How to Fix Unable to Complete Previous Operation Due to Low Memory

What does “unable to complete previous operation due to low memory” mean when you are trying to upload an image or photo from your phone to your web browser and what are the possible solutions to fix this warning?

Firstly, you need to know that you won’t be able to complete the uploading process if you encounter unable to upload due to low memory message. So, this article is about how to fix low memory on your device.

Unable to Complete Operation Due to Low Memory

If you run into the error message; unable to complete operation due to low memory severally on your Android phone when you are trying to upload images or photos or media or video online, and you need to fix this urgently then you need this post.

Just earlier hour of today, I was slapped with “unable to complete the previous operation due to low memory, in the first place I thought the phone memory was full, so I had to check but it wasn’t. However, you will experience this warning when your phone storage is running out of space.

When I found out that the operation message unable to upload due to low memory was not talking about low memory storage on my phone and turned out that the message meant I couldn’t complete the process to upload the image so, literally, “I Can’t upload pictures” due to low memory until the error message is fixed.

I took the following steps to fix my inability to complete the previous operation on my Android phone, and it worked fine for me.

Note: I was unable to complete the operation due to low memory on my Redmi Note 12 and Oppo Reno 5 as well but was solved via the steps below.

why does my Phone say Unable to Complete Previous Operation due to Low Memory?

A quick one; a lot of reasons could bring up unable to complete the previous operation due to low memory on your phone.

When you know these reasons it’ll be very easy to fix them. So, below are the answers to “Why does my phone say unable to complete previous operation due to low memory.”

• Your phone activities mode is turned on.
• Your phone is running on low-memory
• You have excess browser history on your Chrome.
• An excess cache can also return an unable to upload files due to low memory.
• You will mostly encounter this when you are uploading a photo or photos or pictures or images to your Facebook account using a Chrome browser on your phone.

How to Fix Unable to Complete Previous Operation Due to Low Memory

There are a few approaches that you can take to fix your Android phone’s inability to complete previous operations due to low memory storage whenever you are trying to upload images or documents online. So, here we will discuss various approaches that you can use to fix these warnings and start uploading your files, photos, images and send attachments on your Gmail without this warning.

Reboot your Phone

The fastest troubleshooting tip to try when you are facing low memory warning on your phone when you are trying to upload images or documents online is to quickly reboot your phone. This is quick and easy and it’s the fastest troubleshooting tup we recommended. You don’t have anything to lose here.

• Press and hold the “Power” button on your phone.
• Select “Reboot” or “Restart.”
• Wait for a couple of seconds for your phone to reboot successfully.

Once the cycle is completed check whether the low memory warning is fixed. If not, then, you need to consider the following advanced approaches.

Turn Off Activities Mode

The unable to upload due to low memory on Chrome browser doesn’t depend on the type of phone that you are using. Once you are caught in the act, your device will not be able to upload the file or document until it’s fixed and pops unable to upload due to low memory somewhere on your phone screen.

When this happens you have a few options left which include clearing the phone cache, resetting your browser’s history, upgrading your browser, checking for your phone OS update, and a few others.

While all these are valid; you can also turn on the phone’s activities mode and turn it off once you have successfully uploaded the file.

Note: Turn off activities mode via the developer option on your phone to fix unable to upload due to low memory.

• Go to developer options
• Scroll down, and uncheck (turn off) the ‘don’t keep activities’ option.
• Turn it back up, if you want, when you’re done with your upload.

This is quick and it works for some people who often complain they can’t upload a file, document or picture on Facebook.

You can find a detailed explanation of this below with pictures if you don’t know how to go about it.

Clear Browser Cache

When you have an excess cache or low storage capacity it can cause your device or phone to return the error message “unable to complete due to low memory” and the operation will be declined.

And most times, even with low memory or excess cache you can still upload your file without fixing the error emanating from the device.

However, the suitable thing to do is to fix the reason why your phone keeps saying unable to complete due to low memory; this could be upgrading your phone or fixing some internal error which we will discuss here as well.

So, phone internal error can cause unable to complete due to low memory.

• Go to your Android phone “Settings.”
• Click on “Apps”, “Applications” or “Apps Manager” depending on your phone configuration.
• Tap on the “Google Chrome” browser icon. You can use the search box to search for it for easy access.
• Tap on “Storage” or “Storage usage” depending on your phone.
• Tap “Clear Cache.”
• Click on “Manage Space” if you have the options available.
• Tap “Free Up Space” under “Google Chrome Storage” where you see “Unimportant data.”
• Click on OK. This will delete site data that Google think isn’t important.

With this, you can free up more storage on your phone. With this, I was able to free 1.6GB of unimportant files, cache, cookies and sites with no saved settings.

Clear your Browser History

A device with full storage or low memory shouldn’t stop you from uploading a file or document to the internet via your browser. When this happens, it’ll limit the functionality of the phone/device. However, a quick move to fix unable to complete previous operation low memory is to clear your Chrome browser’s history.

Follow the steps below to clear your mobile Chrome browser cache…

• Launch your Chrome browser.
• Click on the 3 dots at the top-right.
• Click on “History” under the browser’s “New Incognito tab.”
• Click on “Clear browsing data.”
• Choose the “time range” you would love to delete the browsing history.
• Check all “three options” under the “basic” and click on “clear data.”
• Click “Advanced“, choose the time range from the drop menu and check the first “three options” at the top and hit the clear data button.

When you are done doing this; restart the browser/phone and attempt to upload the file via the browser; you should be able to complete the uploading process. If this doesn’t work for you; kindly check out the next suggestions below.

