Your phone is getting slower and you now want to unclutter it by deleting apps you no longer use. Nothing wrong with that – I’m doing the same every 3-6 month. If I find that I haven’t used an app for a while, I delete it. This way, I keep my phone fast for longer — and I know that because I wasn’t doing that before.
However, you should know that just by uninstalling an app, you may haven’t removed all the data that app has put on your phone. So aside from removing the app, you should also remove all the associated data that may remain on your device.
Here’s what you should do BEFORE uninstalling an app:
1. Unlink all accounts associated with the app
This could be your Google, Facebook or Twitter account — which may have been connected to the app the first time you started it.
App developers make these connections to popular services in order to make it easier for users to share information from the app with other people. And just removing an app may not stop it from accessing services you synced it to and are continuously active on.
If you don’t see such an option inside a mobile app, see if there is something like that in the desktop version.
2. Delete the app data
Most apps will save some data on the phone to record your usage. You can delete this data before uninstalling the app itself, just in case.
For that, you will have to find “app data” in the Settings screen and then find the app you’re looking to delete. From that screen, you can erase all data the app has stored on your device. Because chances are, they did leave some trace to “welcome you back” if you decide to get back to the same app after a while.
3. Delete your account
The last thing you should do if you no longer plan to use an app is to delete the account you made for that app/service.
The company behind pretty much any app collects information on its users and there is no good reason to let them keep that data now that you no longer use the app. So delete that account as soon as you remove the app — and you don’t have to worry whether your data will ever be offered to third parties.
We must add that some services don’t make it easy to delete your account and will even offer you a grace period during which you can change your mind and reopen your account. This period could last from a week to 30 days. You’ll just have to follow through in order to have your account deleted at the end.
…
And that’s pretty much it. If you follow these steps, you will not only declutter your device(s), but also make sure your personal data is removed from the app developer’s servers. Cause, again, there is no need to leave any data on the table.