Sabrina Ortiz
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Every so often, I have to check that I have plenty of storage space on my Pixel 9 Pro. It's not that I regularly run out of space (or even come close), but it's always best to be safe. After all, if an Android phone runs out of space, it would most certainly not perform well (or at all).
Here's the thing: I've known so many Android (or iPhone) users whose devices are filled with photos and videos they don't want to delete.
What do you do?
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On Android, there's something you can disable that will free up to 10GB of space.
Sound like something you need? Read on.
It's all about AICore
Before I show you how to disable AICore to reclaim space, it's probably a good idea to understand what this feature does.
AICore is all about self-hosted AI models, such as Gemini Nano. Those models take up space (in some cases, lots of space). Those Large Language Models (LLMs) are used for features such as Magic Composer, Pixel Studio, Call Notes, Pixel Screenshots, smart replies, summarizing audio, and understanding images and sounds.
AICore is responsible for two tasks: keeping the AI model up to date and connecting it to various apps. AICore not only takes up a lot of space but can also be found guilty of consuming too much system memory and battery power.
Want to disable the feature? Here's how.
How to disable AICore on a Pixel phone
1. Open Settings
Open the Settings app. To do this, either tap the Settings launcher in your App Drawer or pull down the Notification Shade twice and tap the gear icon near the bottom right corner.
Show more2. Open Apps
Locate and tap the Apps entry in Settings.
Show moreApps should be near the top of your Settings list.
Jack Wallen3. Open all apps
You should see an entry labeled "See all X apps" where X is the number of apps you have installed. Tap that.
Show moreYes, I have a lot of apps installed.
Jack Wallen4. Navigate to AICore
Locate and tap AICore from the list.
Show moreAICore should be near the top, unless you have a lot of apps that begin with numbers or the letter "A."
Jack Wallen5. Disable AICore
On the AICore page, tap Disable. When prompted, tap "Disable app."
Show moreAs you can see, AICore is consuming over 5 GB of space on my device.
Jack Wallen6. Uninstall the updates
Next, tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner and tap "Uninstall updates."
Show moreUninstalling the updates clears the space on your device.
Jack WallenAlthough you cannot delete AICore, now that you've disabled it, you should find that you've recovered significant space on your device.
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After disabling AICore, I did notice a slight improvement in performance and battery, but most importantly, all of those AI notifications are now gone.
The good news is that disabling this feature doesn't prevent you from accessing AI features, but it will prevent you from accessing certain features on your phone. The one feature loss that might prevent you from disabling AICore is Pixel Screenshots. Once you disable AICore, the Pixel Screenshots feature no longer works. If screenshots are a must for you, don't disable the feature.
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If you find you can't function without those features, you can always re-enable AICore from the same location you disabled it.
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