One free-to-try Android app replaced three and freed 12GB

An Android Police writer says one small app did the work of three on his phone and freed at least 12GB of space. The app is Amaze File Utilities, and it comes with a 20-day trial that does not lock any features. After that, it costs $1 per year or $3 for a lifetime license.

What the app does

Amaze File Utilities, or AFU, comes from the team behind Amaze File Manager. It is open source, which means its code is public. The writer had been running a storage cleaner, an image-organizing app and a media compression tool. All three took up space themselves. AFU handled each job, so he deleted them.

• Scans for duplicates, screenshots, blurry images, bulky videos and forgotten downloads
• Finds leftover APKs (app installer files) and junk from uninstalled apps
• Compresses media, which lowers quality but saves space
• Frees up RAM, the phone's short-term memory, and helps remove rarely used apps

What it replaced

AFU also plays media and sends files between devices over Wi-Fi. The writer says that means a separate video player such as VLC, or a Wi-Fi transfer app, may no longer be needed. He did not use the transfer feature himself, since he backs up to a Synology NAS, a home storage device.

He compares it with SD Maid 2/SE, a popular cleanup app that search engines often recommend. In his view, AFU has the better scanner and a cleaner, easier interface for images, videos and duplicates.

The numbers

After using the scans, the writer says he got back at least 12GB. That came from deleting duplicate images, APKs and junk files he had ignored for a long time. Removing the three old apps gave back another 700MB to 800MB. He applied compression only to old videos he did not need right now.

Cost and privacy

The trial lasts 20 days and does not hold back any features. The writer says AFU has no ads, no telemetry (tracking of how you use the app) and no cloud storage subscriptions. He paid for the lifetime license to support the developers. He calls the price small and worth it.

What is not known

These results come from one writer's phone. How much space AFU frees will depend on what is stored on yours. The article does not say how many people use the app, and it calls AFU relatively unknown. Compressing media also cannot be undone without a quality loss, so it is best used on files you no longer care about.