How can I stop Google play subsidiaries (eg books) using up space on my phone?

[Android Central Question]

I am constantly being told I am running out of storage space on my phone, largely because of Books, Newsstand, etc., which I never use. If I delete the data, the problem goes away but if I switch off the phone, the data fills up again when I switch it back again. I cannot find a Disable option or persuade it to use the SD card instead of main memory.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which phone? It's unlikely that Google Books and Google Newsstand (which is very much outdated, by the way -- it's now Google News) are the main culprits, but you should be able to Disable them in Settings>Apps, which should prevent them from opening, building up data, or updating in the Play Store.

If those apps are really pushing your phone's storage to the limit, then I'm guessing you have very little storage to begin with -- like around 16 GB, right? That's just not enough these days if you want to install any typical number of apps on your phone. It's time to upgrade your phone to something with at least 64 GB of internal storage.

Please register on this forum, which will allow you to engage in discussion more easily, as well as post images. https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/409154-join-android-central-community.html

 

[mustang7757]

Can you post screen shot of your storage
https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=413366

 

[Neil Lo]

Hi B Diddy. Thank you for your reply. I actually have a Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, with about 1.2G memory! This is perfectly adequate for my needs, although I did install an SD card last year. Unfortunately, I can't get any of the Google Play built-in apps (which I don't use) to use the card. I haven't been warned that I am running out of space for a week now, but that is because I cleared the data and haven't switched the phone off since. I would just like to be able to switch the phone off without having to go through deleting the data again when I switch it back on.

 

[B. Diddy]

1.2 GB is very little these days, and can fill up very quickly with cached/temporary data. I'm afraid that even if you can rein in those Google Play apps, you'll keep facing this issue.

Did you already try Disabling those apps in Settings>Apps​? That should be possible.

 

[Neil Lo]

Couldn't find a Disable option anywhere,

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

What version of Android are you on? Your phone is pretty old. Also when you install apps to an SD card traces of apps are still in the main storage of the phone and the sd card often fails. It really would be worth looking at an upgrade at this point. Even the most basic apps take up a lot of space nowadays.

 

[B. Diddy]

Go to Settings>Apps, select Google Play Books, and show us a screenshot of what you see: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html

There should be either an Uninstall or Disable button. Uninstall would actually just remove all updates to the factory-installed version, and then you'd see a Disable button.

 

[Neil Lo]

Thank you. That's done it!