As a drop from a tap will ultimately fill a glass same goes for the Cache that could take up all the storage on your mobile phone or tablet if you leave it like none of your business. This is why here we are going to tell you how to clear Cache on Android devices and why it is important to do so.
No matter what the size of storage on your mobile phone is, it is always limited. If kept unchecked, even the highest storage limits get filled. Among the reasons, it is not the piling up of various apps. Here we will introduce to you another major reason.
How to Clear Cache on Android Devices and Why
Whatever you install and use on your mobile phone it creates temporary or temp files. Have you noticed? When you open an app for the first time, it takes longer than it would the next time. This is because your device keeps a copy of actions taking place in the background. Let’s learn more about them in the following sections.
What is Cache?
The cache is a term for temporary files stored on our devices. As introduced above, they are created to keep some essential information related to various applications that you are using on your system. This associated information or temporary files help your device to respond and execute quick actions.
Take the example of WhatsApp. It is one of the most used applications for communication by users who have access to a 24/7 internet connection. Now, WhatsApp might take a log of the most frequently contacted people and groups.
This means it does not have to look up your whole contact list when you are typing the initials of any contact. The same goes for all the apps but you might be already familiar with the term from browsing apps. This is very noticeable when you compare the two websites. One that you use frequently and one that you have just opened.
So each application that you use on your Android machine creates and stores caches files for various tasks. This is why you get a great, quick and smooth user experience with your frequently used applications be it games, websites, or social media apps.
How to Clear Cache on Android Devices
Although the cache is a great way to make the workings of an Android smartphone or tablet more efficient providing quick responsive feedback to the user. But they most often take up great quantities of space. Furthermore, the size of these files keeps on swelling.
But the great news is that you can remove all cache from your device anytime you want. You can do this individually using the settings on your machine or simply use an app to clear everything for you at once, once in a while.
To remind you, it is not necessary to delete the cache on a daily basis. Once in a while active will keep your device tidy and clutter-free, keeping the overall system quick and responsive. So, if you want to clear it now, simply follow the steps given below:
- Go to Settings and select the ‘Storage’ option.
- Here you will find the ‘Apps’ or ‘Other Apps’. Now you can see a whole list of apps that are currently installed on your machine.
- Pick the application that you want to clear the cache of. If you want to do it by the MBs occupied by various options use the three dots on the top of the menu and sort apps by size.
- Now, going to the info page of the app, press the ‘Clear Cache’ option.
In this way, you can clear the cache for as many apps as you want. For older versions of Android, it is the Storage option in the settings where you will find the ‘Cached Data’ to execute the same process.
Why Clear Cache on Android devices?
When you clear it regularly, especially a number of apps at once, you will see a greater space available for you to install and use other applications. But for the cache-removed apps, there might be a slowdown in the functioning initially.
This clearing helps the users to gain more storage space on the system. Additionally, old cache files might get corrupted and interfere with the smooth running of the application. Especially, when it comes to web caches, it might be a security and privacy risk for the users. Thus removing it is essential to protect our Android devices from malware.
This is why it is the best operating procedure to clear the caches once in a while. But if you feel that a particular application is not functioning properly, you might consider this course of action to check if it fixes the issue for you.
Conclusion
This is all about how to clear cache on Android devices and why you should be doing that often. Remember that the cache will be back as soon as you start using the application. But this is not an issue as long as you are removing them once in a while to get a better device performance and free up storage.