A method for recognizing infrequently-used data includes scanning files in storage space according to a first scanning rule, generating a file set according to the scanned files, for each file in the file set, obtaining a last access time of the file, where the last access time indicates a time when the file was last accessed and not modified, obtaining a file attribute of the file, querying an infrequently-used file recognition condition corresponding to the file attribute, and when the last access time of the file meets the infrequently-used file recognition condition, recognizing the file as an infrequently-used file.