Smartphone owners Samsung Galaxy are often faced with a mysterious situation: the internal memory of the device is full, although the user has not installed heavy games or downloaded movies. In the storage settings, an impressive block appears called “Other”, which can occupy from 5 to 20 gigabytes or more. System cachetemporary files and remnants of deleted applications create this invisible ballast that cannot be deleted with the standard “Clear” button.
Understanding the nature of this section is critical to maintaining performance your Androidsmartphone. When free space runs out, the system starts to slow down, applications crash, and the camera may refuse to capture high-definition video. In this article, we will take a closer look at what the “Other” category actually consists of and provide step-by-step guide for safely deleting unnecessary data without losing important information.
Many users mistakenly believe that this section contains viruses or hidden system files, the removal of which will damage the phone. In fact, in most cases, this is simply accumulated “digital garbage” that the system cannot automatically classify as photos, videos or documents. Clearing the cache and competent file management will allow you to regain precious gigabytes of free space.
The nature of the “Other” section: what it consists of
The "Other" section (sometimes referred to as "System Data" or "Other") is a collection of files that the operating system One UI could not classify as standard media types. This includes temporary application files, streaming service caches, firmware update files and remnants of deleted apps. Application cache is the main culprit for the bloat of this section, since instant messengers and social networks store huge amounts of data for quick loading.
Particular attention should be paid multimedia messengers, such as Telegram or WhatsApp. They often save viewed photos and videos into hidden folders, which the system sees as unknown files. Also, offline navigator maps, downloaded podcasts and game data that are not displayed in the general list of applications can be stored here. Temporary logs systems and error reports also take up space, but usually their volume is insignificant compared to the cache of social networks.
⚠️ Attention: Do not try to delete files from system folders through third-party file managers with superuser rights (Root) without a deep understanding of the Android structure. This may result in a cyclic reboot of the device or loss of data.
It is important to understand that the size of this section is dynamic. It can grow in one day of active Internet use and decrease after a reboot or clearing the cache. Cache files are created to speed up applications, so completely deleting them will force apps to download data again, which will temporarily increase traffic consumption and battery power.
Standard tools cleaning Samsung memory
The first step in the fight for free space should be the use of built-in optimization tools. The company Samsung preinstalls a powerful device maintenance tool that is available to every user without installing additional software. This tool can analyze the storage and suggest deleting unnecessary files, which are often hidden in the “Other” section.
To start the procedure, go to Settings → Device Maintenance → Memory. Here the system will show a detailed diagram of space usage. Click the Clear nowbutton to delete temporary files and caches that the system considers safe to delete. This process takes only a few seconds and does not require confirmation for each file.
- 📱 Go to the settings menu and select “Device Maintenance.”
- 🗑️ Click on the “Memory” icon and wait for the storage to be analyzed.
- 🚀 Use the “Clear Now” button to delete temporary files.
- 📂 Check the “Files” section at the bottom of the screen to delete large attachments.
After automatic cleaning, you should manually check the section with large files. The built-in analyzer will show documents, archives and media files that occupy more than 500 MB. Users often forget about downloaded installation files APK or old videos that can be painlessly deleted. Manual check allows you to find what an automatic algorithm might have missed.
Periodically run “Device Maintenance” once a week to prevent accumulation cache to critical values.
Deep cleaning of the cache of applications and instant messengers
The most effective way to reduce the size of the “Other” section is to specifically clear the cache of heavy applications. Messengers, browsers and social networks are the main consumers of free memory. Unlike completely clearing data, clearing only the cache saves your conversations, logins and passwords, deleting only temporary image and video files.
Go to Settings → Applications and sort the list by the size of the space occupied. Select leading applications, for example YouTube, Instagram or Telegram. Inside the menu of each application, find the section Storage and press the button Clear cache. Be extremely careful: do not click the “Clear data” button if you do not want to reset the application to factory settings and lose authorization.
Settings → Applications → [Select application] → Storage → Clear cacheFor messengers like Telegram there is a built-in cache management tool that works more efficiently than the system one. In the settings of the application itself, find the section “Data and memory” → “Memory usage”. Here you can not only clear the cache, but also set a limit on its size or configure automatic deletion of downloaded files after a certain time. Auto-delete is the best prevention of memory overflow in the future.
