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Having a phone with 128GB or 256GB storage isn’t enough for most people. It certainly isn’t for me, so I’m always on the lookout to free up storage space on my phone without deleting anything important.
If you’ve used a Galaxy phone for a few years, you probably already know about emptying the trash, clearing caches, archiving unused apps, and all the usual storage tricks. But there’s one more that most people don’t know about, which is using the *#9900# dial code to clear old system log files.
What the *#9900# dial code actually does
This maintenance menu is worth checking out
If you’ve never heard of dial codes, here’s the short version. These are special sequences of numbers and symbols you type into the Phone app to open hidden menus.
*#9900# is one such dial code for opening One UI’s built-in diagnostic tool called SysDump (short for System Dump). It’s hidden for a reason, though. It’s not something you need to interact with regularly. It’s mostly there for technicians and developers to pull troubleshooting data and bug reports. This includes what your Galaxy phone is constantly doing in the background — information about apps and all the system events. It’s essentially a record of everything happening on your phone, and these are called dumpstate and logcat files.
Over time, these can end up taking several gigabytes of storage. So, if your Galaxy phone is a few years old, deleting it can help free up a meaningful chunk of storage. Most importantly, these logs aren’t really necessary if your phone is as usual, which means it’s completely safe to delete them.
I didn’t expect it to free up 2GB of space
It’s not much, but I’ll take it
Deleting these old system files from your Samsung phone is as easy as it gets. All you have to do is dial *#9900# in the Phone app and the SysDump menu should open. Here, tap the dumpstate/logcat option, and you’re done.
If nothing happens after dialing the code, One UI’s Auto Blocker feature is probably getting in the way. Head to Settings > Security and privacy and turn off the Auto blocker toggle. Now, dial the code again and it should work. You can re-enable Auto Blocker once you’re done.
This may not work on a Galaxy phone if it’s carrier locked or managed by the organization. So, if you get an error, there’s sadly nothing you can do about it.
In my case, this ended up freeing 2GB of space. I honestly wasn’t expecting that because my Galaxy S26 is only four months old. This number can be higher or lower for you depending on how many logs have built up over time.
If you want to check how much storage this trick frees up, head to Settings > Device care > Storage > Internal storage and note down the storage mentioned next to the Other files entry before clearing the logs. Then come back to the same menu to see how much it has gone down. If that number still seems too much, there are a few other ways to shrink it as well.
It also hides a few more handy options
You might like these even more
Clearing the logs isn’t the only reason to open SysDump. Scroll through the menu and you’ll spot a couple more options. The first is Batterystats Reset, which is handy if you feel your Galaxy phone’s battery reporting is slightly off. If you have had your phone’s battery jump by 5% in just a couple of minutes, for instance, it’s likely that the battery stats are miscalibrated. Resetting those stats can fix those inaccurate readings. The best way to do it is to charge your phone to 100% first and then reset the stats from the SysDump menu.
Another useful option is battery health. This one isn’t as straightforward as others, though. For this, you’ll need to tap the Run dumpstat/logcat option and choose Copy to SD card. If your phone doesn’t have an SD card, the log will be copied to the internal storage. You’ll then need to look for a file named Logstats_ followed by your device’s model number and open it in LogLog — Log Viewer. Inside, search for the mSavedBatteryAsoc entry, and you’ll see the battery health written next to it.
Yes, it’s not exactly a one-tap answer, but if you’re curious about if your phone’s battery needs replacing, this is one of the most useful ways to tell. Also, don’t forget to clear the dump file after checking the battery health, since these logs can be quite large.
The *#9900# isn’t the only dial code your Samsung phone supports. There are plenty more dial codes you can try. They all do different things — some useful, and a few a bit gimmicky. Either way, it’s a rabbit hole worth falling down.
