5 Ways to Free Up Space on a Chromebook

August 2, 2014

Author: Brook Perry

Many a times you might realize that your Chromebook is not running with the same speed and is not delivering the same performance, it delivered in the initial months of purchase. Would you like to know the reason? The newly purchase device doesn’t have many files, folders, data, apps, programs, and other stuff stored on it, that a user adds on it after making the official purchase. Over a period of time you end up storing movies, creating apps database, and installing productivity software that occupy a lot of space on your device’s hard drive, thus, it tends to slow down. Sometime you might install several programs and apps that don’t perform well on the system, hence, results in increasing the level of frustration and irritation among users.

A Chromebook user is aware of the fact that the device comes with a pre-defined system storage limit. If you’re close to the mark, where the storage space will be full, then you might see several errors while downloading and creating files. Generally, most of the Chromebooks come with an internal storage of around 16 GB, hence, don’t support heavy applications, HD games, and bulky programs. Users possessing such devices should always use online services and cloud-based storage services, rather than depending upon local storage.

Even after using Chromebooks with optimal efficiency, if you think that your device is slowing down, then follow these tips to free up some space on your device:

1. Check system storage consumption

Although, checking the system storage space will not instantly let you free up some space on your Chromebook, but will offer an idea regarding the space allocation and usage. You can easily go to the ‘Files’ app to view the amount of storage space currently used on your Chromebook and how much amount of free space you’re left with.

To see that how much space you have left on your internal storage, simply select your ‘Downloads’ folder and click on the gear icon. Always remember that this analysis will only provide you an idea about the current consumption of the storage space and will also reveal the full storage capacity statistics. Before making any decision regarding freeing up some extra space, be aware of the fact that this activity will only display the amount of storage used for personal files. Some part of your storage space will also be occupied for your Chromebook’s system files, which you can’t remove.

2. Clean out your downloaded files

Many times a user downloads a file and allows it to stay on the hard disk drive without even accessing it. Since, it is not being used by a user, it lies in the system’s memory and results in occupying a space that can be efficiently used for some other purpose. You can easily view the files that you’ve downloaded to the device by visiting the ‘Files’ app and selecting the ‘Downloads’ option. To make your work easier, you can click on the ‘Size’ column and all the downloaded files will be sorted by size, presenting the larger ones at the top.

As you can view all of your downloaded files within the list starting from larger to smaller, you can easily delete the larger files that are no longer relevant or of use. In case you want to free up some space on your device and don’t want to delete those files, then you can upload it to Google Drive to enjoy the free-up space on the device. Since, Google Drive isn’t an ideal platform for larger files, you can connect your device with a USB drive or SD card and safely move the file to a different location.

3. Check offline Google Drive files, remove the unwanted ones directly from Google Drive

As we all know that Chromebooks offer offline access to the files that a user has already stored in the Google Drive, it becomes quite easier for the storage space to fill up soon. To get a view of such offline downloaded files, click on the ‘Google Drive’ folder, from the ‘Files’ app, and select the ‘Offline’ option. You will be immediately presented with the downloaded files that are caching offline in your Chromebook. Sort these files by size to view them starting for the larger ones to the smaller ones.

Since, Chrome OS automatically manages the existence of a particular file to be available in an offline mode, there is no point removing the offline copy of a file. But you can easily choose a file to not to be available offline by right-clicking on the file and ensuring that the ‘Available offline’ option is unchecked.

4. Clear browser cache and other data

Chromebooks are manufactured in such a way it doesn’t display how much data is being used by the browser cache and other temporary files. In reality, the browser cache uses a certain amount of storage space on your drive to speed up web browsing.

You can easily clear the cache and other relevant data by using a ‘Clear browsing data tool.’ This tool can be accessed by clicking the ‘Menu’ button, selecting the ‘More tools’ option from the list, and then selecting ‘Clear browsing data’ option. Ensure that the ‘Cached images and files’ checkbox is ticked before you start clearing your browser cache. Also look for temporary files, history, and other options, and choose to clear them as they also eat up a significant amount of your system storage space. Your Chromebook will accumulate cache data again in future, hence, it is recommended to clear it at regular intervals of time.

5. Uninstall unnecessary apps

Although, Chromebooks don’t let you see how much space each installed app is using, but you can easily take the decision by closely observing a few things. You might have seen many apps located on your device that are nothing but are just shortcuts to websites, whereas some of them are heavy to run in an offline mode. The games that you have installed and using in an offline mode will also consume significant storage space on your device.

All these installed apps hold a significant position on your device, thus, occupy system storage space. Now, you will have to use your best judgment while deciding upon which one to keep and which one to remove. Users can focus on games that run offline and large offline apps as they consume larger space on your system’s drive. You can easily uninstall these apps by opening the ‘App launcher,’ right-clicking on the app that you wish to remove, and then clicking on the ‘Remove from Chrome’ or ‘Uninstall’ button.

The above mentioned are some of the most effective tips that a Chromebook user must follow to free up some extra space on their system’s hard disk drive. One of the best features of these devices is that it allows you to perform many things in an offline mode. Hence, the first thing to be removed is the collection of those files, apps, and downloaded content that is made available offline. Furthermore, quickly scan your device for finding out some of the large video files that you’ve downloaded to watch offline, but forgot to remove them from the drive.

Your device might have multiple user accounts, hence, it’s essential to clean up all the user accounts and remove the unwanted files and apps to free-up some system storage space. Otherwise, you can also expand the storage space of your Chromebook by simply adding up an external USB flash drive or an SD card, if the device permits.

About the Author: Brooke M. Perry is an ardent technician associated with Qresolve remote computer support with wide experience of fixing issues with PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. With a strong track record of devising effective ways of internet security and system security, she has so far helped thousands of users across the globe. Her writings on tech issues are the reflection of her in-depth interest and command she carries as a laptop support technician. Her blogs and articles have been rated high for their lucid style and easy to understand language.