☑️ Deep cleaning of instant messengers
After cleaning cache of several large applications, you will notice that the size of the “Other” section has been significantly reduced. However, some files may remain if they are classified as persistent application data by the system. In this case, only deleting and reinstalling the application will help, but this is an extreme measure that requires a preliminary backup of chats.
Storage analysis with third-party utilities
If standard tools Android do not provide a complete picture of what exactly is taking up space, specialized utilities for disk analysis come to the rescue. Apps like Files by Google or DiskUsage visualize the file system, showing the size of each folder in a visual map. This allows you to find hidden directories that are bloating the “Other” section.
The utility DiskUsage scans the internal memory and displays files in the form of rectangles, the size of which is proportional to the amount of space occupied. By touching a large block, you can see the path to the file and understand which application it belongs to. Often forgotten folders with map caches (Google Maps, Yandex Maps) or remnants of deleted games are found there.
| Utility name | Main function | Root required | Security |
|---|---|---|---|
| Files by Google | Search duplicates and garbage | No | High |
| DiskUsage | Structure visualization | No | High |
| SD Maid | Deep cleaning systems | Desirable | Average |
| Clean Master | Automatic optimization | No | Average |
Using such tools, you can detect folder Android/obb or Android/datawhere heavy game files are stored. If you deleted the game, but these folders remained, they will be listed in the “Other” section. Deleting these directories manually through a file manager is safe if the corresponding application has already been removed from the device. Visual analysis helps you find what is hidden from view in the standard Explorer.
Why is the Android/data folder protected in new versions of Android?
Starting with Android 11, access to the Android/data folder is limited to third-party applications for security reasons. To see its contents, you need to use the built-in file manager “My Files” from Samsung or connect the phone to a PC.
Resetting settings and radical methods
When none of the above methods help reduce the size of the “Other” partition, and it continues to grow for no apparent reason, there may be an indexing error in the file system. In such cases, resetting the phone to factory settings helps. This is a radical method that completely clears the internal memory, deleting all user data and applications.
Before performing this procedure, it is critical to create a complete backup of all important data. Use the cloud service Samsung Cloud or Google Driveand also copy photos and documents to your computer. After the reset, the phone will be like new, and the “Other” section will take up the minimum possible volume required for the system to function.
⚠️ Attention: Resetting the settings will delete all photos, contacts, messages and installed applications. Make sure you have an up-to-date backup before starting this process.
To perform a reset, go to Settings → General settings → Reset → Reset data. Confirm the action and wait until the device reboots. After the initial setup, do not restore all applications from a backup copy at once, but install them gradually, monitoring the memory fill. This will help identify the culprit application if the problem recurs.
Resetting to factory settings is the only solution for file system errors when the "Other" section displays the wrong amount.
Preventing memory from filling up in future
To prevent the “Other” section from growing to gigantic proportions in the future, it is necessary to introduce the habit of regular smartphone maintenance. Don’t wait for notifications about low space, but check your storage once a month and clear the cache of heavy applications. Regularity is a key factor in maintaining the health of the file system.
Set up automatic uploading of photos and videos to the cloud. Services like Google Photos allow you to free up space on your device with one click by deleting local copies of already downloaded pictures. Also disable auto-saving of downloaded files in the browser Chrome or Samsung Internetif you do not plan to store them.
- ☁️ Enable synchronization of photos with cloud storage.
- 🚫 Disable auto-downloading of media in messenger settings.
- 🗓️ Check the “Downloads” folder once a month.
- 📲 Delete unused applications immediately, without delay.
Keep an eye on firmware updates One UI. Engineers Samsung periodically release patches that correct errors in the file system and optimize memory management. Current software version ensures that the system correctly classifies files and does not create false entries in the “Other” section.
Is it possible to delete the “Other” section completely?
It is impossible to completely delete this section, since it is a system category for service files. However, you can minimize its size to several hundred megabytes by clearing the cache and deleting temporary files.
Why does the volume of “Other” not change after deleting files?
This may be due to a delay in updating the media storage index. Try restarting your phone or clearing the cache of the “Media Storage” application in the application settings.
Does the “Other” section affect the speed of the phone?
Yes, indirectly. If the internal memory is almost completely full (more than 90%), the speed of writing and reading data drops, which leads to interface slowdowns and long application launches.
Is it safe to use cleaner applications from the Play Market?
Most popular cleaners are safe, but often contain advertising and can be unnecessarily aggressive. Samsung's built-in tools are usually sufficient for effective cleaning without the risk of deleting what you need.