backup your phone's data into them. Connect your Android phone and PC and transfer files, photos, music, etc., from the phone to the PC's storage space. After that, delete that moved data from the Android phone to free up space from it. Whenever you need that data, you can directly access it from your PC or transfer back to your phone and then use it.