Tidy up your mobile in 6 steps

It’s definitely a good idea to take a look which apps you really use and which you don’t. We download a lot of apps for specific purposes: a business trip, a project at work, a museum visit in your free time, etc. Afterwards, they just gather digital dust.

Many self-employed people also have various diary apps or apps to process photos. Choose the best and throw the rest in the bin. That way, you will free up a lot of space, both in the memory and on your home screen. It’s handy here to know which apps use and store a lot of data.

iPhone: press on the app in the start screen until it starts to wobble. Press on the X in the top-right of the app to remove it. Press on the home button.

Android: go to ‘Settings’; ‘Apps/Applications’. Press on the app that you want to remove. The rest is obvious.

Most apps also store ‘cache’ data on your mobile: data they can use to load faster. A good thing in itself, but it takes up space. 

With Android, you go to ‘Settings’ again; ‘Device’; ‘Storage and USB’. Under ‘data in cache memory’ you can see how many gigabytes this cache memory takes up and delete these data at once.

On the iPhone you have to do this per app and the makers of the app have to expressly enable it. With Safari, for instance, you go to ‘Settings’; ‘General’; ‘Use’; ‘Safari’ and tap ‘Modify’. Then press on the red pictogram to remove the cache.

Photos, documents and videos often take up a lot of space, as well, even though they never again see the light of day. So go through them and remove all the snaps you can do without.

You can store important documents in the cloud, on OneDrive, for example. Think about work documents that you have digitalized with your smartphone or digital invoices. That way, you can keep them, you can consult them when you need to, but they don’t take up any space.

If you often use a chat program, there will be scores of conversations on your phone that you no longer need. These, too, can easily be archived.

In WhatsApp, for instance, you do that in ‘Settings’: go to ‘Chats’ and click on ‘Archive all chats’. If a new message comes into the conversation, it will reappear automatically.

In Messenger, you keep your finger on the conversation that you want to archive and press on ‘More’. The archive option then appears.

Do you want to make a total clean sweep and reinstall your phone again entirely? That can be done, but first you need to store all your important photos, films and documents in the cloud.

Then on an Android phone go to ‘Settings’; ‘Personal’; ‘Backup and reset’ and click on ‘Factory data reset’.

On an iPhone, go to ‘Settings, ‘General, ‘Reset’. Then tap on 'Erase all Content and Settings’.

Is your phone a little older and becoming a bit sluggish? With these tips you can revitalize it.