Boo! Clear Up Space on Your Phone by Removing Ghost Data

If you’ve had your phone for a number of years, you’ve probably run into a frustrating problem or two. It’s bound to happen. Still, no problem is more frustrating than when you run out of data when you feel you should not be out. One way that you can quickly address is your phone’s storage of unnecessary files. Use dfndr performance’s quick cleanup feature to remove trash, cache, temporary files, and junk files that are taking up too much space:

Mysterious Data Usage
When you’re trying to take a video or download a new app, and your phone tells you it can’t do this because the data has been used up, it’s a frustrating experience. Fine, you think to yourself, you’ll just go delete something you don’t use as often or photos you’ve already backed up elsewhere. But when you try to investigate the breakdown of your documents and apps, you find something strange: the cumulative data you seem to be using doesn’t actually exceed the amount of data you have on your phone. In fact, it’s far below what you were told your limits were. So what gives?

Read More: How to Clean up and Speed up Your Android Phone

The Issue with Ghost Data
Ghost data is the culprit, and, aptly named, it’s data that’s there while appearing invisible. How do you pick up ghost data? Lots of ways, actually. Partitioning your memory for different apps and photos, for example, takes up a large amount of data (because each new partition needs to be labeled). It isn’t something your phone clumps with the actual data of the file or app. There are various other culprits, too, such as temporary files, log files, caches, leftover data from uninstalled apps, and core dumps. They can all add up to be a lot of data that isn’t specifically tethered to a particular file, and so it will not appear anywhere, much like a ghost.

How to Get Rid of Ghost Data
That’s a little trickier. You’ll essentially have to root your phone and then track down individual files to ensure they are files that will be safe to delete. It can be a bit of a process, but depending on the amount of ghost data you’ve accumulated, you may be surprised by how much room you end up freeing up. Of course, if you don’t have to time to do the manual work, or if you don’t feel comfortable rooting your phone, the quick cleanup feature is a great start.