How to clear app cache on Mobile
Clearing the app cache is a controversial part of taking care of and maintaining your Android phone. Clearing app cache is a common thing that many people do automatically to make more room on their phone or keep their phone and apps from getting too slow. Should you, however, clear the app’s cache when using Android? If so, in what way? Is there any proof that it works, or is it just a fake medicine?
Many Android users think that the operating system should be in charge of managing app cache and that changing how caching works by default is likely to cause problems. But the truth is a lot less clear. Some programmes don’t use cache space in a smart way, others can’t be used because they use too much cached data, and still others won’t start up after an update unless they are manually cached. Blanket statements aren’t helpful here. It’s important to know what app cache is, why it’s important, and why you might want to clear it on your Android phone.
How to clear app cache on Android
On newer versions of Android, you have to delete the cache files for each app separately. There is no option to clear all cache at the system level. Keep in mind that you don’t have to delete all of your device’s cache very often. Most of the time, storage or performance problems can be fixed by clearing the cache of a few of the apps that are causing trouble.
Follow these steps to clear the cached data for an Android app. We’ll be using stock Android 12 for these instructions, but your device might look a little different or have different menu names.
- Open Settings and select Storage.
- In the resulting list, tap the Apps entry (Other Apps on Android 11 and earlier). This will take you to a list of all the apps installed on your phone.
- Choose the app whose cache you want to clear. To see which apps are taking the most space, tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and choose Sort by size. We’ll use Chrome as an example.
- On the app’s info page, tap the Clear Cache option.
It is not necessary to do anything more than follow those steps in order to clear the cache files for any app on your Android phone. Be aware that if you choose to tap Clear Storage instead, all of the data that was previously stored in the application will be removed permanently. This essentially restores it to its initial state, making it appear as though you had recently downloaded the app from the Play Store in order to use it once more. This is something you should only do if the app is behaving in an extremely unusual manner.
In earlier versions of Android, you could delete all cached files at once by going to Settings > Storage > Cached Data. This was an option that was available to you. Once you have reached the screen where you can delete all cached files, all you need to do is tap the OK button when you see it. Because more recent versions of Android do not include a built-in method for clearing all of the cache, you will need to repeat the steps from the previous section in order to clear the cache for multiple applications. It is unfortunate that this limitation exists.
Should I use a third-party app cache cleaner?
Using third-party cache cleaner apps is one of the most pointless things people have ever done in the history of the world. If you use an app that says it will make your phone run better, you should take some time to figure out if it really has. Worse yet, it has come to light that many apps in this category have been mining user data and sending it to servers in other countries. People say that an application will either die as a hero or live long enough to change into a better version of itself.
Aside from being funny, the questionable business practises and privacy policies of these apps raise serious concerns about their use. They usually ask for a lot of permissions or fill the whole screen with ads that look suspicious. The fact that they have to run constantly in the background and use up system resources usually makes up for the fact that they can speed up your phone, which is one of their common selling points.
There are some good apps that you should think about, like SD Maid and Files by Google. They are helpful because they show you a detailed list of the things on your phone that are taking up space.
