How to Find the Large Files Eating Your Android Storage

Where large files hide

• Videos in DCIM, Movies and chat app folders.
• Downloaded films, podcasts and offline maps.
• APK installers and ZIP archives in Downloads.
• Voice notes and call recordings that add up over years.
• Backups made by messaging apps and older phones' transfer tools.

The manual way

Files by Google has a Large files card under Clean, and the Files app can sort a folder by size. It works folder by folder, which means you check each one in turn and still miss the odd file in an app's media directory.

Filter the whole phone by size

Low to Go Storage Cleaner has a Large file finder that scans all storage and filters by size bands: 100 MB and up, 500 MB and up, 1 GB and up, 5 GB and up. Each file shows its folder and type, so you can tell a holiday video from an installer at a glance, then delete, compress or leave it.

1. Open the app and choose Large files.
2. Start with the 1 GB+ filter. Decide for each: delete, compress, or move off the phone.
3. Work down to 500 MB and 100 MB.
4. Use Compress on videos you want to keep at a smaller size.

Deciding what to do with each file

• Delete: installers, archives you extracted, duplicate downloads, old backups.
• Compress: everyday videos; see compressing videos.
• Move: films and precious originals to a computer, a drive or cloud storage.
• Keep: anything you are unsure about; nothing is deleted without your tick.