Pankil is a Civil Engineer turned freelance writer from Ahmedabad, India. As a long-time Windows and Android user, he has extensive knowledge of both operating systems and specializes in creating how-tos and troubleshooting guides.
Pankil has been writing about Windows, Android, and iOS since 2021. He has written over 2000 articles across reputable publications like MakeUseOf, Android Authority, GuidingTech, and TechWiser.
Outside of his writing endeavors, Pankil is an avid football fan and loves to plan his international travels with his wife in his free time.
Most of us have a few apps on our phones that we don’t open every day but still keep around. It could be an app you use only occasionally or something that’s too much of a hassle to set up from scratch.
Either way, you don’t have to let those apps sit and hog storage for no reason. Android lets you archive apps so you can free up most of the storage they’re using without actually deleting your data.
Uninstalling apps isn’t always practical
Not every app is disposable
Deleting unwanted apps is one of the first things that comes to mind when freeing up storage. It makes sense too. Some popular Android apps can take up gigabytes of storage space on your phone, especially with all the user data and cache. And this hurts the most when it’s an app you don’t use often but can’t afford to delete either. It could be an investment app you need once in a while, a video editor, a measurement app, or a casual game.
Sure, you could uninstall and reinstall such apps in seconds, but that’s not always convenient. The real pain is sometimes losing your setup and app data. Logging into your account and reconfiguring everything isn’t always quick, at least in every app. Clearing their cache helps, but only so much. Also, Android no longer lets you clear all caches at once, so it’s not quick either. You have to open the app info of every app one by one to do the cleanup.
Fortunately, though, Android offers another option, which is to archive apps. It helps you recover most of the storage space used by the app without actually removing it completely.
Archiving apps frees up space without losing data
The best of both worlds
Archiving is built specifically for freeing up storage space without deleting the app outright. It’s similar to the iPhone’s app offloading because it doesn’t delete the app entirely. Still, it does remove the bulk of the app files, cache, and other non-essential data. Android only keeps the app icon and the user data, while removing everything else.
This obviously frees up storage space and the big advantage is that you can restore the app any time you need it. When you do, your phone downloads the missing parts of the app from the Play Store.
Since archiving doesn’t remove the app completely, it also doesn’t free up 100% of the storage either. I tried archiving LinkedIn on my S26, and it went from 201MB to 19MB, which means it freed up around 90% of the storage space. I don’t want to oversell this, though. The exact storage you’ll free up depends on the app, but it’s usually between 50-80%. Some apps shed a lot more, but a few might not budge much. The only catch is that you won’t see the “Archive” option for every app, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
The best way to check is to actually archive an app and find out. Since it doesn’t remove the app entirely, it’s safe to do so. Head to Settings > Apps and find the app you need. Tap Archive at the bottom and you’re done. After this, you won’t be able to open the app and its icon will be dimmed so you know it’s archived. If you need the app any time, you can simply tap the app icon in the app drawer to restore it. You can also do this from the Play Store. In any case, this does require an internet connection since the app is essentially re-downloaded.
Google Play can archive apps automatically
Let Google do the cleanup for you
The best part about Android’s app archiving feature is that you don’t have to use it manually for every app you don’t use. Google Play Store can do it for you. Head to the Play Store, tap your profile icon at the top, and choose Settings. Expand the General section and enable the Automatically archive apps toggle.
Play Store will now keep an eye on apps you rarely use and archive them automatically. The good thing here is that Android will only do it when your phone’s running low on storage. So yes, you won’t be losing access to apps for no reason.
If there are apps you never want archived, you can set exceptions too. Head to Settings > Apps and choose the app that you don’t want archived. Turn off Manage app if unused and Google Play will leave those alone. This, of course, doesn’t stop you from archiving apps manually at any time.
Archiving gives you a nice middle ground for apps you don’t need every day but can’t afford to delete. You can do this for half a dozen apps and easily free up a few gigabytes. If you do this for large games, you can free up even more space.
