But what’s the best way to move files and media between different folders or from internal storage to SD card on Windows Phone 8.1? How about those heavy games that take up more than 1 GB space? Read on to find out.
Deleting And Moving Files With Files App
For Windows Phone 8.1 MS has released a dedicated file manager app called Files. It’s not a fully featured app but it does get the basics right. It’s only for browsing and managing files in Windows Phone 8.1, you can’t manage apps with it. Until now we used Storage Sense to do this but in my experience I found the app to be slow and unnecessarily complicated to navigate through. Files app improves upon both those aspects. When you launch the Files app you’ll see the default media and documents folders alongside a square stating the number of files in them. Tap any folder to see the files. Long press on any file and choose Delete to delete the file. Long press and choose Move to, browse for the destination (this can even be the SD card) and tap move here when you’ve fond the appropriate folder. If you want to do this for multiple files at once, tap the checkmark icon from the bottom options bar. You can delete (but not move) folders in the same way. But be sure not to delete a system level folder. Just as deleting, making a new folder is also easy. Tap on the New Folder icon, which is the first in the bottom options bar, give the folder a name and you’re done.
Moving Apps With Storage Sense
As I said, Files app is just for managing files. To move apps from internal storage to SD card or to mass delete them, you’ll still have to go into Storage Sense. Here you can even choose the default location for apps to install, changing it to SD card. Once you’ve selected apps + games from Storage Sense, you’ll see all the listed apps on your phone. The ones blacked out are system level apps that you can’t move or delete, everything else is open territory. Tap on an app, select move to SD to move the app to SD card or uninstall to uninstall the app. When you move an app to SD card, the process will start in the background and won’t affect your phone’s use. Use the checkmark button on the bottom to select more than one app. On the bottom you have uninstall to delete the apps or move to move the apps to SD card. Works for SD card as well : As I’ve stated above, both Files and Storage Sense apps let you transfer files and apps from internal storage to SD card, use those features if you have something like Nokia Lumia 630 that only comes with about 5.5 GB of useful internal storage.
Factory Reset
Something went wrong? Don’t like Cortana? Selling your phone or just want to start with a blank slate? There’s always the Factory Reset option. From Settings -> about you can tap the reset your phone to start fresh. It will delete all the files, apps, media, installed updates and your personal settings and credentials, essentially brining it back to the way you found it out of box.
