Clearing their cache<\/a> helps, but only so much. Also, Android no longer lets you clear all caches at once, so it\u2019s not quick either. You have to open the app info of every app one by one to do the cleanup.<\/p>\nFortunately, though, Android offers another option, which is to archive apps. It helps you recover most of the storage space used by the app without actually removing it completely. <\/p>\n
Archiving apps frees up space without losing data<\/p>\n
The best of both worlds<\/p>\n
Archiving is built specifically for freeing up storage space without deleting the app outright. It\u2019s similar to the iPhone\u2019s app offloading because it doesn\u2019t delete the app entirely. Still, it does remove the bulk of the app files, cache, and other non-essential data. Android only keeps the app icon and the user data, while removing everything else.<\/p>\n
This obviously frees up storage space and the big advantage is that you can restore the app any time you need it. When you do, your phone downloads the missing parts of the app from the Play Store. <\/p>\n
Since archiving doesn\u2019t remove the app completely, it also doesn\u2019t free up 100% of the storage either. I tried archiving LinkedIn on my S26, and it went from 201MB to 19MB, which means it freed up around 90% of the storage space. I don’t want to oversell this, though. The exact storage you\u2019ll free up depends on the app, but it\u2019s usually between 50-80%. Some apps shed a lot more, but a few might not budge much. The only catch is that you won\u2019t see the “Archive” option for every app, and there\u2019s nothing you can do about it.<\/p>\n
The best way to check is to actually archive an app and find out. Since it doesn\u2019t remove the app entirely, it\u2019s safe to do so. Head to Settings > Apps and find the app you need. Tap Archive at the bottom and you\u2019re done. After this, you won\u2019t be able to open the app and its icon will be dimmed so you know it\u2019s archived. If you need the app any time, you can simply tap the app icon in the app drawer to restore it. You can also do this from the Play Store. In any case, this does require an internet connection since the app is essentially re-downloaded.<\/p>\n
Google Play can archive apps automatically<\/p>\n
Let Google do the cleanup for you<\/p>\n
![\"Android](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/android-phone-in-hand-showing-play-store.jpg\")
\n Pankil Shah \/ MakeUseOfCredit:\u00a0Pankil Shah \/ MakeUseOf<\/p>\n
The best part about Android\u2019s app archiving feature is that you don\u2019t have to use it manually for every app you don’t use. Google Play Store can do it for you. Head to the Play Store, tap your profile icon at the top, and choose Settings. Expand the General section and enable the Automatically archive apps toggle.<\/p>\n
Play Store will now keep an eye on apps you rarely use and archive them automatically. The good thing here is that Android will only do it when your phone\u2019s running low on storage<\/a>. So yes, you won’t be losing access to apps for no reason. <\/p>\nIf there are apps you never want archived, you can set exceptions too. Head to Settings > Apps and choose the app that you don\u2019t want archived. Turn off Manage app if unused and Google Play will leave those alone. This, of course, doesn\u2019t stop you from archiving apps manually at any time. <\/p>\n
Archiving gives you a nice middle ground for apps you don\u2019t need every day but can\u2019t afford to delete. You can do this for half a dozen apps and easily free up a few gigabytes. If you do this for large games, you can free up even more space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most of us have a few apps on our phones that we don\u2019t open every day but still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[85,46,321,125],"class_list":["post-647191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Samsung](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/samsung-phone-in-hand-showing-dial-code.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Uninstall](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/uninstall-app-files.jpg\")
<\/p>\n