Help! I don't get it! Storage is almost full and some apps may not work

[CindysPhonesare4calls]

Ok, I'm not stupid but I am completely lost reading things that, at first, look like they'll answer questions I've had forever. When I open the thread, I feel like a kindergartner in a college class.
Maybe I'm old.
I used to say "Phones are for making calls. I don't need all the other stuff". Then I discovered that the 'stuff' was kinda cool. What I could figure out. I can work thru a PC ok but I'm baffled by my phone!
Ex: My phone barely has any apps not factory installed. Couple games, bunch of pictures (supposedly stored on a cloud somewhere in a galaxy far, far away, wherever the he!! that is!) that I don't know how to find. Besides my phone's storage, I have an SD card I put in cuz I thought that had extra storage space. I'm constantly getting messages that my storage is almost full and some apps may not work properly. My friend, same exact phone, same phone account, and she has tons of apps and games and stuff. Why? How can this be? Why can't I have more than 4 games and some cool apps?
I stumbled onto this forum, who knows if I'll find it again, and started reading threads thinking I'd find answers. But y'all are light-years over my head and probably still in highschool! No disrespect intended!!
Is there a book, a class, a PAMPHLET that is like "How to use a cell phone, for stupid old people" in basic English? I'm wasting all this technology and I want to learn. But I don't understand the jargon. I just need it explained in simple terms. I don't want to build rockets or even manage my home appliances! I want to play games, take (AND PRINT) a few pictures, watch free movies once in a while, make grocery lists, save addresses and phone #'s, send & receive texts and emails, use the calendar for schedules, & do Facebook. Simple, right? I thought so!!!! Nope, can't do it.
HEEEELLLLP!?!?!?!? I got a phone and I don't know how to use it!!

 

[Rob]

No worries about your skill level with Android Phones... everyone has to start somewhere!

A few questions:

• What phone do you have?
• Do you know how much storage your phone has?
• Do you have a MicroSD card installed and if so, what size?
• Can you go into your Settings > Storage, and send us a screenshot or tell us the details of how much storage you have and how much is being used!

 

[ocnbrze]

welcome to AF!!!!!!!!!!!

well you came to the right place. AF can be a very useful resource. all of us are here to help. but we do need some basic info before we can help you. if you can answer what @Rob has asked, then we can get the ball moving.

and just an fyi, i am far removed from highschool.....thank god....LOL

 

[puppykickr]

A modern phone only uses an SD card for certain things, like pictures that you take, music you download, PDF files, and things like that.

The problem is that you must tell your phone that the card is where you want these things to be.

All the pictures and videos that you take are stored onto the phone memory until you move them to the card yourself or change the storage setting on your phone. Some newer phones don't even have this option, so you must then go through the settings of the individual app (Camera, for instance) to change where your media will be stored automatically.

I had the exact same problem when I got phones for my ol'lady and myself. They are identical makes and models, and I am a heavy user while she is not.

I run my phone (a cheap device) at its capacity most of the time, and she barely does anything other than those (annoying) Candy Crush and similar games.

Anyway, shortly after we got these phones, she was getting 'Memory' warnings and notifications- while my phone which is packed with all kinds of things is not having any issues.

Turns out that she had downloaded some app (I can't remember what) and it was making a copy of every photo and video she made.
And she is quite the shutterbug.

There was literally like 6GB of junk on her device, that I had to somehow go through and figure out what was what and delete the crap without losing anything of value.
At this point, her phone was locking up and crashing constantly.

So I had already put an app onto her device that I have used for years that has among other things a duplicate locator.

It found all the duplicates, and I deleted anything doubled.

Then I cleared the system cache, which is possible on our devices but not on anything beyond Android 8.0 or so. It can still be done, but must be done app by app, manually.

Most 'cleaning' apps are total junk. This is a fact. But the one I use has no ads, no internet access, and solved this issue well.

Can you imaging sorting through 6GB manually, trying to see which items are duplicated between the two memories?

Anyway, the app is called Android System Cleaner, from Systweak.
You can get it on the Play Store, but that is the version that has ads.

For an older version without ads, try https://ApkPure.com
or
https://UpToDown/en.com

Look for version 5.0.3.11

 

[Unforgiven]

Welcome Cindy,

As has been said above, we are here to help. Every one of us started where you are now, so don't be intimidated. This place is full of people willing to pay the advice we got forward.

 

[Milo Willamson]

Welcome Cindy,
no need to be so intimidated, we are here to help you.

(FYI, been out of school for twenty plus years.)

 

[svim]

Your profile indicates you have a Moto E5 Cruise from Cricket. If that's still current info, Motorola (Lenovo) has the user manual for your model posted online:
https://download.lenovo.com/Motorol...MotoE5Cruise.Cricket.UG.en-US.SSC8C29410A.pdf
It's kind of dry reading but thorough and covers the basic functionality of your particular phone.
If you're more of hands-on, tactile learner, look into if any local library or community college has any 'smartphone basics' classes. Note these tend to be very generic since there are so many variations involving the user interface for every model of phone, plus two very different platforms (Android and Apple). But if you are able to get at least some one-on-one tutoring, and use that combined with the user manual that does pertain to your particular phone, that's a good way to start learning what your phone can do for you.

Just for posterity, here's a link for the hardware specs for that model:
https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_e5_cruise-9575.php

Of course if you have a different phone model, it would really help if you provided just which one you do have and which version of Android its currently running. Documentation and tutorials for most Android devices have to be specific, and short-lived, as there's a lot (stress that) of variables involved with the user interfaces in each phone model.