How can I free up space using the Huawei gallery app?

[Lucy Davies]

I have another year left with this phone before I can upgrade but on the Hauwei gallery app I have all my pictures saved but I've been told by my phone that I'm running out of memory I have used 4.1 out of 5GB. Is there a way I can free up space do I can store more pictures?

 

[B. Diddy]

The only way to free up space without losing the pictures is to back them up or sync them somewhere else. Have you considered using Google Photos auto-backup?

 

[Lucy Davies]

My pictures are back up on Google thankfully. Didn't think I'd fill nearly 5GB in one year with pictures & a few videos.

 

[B. Diddy]

Heck, I'm over 1 GB after a week on vacation! Just use the Free Up Space option in the Google Photos app, which will locally delete all photos and videos that it knows are backed up to the cloud.

 

[Lucy Davies]

As you can see it's nearly full so if I clear 4.88GB using Google photos will this go down?

 

[B. Diddy]

It should. Open Google Photos, tap Menu, then Free Up Space. It'll tell you first how much it can clear, and ask you if you want to proceed. Remember, it will only delete a photo or video locally if it already knows there's a backup in your Google Photos cloud.

Also keep in mind that if you use the High Quality backup resolution (which gives you unlimited backup storage), rather than Original Quality, the image files will be slightly compressed. However, I've never noticed any degradation of image quality. High Quality is supposed to be up to 16 megapixel quality, so unless you like to crop photos severely, you won't notice it.

 

[Lucy Davies]

I used Google to free up space & my gallery is still saying 4.2GB used. I even went on the gallery & optimised pictures older than 30 days & still no luck. What else can I do?

 

[B. Diddy]

See what happens if you go to Settings>Apps, select Gallery, then Storage, then Clear Cache/Clear Data.

 

[Lucy Davies]

Get this message pop up when I go to clear the data which I'm not 100% keen on.

 

[B. Diddy]

Deleting the app data from the Gallery app will not result in loss of your photos. Photo files are separate from the Gallery app. What you're deleting/resetting are any app settings you might have selected, as well as cached images/databases. The database gets rebuilt when you open the Gallery app again.

Also try DiskUsage to see if you can identify what's taking up that space.

 

[Lucy Davies]

Well that was scary cleared the cache & data went in to the gallery app & it was completely empty then all my pictures & videos showed up. Also on my picture further up why is the backup section so small compared to the gallery when it the big green bar?

 

[Lucy Davies]

Found this but no idea if it's good or bad. Lots of stuff on that disk app don't make any sense to me. Found pictures & DCIM etc.

 

[B. Diddy]

Well that was scary cleared the cache & data went in to the gallery app & it was completely empty then all my pictures & videos showed up. Also on my picture further up why is the backup section so small compared to the gallery when it the big green bar?

Yep, you never have to worry about actual photo or video files being deleted when you clear the Gallery app's cache/data, because the photos and videos are their own files, and not actually contained in the Gallery app.

I looked back at the image you shared in your post no. 5, and just realized that it's showing you what the storage is for your Cloud Storage, not your phone's Internal Storage. I'm not sure which cloud it's referring to, but I'm guessing it's Huawei's own cloud storage. Can you show us the actual Settings>Storage​ menu for the phone?

 

[Lucy Davies]

Yeah I'm on about Huawei's on cloud storage which seems to be running out of space fast. Is this the picture you where after? Got plenty of space.

 

[B. Diddy]

Ok, so you want to figure out how to backup your backed-up photos from Huawei's cloud to somewhere else? You could pay for more storage, or download the photos again, and then back them up to Google Photos in the cloud. If you use the High Quality setting (and not Original Quality), you get unlimited photo storage. Or, if you want to back up in Original Quality, you could subscribe to Google One and increase your Drive space. Or look into any number of other cloud storage options like Amazon Prime Photos, OneDrive, etc.

 

[Lucy Davies]

All my pictures are backed up to Google photos in high quality & I don't really wanna pay for more storage as I may not have a Huawei phone after this & it maybe a hassle unsubscribing for the extra storage. My work colleague said to just delete them all seems they are backed up as I'll be able to download any I need.

 

[B. Diddy]

I agree with that. There ought to be some option to turn off the automatic backup to Huawei Cloud as well -- have you found that?

 

[Lucy Davies]

I agree with that. There ought to be some option to turn off the automatic backup to Huawei Cloud as well -- have you found that?

No haven't found out how to turn it off.

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you have the Huawei Cloud app installed? See this article: https://drscmedia.eu/reviews-guides-english-how-to-enable-and-use-huawei-cloud/

 

[Lucy Davies]

That page looks like something I went through when setting everything up with this phone so I might have Huawei cloud. Can't find the app though. I no in the gallery when I go to settings I have cloud backup & Huawei drive.