How to empty the trash on your mobile

You are a lover of photography and you often use your smartphone to immortalize the cities you visit during your many travels: for this reason, the device’s memory is always full and you would like to know how to do some cleaning, emptying the bin. .

How do you say? This is exactly the way things are and you wonder if I can help you accomplish this specific operation? Of course, you don’t have to worry at all, it is possible to do it very simply: some Android devices integrate a series of cleaning tools that, in a couple of taps, allow you to delete all unnecessary files in memory. In addition, all smartphones and tablets, both Android and iOS / iPadOS, have a special recycle bin dedicated to deleted images, which can be emptied to obtain additional space.

If the topic is of interest to you, therefore, I suggest you take a few minutes of free time to read my instructions on how to empty your mobile phone bin : it is a very simple procedure to carry out, also suitable for less experienced users. Are you ready to get started? Yup? Very good! I wish you a good reading and a good job!

Index

• How to empty the trash on your mobile: Android
  • Photo basket
  • Integrated cleaning tools
  • SD Maid
  • Google files
• How to empty the trash on your mobile: iPhone

How to empty the trash on your mobile: Android

Let’s start this guide by analyzing the functioning of what, in my opinion, represent the best tools to empty the Android trash .

Photo basket

Almost all applications used to manage the Android photo gallery are equipped with a recycle bin dedicated to images deleted from the device. As a rule, it is automatically emptied at regular intervals of time, or when the memory of the smartphone or tablet is full; however, you can force the deletion of photos and videos stored in the Android recycle bin in a very simple way.

Like? I’ll explain it to you right away. To start, locate the app dedicated to managing the Photo Gallery , open it and press the button dedicated to the trash ; if you can’t find it, try calling up the app’s main menu by pressing the dedicated icon (depicting three horizontal lines , three vertical dots or a gear ) and look for the trash can inside.

After entering the trash, look for the button to empty it or delete all the elements , press it and, knowing that the deletion of data is irreversible , confirm the next warning, in order to delete all the images contained in it.

Unfortunately it is not possible for me to provide you with specific information for the model of smartphone or tablet in your possession, as many manufacturers customize the applications dedicated to the photo gallery, but I can give you some concrete examples of action.

For example, if you use the Google Photos app , open it, tap the Collection tab located at the bottom right and then the Trash button , visible at the top of the panel that is shown to you.

Keep in mind that the Google Photos recycle bin contains not only the images deleted from the Android device in question, but from any other device associated with the same Google account and on which the Google Photos service has been previously configured.

Having clarified this, to delete all the images present, tap the button (⋮) located at the top right, choose the Empty Trash item from the menu that appears and press the Delete and Allow buttons , to confirm the willingness to proceed.

If, on the other hand, you have a Samsung device and manage images through the Gallery app , start the latter, tap the ☰ button and select the item / Trash button from the menu that appears. Finally, tap on the Empty item located at the top and confirm the willingness to proceed by pressing the Empty Trash button .

Integrated cleaning tools

On some Android devices it is possible to intervene not only on the photo gallery, but also on the system “recycle bin” using the specific cleaning application pre-installed by the manufacturer. Apps of this type allow you to delete temporary application files, browser cache, duplicate items and much more within a couple of taps but, alas, they are not always present “by default”.

Just to give you a few examples, the cleaning application on Xiaomi smartphones is called Cleaner : to access it, call up the application drawer (i.e. the area where all the installed apps reside), tap on the Security app (the shield icon on a green background) and then on the Cleaner button , visible inside.

Now, wait for the operating system examines the space occupied searching for unnecessary and affix file a check mark next to the categories of items you wish to delete (eg. Cached files , obsolete files , APK packages , residual files or files in memory apps). If you wish, you can view the details for each of the categories (e.g. the apps to which the files belong) by tapping the down arrow next to their respective names.

Having made your choice and aware that the deletion of files is final and cannot be interrupted, tap the Clean button [XX MB / GB] and wait for the operation to be completed. If you wish, you can also perform a deep cleaning of the memory, intervening on large files, duplicated photos and other superfluous elements, by tapping on the appropriate button that appears at the end of the initial cleaning.

Even the Archive app pre-installed on Samsung devices includes a practical cleaning function, which allows you to scan the memory for files in the trash of photos, messages and other parts of the operating system: to access it, open the app in question, press the ☰ button located at the top left and tap the Analyze memory item , located in the menu that appears.

Once the scan is complete, locate the box dedicated to the Trash , tap on each of the apps listed (eg. Messages ) and press the Empty and Delete buttons , to permanently delete the items in the virtual “trash”.

