Constant decrease in android's internal storage free space

Question

I am having a hard time with my phone. My device, which is a simple LG Magna has had a constant decrease in FREE space. That means that something is constantly taking up more and more place in my internal memory. Of course, I did try to clear cache, clear all the useless videos, useless apps, I removed the Facebook app because I know it uses a lot of space, but the used space in the internal memory keeps on increasing. My 8Gb internal memory is already used up by 7.97Gb. And I deleted so much already on my phone.. Okay! I thought about the possibility of having a virus in my android.

So, I did factory reset my SD card and Internal memory. This means, starting every from back to square one. I managed to not download anything from the internet, use only the useful apps from the store like Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, my usual music player which is BlackPlayer(Great app btw, try it, it's simply the best). Now, 2 weeks after the factory reset, I am surprised and also very annoyed to see that the device's internal memory is increasing again. Today, it is back to 7.97Gb.

I have only photos and merely some music on my phone.

Basically, I have absolutely NO free space on my phone and I can't never delete enough to free space. Can someone please help me resolve this problem? I would be forever grateful! Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Seeing the reference to WhatsApp... I installed All-in-One Toolbox today for another problem (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=imoblife.toolbox.full&hl=en). I happened to notice it has a cleaner just for WhatsApp.

Answer 2

Try a disk analyzer app. For example:

Disk Usage

SD Maid

Maybe you'll see where space is being eaten up.

Answer 3

WhatsApp automatically downloads media, so as in other answers, that is probably your issue. Most android phones also allow you to insert a MicroSD card to further expand storage space - either for just media (compatible with other devices) or as internal storage (incompatible with other devices).

Answer 4

Thank you all for your time :) In fact, I explored my internal memory and was surprised to see that it was WhatsApp taking up all this increasing amount of space. The app keeps a huge backup of ALL media. And I mean it, ALL of the media! Since the dawn of time! Even though you delete it in your gallery wherever it is located, the backups are not deleted.

So, for those who want to know this is the path: (I use an LG so I use File Manager)

File Manager > All Files > Internal Storage > Whatsapp > Media;

This Media file is where Whatsapp stores all the backups!

According to me, you can safely delete this Media file without causing any inconveniences. I deleted it and now I have 7.30Gb used out of 8Gb.

Answer 5

Do you have a lot of pictures? In my case i had such issues because the thumbnails are created on internal memory. So i had thumbnails-files (.thumbdata3-[10 digits]) which took some GB of internal space - even though the pictures were on the sd-card.