Digital spring cleaning
This allows users to tidy up their devices properly
Order in the home and on your own devices
© Sharomka / Shutterstock.com
Spring cleaning is coming up – just the right time to clean up on devices such as smartphones or laptops.
If you are planning a spring cleaning for the coming period, you shouldn’t forget to clear out your laptop, desktop PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet. With these tips, users can also keep things tidy in the digital world.
Create storage space
One of the biggest problems that many users have is that they will eventually run out of storage space for content such as games, photos and videos. The fact that there is only little storage space is often due to the fact that many things have been saved beforehand that may not be needed at all.
For many users, one of the worst memory hogs on smartphones is the snapped photos and recorded video clips. Here it makes sense to move the memories to cloud storage services such as Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox or OneDrive. A backup on the PC or laptop, which should be carried out regularly anyway, so that no important files are lost, is also advisable. Then users can only keep the best recordings on the device and delete the others.
Likewise, for example, downloaded music albums can take up a lot of space in streaming services, audio books and the like. So if you haven’t heard an artist’s songs in a long time and don’t plan to listen to them again in the near future, you can safely delete them on your smartphone. They can be downloaded again later anyway. Incidentally, this is also the case with apps. If a game or another application has not been touched for months, users can remove the program immediately.
The same principle applies to a PC, laptop or Mac. For example, why not clean up the library of installed games or uninstall programs that you haven’t used for ages? There are also tools that can be used to find duplicates of files that are taking up space unnecessarily.
Format and defragment
In the meantime, users can make a clear cut by formatting a hard drive or partition. After such a step, all of the content has really disappeared. This is why important files should be saved elsewhere beforehand. Users can move files to an external USB hard drive, for example. However, inexperienced users may want to seek the help of a more experienced user in such a step.
If the PC or laptop is paralyzed, defragmenting a hard drive can help. In doing so, the data distributed on a hard disk is rearranged. After prolonged use, the deletion of content and the like, gaps gradually appear. If new data is saved, it can happen that only parts of it are saved in these gaps and the rest is saved elsewhere on the hard drive. With the defragmentation, the data is rearranged and shifted towards each other.
Clear cookies and cache
Anyone who is on the Internet a lot collects countless cookies with their browser, i.e. data from websites that are stored on the end device. For data protection reasons, these should be deleted regularly, as cookies are useful, but can also be read for advertising purposes, for example. A lot of data from websites is also gradually ending up in the so-called cache so that it can be read out more quickly when a user visits the site again. In this way, entire amounts of data accumulate over time. Depending on the browser, cookies and cache can be deleted or emptied in different ways. In most cases, the corresponding functions can be found in the settings under items such as “Data protection and security”. The browser history can also be deleted here.
Passwords and Updates
While you’re at it, you can also make sure that the system is up to date. Users should update programs and the operating system at regular intervals. With updates, developers not only eliminate errors, but also repeatedly close possible points of attack that could be exploited by criminals. In order for the programs and system to be up to date, users sometimes have to manually confirm an update.
In addition, users should change their passwords again and again in order to prevent possible access by unauthorized persons. According to the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the longer a password, the better. It should have at least eight characters and, if possible, contain lowercase and uppercase letters, special characters and numbers. Other experts speak of at least 15 characters. In addition, users should not use terms, sequences, or personal information that are easy to guess. “Password123” or your own date of birth are not certain.