Since its launch in 2014, Telegram has become an excellent option for all those users who spend most of the day in front of the computer and who, in addition, are forced to share any type of content, regardless of its type. Also, being cross-platform, we can continue our conversations or access shared files from anywhere.
But, just as it is its main virtue, it can also be a problem for users who enjoy storage space on their device. Although, like WhatsApp, we can configure what type of file to download automatically, natively, it downloads all the content, filling our storage space.
Fortunately, this problem has a very simple solution. If you want to delete Telegram files and prevent this app from consuming a large portion of your mobile device's storage space, I invite you to read the guide we've prepared at Móvil Fórum.
How to delete Telegram files
The only method to free up storage space that Telegram occupies on our device is by clearing the cache. All the files that we download and open in the application (documents, videos, images, sounds, applications, programs...) are stored in the Telegram cache.
Telegram, unlike WhatsApp, allows us to manually save the content that we want to keep forever on our device, without downloading it automatically. If we clear the cache, we will delete all the files that we have opened on our device but that we have not saved on it.
The method to clear the cache on our mobile device is exactly the same for both iOS and Android. And I say this because other features that Telegram offers us related to storage space are not available in both ecosystems.
To clear the content of the cache of the Telegram application, we must perform the steps that I show you below:
- Once we have opened the application, we go to the tab Settings
- On iOS: From the bottom right corner of the screen.
- On Android: click on the 3 horizontal lines located at the top left of the application
- Within Settings, click Data and storage.
- In the next menu, click on Storage usage.
- Finally, to clear the Telegram cache, click on the button Clear Telegram cache.
How to delete Telegram files on Windows
When using Telegram on Windows, this platform offers us different applications, both official and unofficial. But, just like applications for mobile devices, every time we click on content (image, video, file...) to access it, it is automatically downloaded to our computer.
Best of all, it doesn't do it in the Windows cache folder, but rather in the Downloads folder, inside the Telegram folder. In this way, not only can we quickly access all the content that we downloaded from the application, but we can also quickly delete it without having to use the application.
- To delete all the files that Telegram has downloaded in Windows, we access the Downloads folder (in the file explorer we have a shortcut).
- Inside the Downloads folder, click on Telegram Desktop
- Then we select all the files through the keyboard shortcut Control + E and press the delete key, drag to the recycle bin or click on the Delete button.
If we need to access those files again, we just have to go to the chat where they are and download it again, there is no need to go to the recycling bin, especially if 30 days have already passed.
It is worth remembering that the recycle bin automatically deletes all files from the recycle bin 30 days after they were added.
How to delete Telegram files on macOS
The application for Telegram, both the official and unofficial ones, work in the same way: they download all the content that we receive in the Telegram Desktop folder of our computer, a folder located within the Downloads section.
If we want to delete all the files downloaded through Telegram on Mac, we access the Telegram Desktop folder located inside the Downloads folder, select all the files with the Control + A command and drag the content to the trash can.
Just like in Windows, if we need to access those files again, we must go to the chat where they are located and download them again.
How to limit the space that Telegram has on iPhone
Within the Telegram configuration options, and unlike WhatsApp, we can limit the total space that the data that we download from the application can occupy, in order to put a limit on the total space that it can occupy on our iPhone, since in Android is not available this function.
If you want to limit the storage space that this application occupies on your iPhone, here are the steps to follow:
- Once we have opened the application, we go to the Settings tab (lower right corner of the screen).
- Within Settings, click Data and storage.
- In the next menu, click on Storage usage.
- Next, in the Storage usage section, we go to the Maximum cache size option and move the slider to the maximum space that we want the data downloaded from Telegram to occupy.
Once the maximum limited space is reached, the application will begin to delete the oldest content to free up space and not exceed the limit that we have established.
How to limit the space that Telegram has on Android
The function available in the Telegram application for iOS that allows us to limit the maximum space that the data we download from Telegram can occupy on our device, is not available on Android.
However, we can use a feature, also available on iOS, that allows us to set the maximum time that media content is stored in the application.
- Once we have opened the application, we go to the tab Settings (click on the 3 horizontal lines located at the top left of the application).
- Within Settings, click Data and storage.
- In the next menu, click on Storage usage.
- Within the Preserve Media section, we move the slider to the tmaximum time we want to keep the multimedia content that we download in the application.
Once the established time has elapsed, the content will be deleted from our device, but it will still be available through the application, since the files are kept on the Telegram servers.