Smartphone owners Honor 10 sooner or later face a situation when the device starts to work slower, and free disk space is rapidly disappearing. This is a natural process of accumulation of system garbage, residual files of deleted applications and cache, which over time swells to gigantic proportions. The operating system underlying the EMUI shell requires regular maintenance to maintain high performance. AndroidThe underlying EMUI shell requires regular maintenance to maintain high performance.
There is a misconception that for high-quality cleaning you must download third-party cleaning utilities, which often consume resources themselves and display intrusive advertising. In fact, built-in tools Huawei and manual cleaning of folders allow you to achieve a much better and, most importantly, safe result. In this article, we will look in detail at how to conduct a complete audit of the file system of your smartphone.
Manual cleaning gives you full control over what exactly will be deleted, eliminating the risk of losing important data due to errors in automatic algorithms. You can free up gigabytes of space that are occupied by forgotten downloads, duplicate photos and temporary messenger files. Let's get started with a step-by-step analysis of methods for optimizing your Honor 10.
Using the built-in phone manager
The first and safest step is to use the standard “Optimization” application, which is pre-installed on each device Honor. This tool has access to system partitions where third-party apps often cannot penetrate without root access. Running a scan through a standard interface allows you to quickly identify the main sources of memory pollution.
To get started, you need to open the application Optimization on the desktop or in the “Tools” folder. After startup, the system will automatically scan, which takes no more than 10-15 seconds. You'll see a pie chart displaying the percentage of memory usage and a Clean button that will prompt you to remove any junk found.
However, automatic cleaning often only touches the surface layer. For deeper work, click on the “Cleaning” icon in the bottom menu to switch to advanced mode. Here you can manually select categories of files to delete, such as application cache, advertising files, and temporary installer packages.
⚠️ Attention: Before clicking the “Clear All” button, carefully review the list of files in the “Large Files” category. Sometimes the system may mark important documents or videos for deletion if they take up a lot of space.
It is important to understand the difference between the cache and application data. Cache are temporary files that speed up the operation of apps, deleting them is safe. Data are your logins, settings and saves, deleting which will reset the application to its original state. Be careful when choosing options in the manager.
Manual cleaning through the file manager
The most effective way to free up space is to manually delete unnecessary files through the built-in explorer. Smartphones Honor 10 use a standard file manager that allows you to see the folder structure in detail. This is where the remains of deleted games and folders from long-forgotten apps are hidden.
Open the application Files and go to the “Internal Memory” section. Here you are primarily interested in the folder Download (or “Downloads”). Users often forget that they downloaded heavy PDF documents, APK installation files, or images saved from the browser there. Feel free to delete everything that is no longer relevant.
Particular attention should be paid to messenger folders, such as Telegram or WhatsApp, if you use them. Inside the directories of these applications there may be subfolders video, audio and image, where all media files ever received are stored. Clearing them can free up from 2 to 10 GB of space.
☑️ Checking the main folders
It is also worth checking the root of the internal memory for folders with the names of deleted applications. Software developers do not always correctly delete their data during uninstallation, leaving “tails” in the form of empty or log-filled directories. Deleting such folders is completely safe for the system.
Clearing the cache and data of specific applications
Some applications, especially social networks and browsers, accumulate a huge amount of temporary data in their hidden storage. Standard cleaning through the manager does not always clear them completely, so manual intervention through the system settings is required.
To get to these settings, go to Settings, then select Applications and further Applications (again). In the list that opens, find the most “heavy” application, for example YouTube, Instagram or Chrome. By clicking on it, you will be taken to the control menu.
Inside the application menu, find the section Memory or Storage. There you will see two buttons: “Clear cache” and “Erase data”. The first button is safe and simply deletes temporary files. The second button will return the application to the “as after installation” state, deleting your accounts and settings.
| Data type | What it deletes | Is it safe | Impact on account |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cache | Temporary files, thumbnails | Yes, completely | No influence |
| Data | Logins, passwords, settings | Yes, but requires login | Log out of account |
| Files | Downloaded content inside the application | Depends on the file | Deleting content |
| Permissions | Access to camera, microphone | Yes | Resetting access rights |
Regularly clearing the cache of heavy applications, such as TikTok or VKontakte, can significantly speed up their launch. If the application does not work correctly or freezes, it often helps to completely reset the data through this menu, which is analogous to reinstalling without deleting the APK file itself.