SD Maid

There is no “standard” application dedicated to cleaning the trash on your device and are you already thinking of downloading some from the Play Store or on the alternative market integrated on your device? In this case, be careful: there are very few cleaning apps that do their job correctly and without further burdening the device.

Numerous solutions of this type present on the Android stores, in fact, are simply bait-and-goers designed to carry other “bundled” applications or, worse still, infect the operating system with spyware , adware or other computer threats. Therefore, before downloading anything, read carefully the reviews left by other users and analyze the rating obtained by the app.

Personally, if it is absolutely necessary, I suggest you rely on the SD Maid app : it allows you to carry out a series of cleaning and optimization operations on Android, eliminating the risk of running into unwelcome apps of various types (at least at the time of writing ).

Although SD Maid can be downloaded and tried for free, both from the Play Store and from the alternative stores dedicated to devices not equipped with Google services, the basic version only allows you to analyze the memory in search of potentially useless / trashed files, without however eliminate them: to bypass this limit and unlock all features, you need to purchase the Pro version , which costs € 3.69 .

To download SD Maid, locate the app using the store search function on your device, tap on the relevant box and press the Install and Open buttons to install and then start it.

Once at the home screen of the app, tap the Scan button located at the bottom, press the Next button and provide all the necessary permissions for the app to work, answering affirmatively to the various screens that appear.

Once the analysis of the residual files of the apps , the cleaning of the system , that of the applications and that of the database (it could take up to a few minutes), tap the Run button located at the bottom, to get rid of all the unnecessary files in memory, in one shot. If, on the other hand, you want to selectively delete files belonging to a specific category (eg. Remains of applications), tap on the trash can symbol next to its name and confirm by pressing the Delete button .

If you have not yet purchased SD Maid Pro, tap the In-app purchase button (if you want to proceed via in-app purchase) or Unlock App , to download the activator from the Play Store ; if you are working on a device that does not have Google services, put the check mark next to I cannot use Google Play and follow the instructions you see on the screen to complete the transaction.

I point out that SD Maid Pro is also equipped with specific functions for the analysis of storage space and the elimination of duplicate files, which can be accessed by pressing the ☰ button located at the top left.

Google files

Last but not least, there is the Google Files app , pre-installed on most Android devices but also available for free download on the Play Store . It integrates some useful features that allow you to quickly locate potentially unwanted files and delete duplicates, screenshots, large files, downloaded files and already backed up content.

To proceed, once the app is open, tap on the Delete tab located at the bottom left and press the Delete button below the tab dedicated to unwanted files, to get rid of them immediately; then, examine the various categories proposed and, to choose and delete the files belonging to each of them, press the Select file button at the bottom of the various boxes.

The files thus deleted will be moved to the Google Files recycle bin and set up for deletion within the next 30 days; to empty the trash immediately, tap the ☰ symbol located at the top left, select the Trash item from the menu displayed on the screen, put the check mark next to the item All items and press the Delete button twice consecutively, so to be permanently deleted.

How to empty the trash on your mobile: iPhone

The Photo application , that is the default multimedia gallery of iOS, integrates a predefined function that plays the role of virtual recycle bin, in which the multimedia elements deleted both from the local device and from all other devices associated with it are temporarily stored iCloud account, if the iCloud Photos feature is turned on. Items remain in the recycle bin for 30 days, after which they are automatically deleted.

However, it is possible to manually delete the photos and videos contained in the trash of the Photos app even before they “expire”: to view the items contained within it, start the aforementioned app and then tap the Albums tab , which you can see below To the right.

Now, locate the item Recently deleted (it is located at the bottom of the displayed panel) and tap on it, so as to see all the multimedia elements contained within it.

If you want to make space in the memory of your device, delete these elements: press the Select item at the top right, then click the Delete all button and confirm the operation by tapping the Delete item that you see on the screen. After pressing the Select button , you can also tap on a single multimedia element to put the check mark on it; then you will have to press the Delete button .

If you have enabled photo storage on iCloud, the photos in the Recently Deleted folder are also visible on the official website of the same. Then access the service , press the Photos app (icon located on the main screen), tap on the Recently deleted album and then press the word Delete all at the top right.

By Apple’s precise choice, there are no working applications that allow you to clean up other parts of the operating system in a single tap, as access to the iPhone memory by third-party applications is severely restricted.

What you can do to free up more space, however, is to delete the cache of the applications installed on the “iPhone by”, in particular that of browsers and WhatsApp, which can really take up a lot of space: to find out more, I refer you to reading my guide on how to free up space on the iPhone , in which I have given you clear indications on what to do.