How to Free Up Disk Space on Chromebook: 7 Methods

Easy-to-use Chrome OS sometimes starts running slowly and gives poor performance. Once you reach the storage limit of your Chromebook, you will start encountering errors while downloading and creating files. 

If you are searching for the source describing how to free up disk space on Chromebook, then keep on reading. This article will offer you tips to expand the storage more space.

How to Check Used Storage?

Find out how much space you have used in your Chromebook. Choose Downloads and hit the gear icon. It will show how much space is remaining on the internal Storage. Another method you can use is the Settings page. 

If you add ‘In Use,’ you will get the storage space you have used on your system. For free, you can also use third-party apps such as the Cog app.

How to Check Available Storage?

By opening your Chrome browser, check how much space is available on your Chromebook. Type chrome://quota-internals and press the Enter key. You can also use the Files app. Open this app on your Chromebook and hit Downloads from the left-side panel. Click the three-dots sign displayed in the top-right corner.

The third option includes accessing the Settings page. Type Storage and choose Storage Management. Then, click on it. Clearing data on Chromebook is similar to cleaning system storage on Mac or Windows; the steps vary based on your operating system.  

Try- Clean Your Device Memory

Delete Downloaded Files

Launch the Files app and choose Downloads. Hit the Size column to sort the files by size. The most extensive files will be found on the top. Select the most comprehensive file you no longer require and delete them. 

If you have saved a file but deleted it from the internal Storage, upload it to Google Drive. You can also use an SD card or a USB drive for connection and move the unnecessary downloaded files.

Remove Least Used Apps

To identify which apps are not worth keeping in your Chromebook:

1. Use the Play Store.
2. Remove the least used Android apps along with their cache.
3. For this, navigate to the Play Store and click Manage apps & devices.
4. Hit Manage. 

Choose ‘least used’ from the ‘Recently Updated’ dropdown. Next, checkmark the box of the app you want to remove and hit the trash. To delete cache, go to Settings, tap on Apps, and then manage your apps.

Remove Local Data

Don’t know how to delete the files that the operating system caches in the Offline folder? Open Chrome and enter ‘chrome://drive-internals’ in the address bar. Click ‘Clear local data’ under Local Metadata. 

Once you do that, your OS will instantly remove the local files already present in the cloud. It will be helpful when your Chromebook’s internal Storage is almost filled.

Delete Cache Regularly

In your Chromebook, you can’t see how much data has been cached by the browser cache and other files. But, it is worth noting that the browser cache also consumes some storage space. To regain the storage space, clear the cache with temporary browser files. 

Hit Menu, click More tools, and select Clear browsing data. Tap Cached images and files to get rid of the browser cache. Select the type of browser data and hit Clear browsing data.

Remove User Accounts

Using multiple user accounts, use the same methods to clear the browser cache. You can also use another method of deleting a specific user account. Remember that it will remove all the related data. 

If you want to remove any account, access the Settings screen and click Manage other users. It will appear below the Users. Now, you can remove the required user account.

Relocate to Web Apps

Another tip to free up your Chromebook disk space is switching to web apps. Using web applications from well-recognized services such as Zoom offer many advantages. The most delightful thing about such apps is that they hardly consume local Storage.

However, you can use Google Docs if you want to work offline. Go to Settings, Google Play Store, and then Remove Google Play Store.

Move Files to Cloud

If you don’t want to delete local files, move them to the cloud storage account. Using the Files app, you can link various online storage platforms such as Dropbox, One Drive, or Google Drive. You can also use them as another drive in the file manager. 

To link an online driver to Chromebook:

1. Access the Files app.
2. Paste required files and folders.
3. Click any file inside the Google Drive tab.
4. Toggle Available offline.

The Conclusion

If your disk space gets filled, you will see an error message. It will appear as “Device is low on space: Free up space or select data may be automatically deleted.” You will deal with problems related to loading web pages, downloading files, using Android apps, and more.

Hence, stop wondering about how to free up disk space on Chromebook and start using the above helpful tips.