Routine file maintenance is something which every Android user should at least be attempting to keep up, even if only very seldom. From time to time you might want to free up some storage on your device and you do so by going into the storage menu from settings. Here you can see how much storage is being taken up by each category, i.e. apps, music, misc. etc. Tapping on each category will then have its own reaction. For example, tapping on the apps category will then transition you into the apps screen of settings where you can see all your apps, running apps, and downloaded apps.
Tapping on the misc. category proceeds to bring a list of all the files which weren’t capable of being placed into a specific category, and you can check the boxes next to these files to delete and clear up some space, or, you can check the box next to “delete all” and clear out the entire list at once. With Android M Google is going to extend the capabilities of this misc. menu in storage a little bit which may sound boring and unexciting, but it actually adds some usefulness which users may end up appreciating. Google will be introducing a grid view option which won’t be on by default but users will have the opportunity to switch to this if they wish, something which is sure to be a welcomed visual tweak and places things in a grid-style format with much larger icons instead of a list of names of each file.
Another change coming with Android M sees the action of tapping on files opening them instead of checking the box to have them deleted. This makes a little more sense and actually presents more of a “file manager” type action. Google will also be adding the capabilities to copy items from this menu, as well as make it possible for users to search for things if they aren’t quite sure what the file names are for specific things. A couple of other tweaks are coming about too, which includes the ability to share selected files from the list instead of just an option to delete them, and Google is making things a bit more organized with various sorting options.