I found a Google app that finally showed me where all my storage was disappearing
Android Police 2026-07-15 12:15:10
Context: The author, Rahul Naskar, a tech journalist with eight years of experience covering Android, discovered a Google app that helped him manage storage on his phone more efficiently. He had been using his five-year-old Galaxy S21 as his primary phone and rarely used its default file management app. The author tried the Files by Google app and was impressed with its ability to free up storage space quickly and easily.
Key Facts
- The author used the Files by Google app to delete over 2,000 old screenshots on his Samsung Galaxy S21, which occupied almost 1.5GB of space, and freed up 500MB of storage by deleting duplicate photos, videos, and PDFs.
- The app detected and categorized unnecessary files into duplicates, memes, old screenshots, blurry photos, unused apps, large files, and downloaded files, making it easy for the author to select and delete them.
- The author deleted unused apps that were occupying almost 20GB of space on his phone after the Files by Google app marked them as unused and he confirmed that he hadn't opened them in a long time.
- The app helped the author free up an additional 1GB of space by deleting large files and 5MB of space by deleting 100 meme files.
- The author estimated that he freed up almost 25GB of space on his phone using the Files by Google app, which he wouldn't have realized was wasted without the app's help.