Update your Phone OS

Always make sure you stay updated. This will make your phone run smoother. So, taking the steps below will walk you through how to update your Android phone OS.

• Go to your Android phone “Settings.”
• Click “About Phone or device.” You need to click on “Software update” on Samsung.
• Tap on your “Android version” to search for the available update. On your Samsung, you need to click on “Download and install.”

Enable Don’t Keep Activities

To fix an Android phone error that is saying can’t upload pictures or are unable to complete due to low memory, just do the following.

• Open your phone settings.
• Please scroll down to the system and click on it.
• Tap “About Phone.”
• Tap the “Build number,” like 7 times continuously to enable “Developer options.”
• Navigate back and click on “Developer options.”
• Scroll down and toggle “Don’t Keep Activities” under “Apps.”
• Press and hold the “Power” button for a few seconds.
• Tap on “Restart.”
• Done

You can fix the inability to complete due to low memory on your Android phone when uploading images or pictures by enabling the “don’t keep activities” feature of your phone.

Disable Strict Mode

Another option is to disable strict mode on your device. This can be of help too.

• Go to your phone settings.
• Go to the system option >> about phone >> build number (or versions >> build number) (tap it multiple times until it shows you are now a developer and enable developer options.
• Navigate back to developer options and click on it.
• Scroll to “Monitoring.”
• Find and toggle the “strict mode” button to grey.

If you can’t find the strict mode function use the search box to search for “strict mode” and it should come up under the developer settings.

Note: The process above does work on all phones; phones that have the strict mode function

Use a Different Browser

Using another browser could be what you need to do to fix the “unable to complete the previous operation due to low memory.” However, the Google Chrome browser has been a major concern when uploading pictures to Facebook or other websites or email addresses; it will return unable to complete due low memory error even with 4GB RAM internal memory.

So, if this error persists, you can download other browsers like Firefox beta for mobile, Opera mini browser, and even use the ES File Manager to share images to avoid can’t upload pictures error on Chrome due to low memory.

Set ART to Reboot your Device

If there is no headway yet with the unable to complete previous operation due to low memory on Google Chrome; follow the procedures below.

• Tap on the phone settings gear icon.
• Go to the developer option. You can enable this via the “about phone” option and tap the build number consecutively 6 times to enable the developer option.
• Tap “Runtime” and select the “Use ART” option.
• Reboot the phone.

Once the phone is rebooted this should make your device unable to complete the previous operation due to low memory Google Chrome is on the right track and you should be able to upload the image successfully.

Logout and Log-in in to your Gmail

If you are trying to upload a photo or image attachment to Gmail or Facebook and you are slapped with unable to process the previous operation due to low memory Gmail; follow the procedure below.

• Go to your phone app.
• Tap on apps >> Gmail.
• Tap “Storage” >> clear cache >> clear data.
• Now, re-log into your Gmail account and try to upload the image.

This will help you to fix unable to process due to low memory Facebook as well.

Force to Stop Chrome Browser

Now try this if there is no headway yet.

• Go to your phone settings.
• Tap on “Apps & notifications” depending on your phone.
• Launch the “Chrome browser.”
• Select “Storage.”
• Tap on Clear Cache.
• Tap “Force Stop”
• Done.

Now, you should be able to upload an image using Chrome browser on Facebook or Gmail and all kinds of phones including ZTA Blade without the low memory error message.

Free Up Space on Your Phone

You will be unable to complete previous due to low memory when your Oppo Reno 5 memory is full and you’d need to free some space on the device to fix this error message.

However, free more spaces on your device vary and here is a quick one we recommend.

• Go to your Android phone settings
• Click on “Apps” or “Applications” depending on your phone settings.
• Locate and launch your Google Chrome browser.
• Click on “Storage usage” and tap “Clear Cache.”
• Click on “Manage Space.“
• Click “Free Up Space.”
• A pop-up will appear with “This will clear cookies, cache, and other data of site Chrome doesn’t think it’s important.”
• Click “OK” from the pop-up.

Now, try to update the image again to see whether you’re unable to complete previous due to low memory warning popup.

Factory Reset your Phone

If there is no headway to fix your phone due to low memory error message after all the steps above, then, we will recommend a hard way to do it. In most of the devices I used, how to fix unable to complete previous operation due to low memory is via clearing the app cache and managing spaces on the concerned apps. However, you can make your Android phone new via reset or format the device to remove or uninstall all apps and reinstall all the apps once on the device.

• Open “Settings.”
• Type “reset” into the search bar and click “Factory reset.”
• Click on “Reset device.”
• If prompted, enter your password.
• Click on “Reset all.”

Once the device is reset the app which is unable to process due to low memory will also be removed. Your device should be working fine.

Unable to Complete Previous Operation Low Memory

The easiest and most convenient way to fix unable to complete previous operation low memory on Android is to switch to a new browser and try to upload the image.

Can I Fix Unable to Complete Previous Operation Low Memory in Incognito?

No! Using incognito mode won’t fix the error message unable to complete due to low memory. But, using a new browser could be the best solution to fix this and disabling strict mode.

Either a new tab or incognito mode will not fix the unable to complete previous operation low memory on Android devices like ZTE Blade, Infinix, and many other Android phones.

In summary, to fix unable to complete the previous operation due to low memory on your Android phone: enable the developer option under about phone, disable “don’t keep activities,” restart the phone and try to upload the picture if it didn’t work use another browser.