How to optimize and manage storage space for Genshin Impact

Don't run out of storage for playing Genshin Impact — here's how to shrink down the size of the app

Genshin Impact is a big deal in Android gaming right now — with an emphasis on the "big." Storage space is a significant concern if you're playing (or even planning to play) the hit game. Genshin Impact packs on weight with every update, demanding nearly 20GB of your storage: Annual patches containing new region drops, like Inazuma in version 2.0, substantially expand the world map, and let's not forget the version updates (every six weeks) with all their new areas, stories, and characters adding to the game's content. When are our devices going to catch a break?

Adding content comes at a cost, and our limited mobile storage space is paying that price. These updates won't be slowing down anytime soon; HoYoverse is generating a lot of revenue from its multi-billion-dollar title, after all. So it's up to us, the consumers, to deal with the problem. We at Android Police analyzed the best practices to optimize mobile storage space for Genshin Impact, helping your phone or tablet to deal with this outright behemoth.

What you need to know about pre-installation

If you're trying to conserve storage space for Genshin Impact, the pre-installation feature is somewhat of a trap. Pre-installation saves time waiting to update your app by downloading the in-game resources a few days in advance; unfortunately, that doesn't do any favors for your storage resources, and these pre-installation files are pretty darn hefty themselves.

Reducing the pre-installation size is not impossible, but you could elect to clean out the unused files from the previous patch first, and then download the new update on release. That way will save you some space, but at the cost of your time investment.

Clearing the cache

Clearing your cache removes the temporary files associated with the Genshin Impact app. Routinely clearing your cache will free up some storage space, and, in some cases, improve your app's and device's performance. Read our steps to learn how to get started on this practice.

1. Navigate to your device's settings by tapping Settings > Applications or Apps to open the app manager. Depending on your device, you may be required to tap on an additional option to access your app list.
2. Once in the manager, scroll down and locate Genshin Impact. Tap on Genshin Impact to view the app information.
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3. On Genshin Impact's information page, tap on Storage. From here, you can clear data or clear the cache, but for now, we only want to clear the cache.
4. Tap Clear cache to finish. Just how much space you get back from clearing your cache will depend on how frequently you'll perform this step, so if you clear it daily, you won't notice much of a difference — it's probably best to only bother with clearing your cache occasionally.
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Uninstalling unused language packs

You can uninstall unused voice packs for different languages to help conserve storage, saving up to a few gigabytes per language pack, so this has the potential to be a huge space-saver. Managing your language packs is simple; here's how to do it.

Note: Fresh app installs don't come with all language packs anymore.

1. Launch the Genshin Impact application to load up the game from your device.
2. Tap the Paimon icon to bring up your main menu and tap on Settings (gear icon).
3. Under settings, scroll down and tap Language; you can manage your voice-over and game language here.
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4. To begin uninstalling unused voice packs, tap on Manage Voice-Over Files (located in the bottom-left corner) > Uninstall.
5. If you wish to reinstall other language packs later, tap on the Voice-Over Language dropdown menu and then tap Confirm.
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Re-installing Genshin Impact

This one's a bit of a last-resort option to consider when cleaning out your storage space. Collective updates can leave unused files (e.g., old events and quests) behind, which will eat up your storage, and doing fresh installations from time to time may be the only way to get rid of these files completely.

1. On your device, return to the app manager under settings.
2. Tap on Genshin Impact, select Uninstall, and tap OK to confirm.
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3. To begin reinstallation, open Google Play Store and search Genshin Impact.
4. Tap Install and launch the app to finish the process. Reinstalling the game will take some time, depending on your internet connection, so we recommend using this method sparingly when desperately trying to squeeze out some extra space.
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Clearing the app data

An alternative to uninstalling and reinstalling the game, clearing the app data will eradicate any lingering files from your device, essentially factory resetting the application. We recommend clearing the data when you're dealing with issues like a corrupted update file, or if the game's having trouble loading or running at all.

Note: Once you've cleared the app data, you'll lose all saved information, including your login credentials.

To begin clearing the app data on your device, navigate to Settings > Applications or Apps > App info > Storage > Clear data.

Go big or go home

Genshin Impact's monthly updates will not be slowing anytime soon, so to keep up, HoYoverse has forced us to adopt a "go big or go home" approach to storage space on our phones and tablets. Unfortunately, not all of us even own a 128GB model to begin with, so HoYoverse really needs to come up with a solution to assist in storage management — or find ways to improve file compression.

We will have to wait and see if anything does improve, but in the meantime, enjoy your newly acquired characters and indulge in the ongoing events — and hopefully we pick up some more tools to optimize storage space before the next version drops.