Deep Clean

I'm starting to have buyer's remorse.

Since 2014, I've been an Android smartphone user. I said goodbye to Apple iPhones after my first foray into smartphones, with the 4S, when the lack of drag-and-drop capabilities drove me crazy.

I tried a Windows phone but after less than a week with it, I swapped it for a Samsung Galaxy S4 and I've never looked back. In the past 12 years, I've been a Samsung faithful.

One of the things that I've loved with my Galaxy phones was the capability of adding a micro SD card and increasing the storage space. I had bought a 128 GB card and have been able to keep the cost of the phone down by buying one with less internal storage and increasing it with external storage. This solution did me well for my S4, S7, and S10.

My Galaxy S24

With the Galaxy S10, I seemed to use very little storage space because I often move photos and video to a much bigger external drive, where I add these files to a database. So when it came to upgrading my phone to the S24, which had no slot for a micro SD card, I wondered if a phone with 128 gigs of storage was more than enough.

For the first year, it was.

One thing about a Samsung phone that used to bug me but now drives me crazy is that it comes pre-loaded with apps that I don't use. I have DuckDuckGo as my Web browser and have never used the browser that Samsung provides. And yet, I can't delete it from my phone.

I can disable it, which I've done, but I can't delete it.

There are several built-in apps that I don't use but cannot get rid of, and they're all eating space on my phone. I've had to delete apps that I want to use because for the last few months, my phone is constantly warning me that I'm running out of space. With the last warning, my storage was at 94-percent capacity.

I felt trapped.

I did some online searching and learned I could free up some space by clearing the cache on specific apps. I had already gone into the Device Care settings and cleared the overall cache, but I would find that the cache would quickly fill up again.

But if I went into specific apps and blocked them from being allowed to run in the background, and I cleared the cache from within the app, I was able to free up a lot of space.

I went systematically through the list of apps, starting first with the ones that drew the largest amount of space. One of the biggest offenders was the DJI Fly app, which had nearly 7 GB of cache space occupied. I switched off its ability to run in the background—I only need it when I’m flying my Neo 2 drone with the app or through a controller—and cleared that cache.

Another storage hog is the Insta360 app. Not only did I deny its ability to run in the background, I cleared the cache and the data files, which sucked up a whopping 49.25 GB. I no longer use the phone app to edit my videos and only use it to update the firmware on a camera or change any settings, so I saw no value in it retaining any data files.

After going through the list of apps, changing their settings and clearing data and caches, I was pleased to see that the phone’s storage capacity was reduced to 52 percent.

I can shoot video again!

Still, I’m wondering how long it will be before the storage space fills up. What if I want to add more apps? Will this phone satisfy my needs?

I regret buying a phone with such limited storage space. I'll not make that mistake again.

I bought the Samsung Galaxy S24 in early 2025. I like to keep phones for at least four years but I don't know if I can wait until 2029 to replace this one.

Only time will tell if 128 GB will be enough until then.