What Happens When You Clear Data of an Android App: Popular Apps Explained

What Happens When You Clear Data From an Android App

• You will be signed out of the account present in the app. Your account will not be deleted, and you will not lose your subscription.
• You will lose all downloads made inside the app. Further, any data that isn’t synced to your account (like browser history, drafts, etc.) will be deleted.
• App settings that aren’t synced to your account will be reset.
• Junk files and cache data will be deleted. This can free up storage, and may also fix bugs within the app.
• You will also lose any sort of drafts saved inside the app.

Here’s what happens if you clear the data from some of the popular apps on Android.

Phone, Contacts, and Messages App

• Clearing data from the Phone app will not delete your call history or contacts. But, as obvious, any customizations made to the app settings will be reset.
• Similarly, clearing data for the pre-installed Contacts app or a third-party contacts app will not affect your contacts – both local and synced.
• That said, we strongly suggest you take a local backup of your contacts and sync them to Google or any other backup service before you clear its data to avoid any unnecessary damage.

Camera and Gallery

• Clearing data for the Camera app will only reset its settings such as front camera picture size, HDR, gridlines, etc.
• Similarly, for the Gallery app too, only settings such as sort mode, themes, etc., will be changed. Your photos and videos will not be deleted by clearing the data of either app.

WhatsApp

• When you clear WhatsApp data, you will need to verify your WhatsApp account again, just as you did when you installed it on your phone.
• Make sure you have access to the same number that was registered with WhatsApp. And yes, your chats will be deleted by clearing the data.
• Other things that are reset include customization settings such as WhatsApp wallpaper, font size, and storage usage.
• Things that remain unaffected by clearing WhatsApp data include your profile picture, privacy settings, blocked contacts, and previous local backups. You won’t be removed from your WhatsApp groups.

Instagram and Facebook

• You will be signed out of your account, but you will retain all the posts made on it.
• However, you will lose access to all the saved drafts on your account.

YouTube

• Clearing data from the YouTube app will sign you out, and remove all the downloads made on it.
• This will not delete your account or modify your subscriptions.

Cloud Storage Services (Google Drive, OneDrive) Apps

• The apps for cloud storage services such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc., save your files in the cloud.
• So clearing data for them on your Android phone will not delete the files associated with these services.
• You will be logged out of the app after clearing the data. Signing in again will bring back the files.

How to Clear Data of an App on Android

Tap and hold the app icon, and select App info. Then, tap on Clear Storage and confirm your action.

Also Read: How to free up space on Android without deleting apps.