2026年10月4日
Telegram for Android keeps chat history and media cache in the phone's internal storage by default, and over time it can take up a fair amount of space. Moving data to an SD card frees up internal storage, but keep in mind: Telegram does not offer a one-tap migration button. What you can move is mainly the media cache and download folder, while the chat database itself stays in internal storage. The steps below cover what is actually possible.
Open your phone's 「Settings」 → 「Storage」 and confirm the SD card is recognized and usable. On some models, formatting the SD card as internal storage merges it with built-in storage; in that case Telegram's data is allocated automatically by the system, and you neither need to nor can specify a separate path.
Only when the SD card is set up as portable storage is it suitable for manually choosing a download location. Also make sure Telegram is reasonably up to date, since older versions may have menu items in different places. It is best to update to the current version from Google Play first.
In Telegram, go to 「Settings」 → 「Data and Storage」 → the options related to 「Storage Usage」 or 「Download Path」, and choose 「SD Card」 or manually point to a folder on the SD card.
After this, newly received photos, videos, and files will be saved to the SD card first. Note that this step only affects media downloaded afterward; cache already sitting in internal storage will not be moved automatically and needs to be cleared or re-downloaded.
For space that is already used, find the 「Clear Cache」 entry under 「Data and Storage」, check how much photos, videos, and files each take up by type, and decide what to delete. After deleting, reopening the relevant chat will re-download the media from the server, and this time it will land in the SD card path you just set.
If you can see Telegram's folders directly in a file manager, you can also manually cut the contents of the old folder to the matching directory on the SD card, but do not move the database files, as that can cause chat history problems.
If new media still ends up in internal storage after the change, first check whether the SD card is mounted as portable storage by the system and whether Telegram has storage permission. Some Android versions restrict writing to SD cards, so you need to grant Telegram 「All files access」 or storage permission in system settings.
Also, chat history itself (text messages and account data) lives in Telegram's internal database and cannot be moved to the SD card by changing a path; when switching phones, use Telegram's built-in chat migration or cloud sync to restore it. If the SD card has slow read and write speeds, loading large videos may lag, and removing the card or card damage can affect media access, so it is a good idea to keep cloud backups of important files.