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Summary
If you record lots of videos of your pets, loved ones, and special moments, chances are your memories have caused you to run out of storage at some point. This is because videos take up a lot of space, but thankfully, there’s a simple fix—compressing your videos.
Why Videos on Phones Are a Storage Hog
It’s no secret that videos take up way more storage space than other media like photos or music. This is because videos are made up of many individual images (called “frames”) that are captured each second—typically 30 or 60 frames per second (FPS)—while simultaneously recording an audio track, which adds even more data.
While video frames are compressed more efficiently than standalone images thanks to the efficiency ofvideo codecs(and because they’re lower resolution), high-resolutionvideos shot on your phonestill consume a significant amount of space.
Exactly how much space a video takes up depends on your camera settings, but it can increase significantly when recording in 4K and ata higher frame rate.
For example, going from 30 FPS to 60 FPS increases file size by around 50–60%, and 4K takes up more than twice the storage compared to 1080p.
To put things in perspective, a 4K video shot at 30FPS takes up roughly 150MB–200MB if using the more efficient H.265/HEVC codec, or around 200MB–250MB with the H.264 codec.
So, if you only recorded just a 5-minute video every day on a128GB base storagephone with 80GB of free storage, it’d only take you about 2–3 months to fill it up completely.
What Happens When You Don’t Compress Videos
As you may probably guess, storing large videos on your phone without compressing them will fill up your storage in no time. This means you’ll have to delete and transfer your images, videos, apps, and games to your computer orNASif you want to record new videos.
This inconvenience is frustrating at home, but it’s even worse if it happens in the middle of your vacation, and you don’t have anSD card slotor some other way to store your precious new memories. By the way, aUSB-C flash drivecan be a lifesaverin situations like these.
PNY Elite Type-C USB 3.2 Flash Drive
Need to transfer files from your smartphone or tablet? The PNY Elite will get the job done.
Another problem that you’re able to run into with low storage is that your phone mayslow downas it fills up. If it’s almost completely full, you might start experiencing app freezes and crashes, and syncing issues. The end result is you being forced tofree up spaceby either deleting the videos or something else, like apps, music, and games.
Yet another complication is that you can run out of space on your Google account if you haveenabled automatic backup to Google Photos. Since the storage on Photos is shared across all your Google services, this means you will no longer be able to receive emails and attachments, upload new files to Google Drive, or even create new Google Docs documents until you free up space or pay for a Google One subscription.
Even if your phone isn’t full, uncompressed videos are a pain to deal with. Since they take up significantly more space, uploading them takes longer and consumes more mobile data, whether you’re uploading to social media, messaging apps, or other platforms. Plus, social media and chat apps always compress your videos.
Their compression algorithms often reduce video quality far more than if you compressed the video yourself first. When you upload a pre-compressed video, the app’s algorithm will detect it’s a smaller file and may apply less additional compression, resulting in better overall quality.
Video Compression Makes Sense (And It’s Easier Than You Think)
The first thing you’re able to do to reduce video file size is switch from H.264 to H.265 video encoding. H.265 uses more efficient compression and will reduce file size significantly while looking just as good or even better.
Still, switching codecs is only part of the solution. Even with H.265, videos take up a lot of space, especially if they’re 4K 60FPS and long. Fortunately, modern compression algorithms can remove redundant or less noticeable visual data with minimal impact on perceived image quality.
The reason why compression works so well with videos is that advanced compression techniques remove repetitive and less important data that is difficult to perceive in motion.
If you’re willing to trade a bit more image quality for a dramatic reduction in size, say, 80–90%, you may apply more aggressive compression. This means lowering the resolution, reducing bitrate, and even lowering audio quality. If your goal is simply to preserve a memory, and you’re okay with a downgraded video, I recommend this approach.
As forhow to compress videos, there are many video compressors on the Play Store to choose from. Admittedly, most of the free versions aren’t that great to use because they tend to be cluttered with ads. If you record a lot of videos, you should consider using the paid version.
On the other hand, the free versions are fine for occasional use or if you only plan to compress longer videos. Some free tools that I’ve tried and found to work well areInverse AI’s Video Compressor,Panda Video Compress, andTarrySoft’s Video Compressor. They can easily cut file sizes in half or more with minimal impact on image quality.
But what if I told you that there might be an even better alternative to apps?
Programs on your PC can do a much better job at compressing videos, and they’ll do it much quicker, too. This is how I do it; as a matter of fact, I don’t even bother transferring the compressed videos back to my phone altogether because I prefer to store them on my PC.
HandbrakeandVLC(the media player you probably used in high school) are two excellent free video compression tools. Both do a great job of reducing file size without significantly degrading video quality. Moreover, since video compression is resource-intensive, it’s more convenient to offload the task to your more powerful desktop PC or laptop rather than letting it slow down your phone when it’s running in the background.
Compressing your videos is one of the easiest but most important ways to manage your Android phone’s limited storage space. Most of the time, you won’t even be able to tell the difference in image quality, but you’ll definitely notice the impact it has on your storage space.