The browser cache can be cleared faster if you go to your browsing history (usually through three dots in the corner) and select “Clear history”, checking only the “Images and other files saved in cache."
Storage analysis and removal of duplicates
Modern versions of the shell EMUI there is a convenient memory analysis tool that visualizes space. It allows you to quickly find giant files that you might not notice when you normally view folders.
Go to Settings → Memory. The system will build a graph showing what exactly is taking up space: applications, images, videos or system files. By clicking on a category, you will be taken to a sorted list where files are arranged by size.
It often turns out that a significant part of the memory is occupied by duplicate photos or screenshots taken several years ago. The built-in algorithm Honor can find similar images and suggest deleting their copies. It is also worth checking the folder Screenshots, which often grows to enormous sizes.
⚠️ Attention: When deleting “similar” photos, the algorithm may make a mistake and mark the original for deletion instead of a copy. Always check the preview before confirming a mass deletion.
The folder .Trash or “Recently Deleted” in the gallery deserves special attention. Files deleted from the gallery do not immediately disappear without a trace, but are stored there for 30 days in case of recovery. To free up space right now, you need to go to the “Recently Deleted” album and clear it completely.
Working with the Android folder and system trash
The directory Android in the internal memory contains data of all installed applications. Inside it there are folders data and obb. The folder obb stores caches of heavy games (textures, music, levels), which can weigh 2-3 GB each.
If you deleted a game, but the folder with its name remains in Android/obb, you can safely delete it manually. However, be careful: deleting active application folders will result in loss of progress or the need to download resources again at startup.
In the same directory there are often folders with names like com.google.android... or com.facebook.katana. If you don't use Google services or a specific application, you can clear their cache. But it is not recommended to touch system files without understanding their purpose.
What is the .thumbnails folder?
The hidden DCIM/.thumbnails folder stores thumbnails of your photos for quick display in the gallery. Over time, this file can grow to several gigabytes. It can be safely deleted - the system will create it again, but the gallery will open a little slower on the first launch.
For advanced users, it is possible to clear the system cache through the recovery menu (Recovery Mode), but for Honor 10 with its specific bootloader lock, it is safer to limit yourself to cleaning through the “Optimization” menu and manually cleaning folders. This is enough for stable operation.
Preventing and setting up auto-cleaning
In order not to return to the issue of cleaning every week, it makes sense to set up automatic rules. The application Optimization has an auto-cleaning function that can be activated. It will periodically check the device and notify about accumulated garbage.
It is also useful to change the settings in the applications themselves. For example, in Telegram you can set automatic cache deletion: go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory usage and set the “Delete cache” timer after 3 days or a week.
Regularly check the list of installed applications. If you haven't used the app for more than 3 months, most likely you don't need it. Removing rarely used software is the best way to prevent slowdown Android.
⚠️ Attention: The interface and menu item names may vary slightly depending on the EMUI firmware version. If you do not find the item described, look for a similar one or check the official help in your phone settings.
Following these simple rules of hygiene of the digital space will allow your Honor 10 to remain fast and responsive even after years of active use. Manual control is always more effective than blind faith in automatic utilities.
Regular manual check of the "Downloads" and "Messenger Cache" folders frees up more space than any third-party cleaning apps.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Is it safe delete all files from the Download folder?
Yes, the folder Download is intended exclusively for files that you downloaded from the Internet. No system data is stored there. However, before deleting, make sure that there are no important documents among the files that you forgot to move to a safe place.
Why does the memory quickly fill up again after cleaning?
Most likely, you have activated autosaving of media files in instant messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber). Check the settings of these applications and disable saving photos and videos to the gallery if you do not need it. Also, the cache can quickly grow when watching videos in high quality.
Do I need to install Clean Master or similar applications?
No, for Honor 10 and modern versions of Android this is not necessary. Built-in optimization tools work more efficiently and do not consume battery power in the background, unlike third-party “accelerators”, which are often themselves a source of advertising and garbage.
What to do if the system writes “Memory full”, although the files are deleted?
Try to restart the device. Sometimes the file system does not update the free space index immediately after large amounts of data are deleted. Also check the trash can in the gallery and the “Recently deleted” folder in the file manager.