so i had about 120mb free internal storage on my galaxy y. after installing a few apps that i was just trying out my internal storage reduced to 20mb. no problem i'll just delete them... but after deleting the apps internal storage was only 33mb. doing some investigation i saw the data/ system data was taking up about 110mb (using diskusage app). trying to figure out the problem i deleted all apps linked to sd-ext. the internal storage remained around 35mb. i've tried a variety of apps like sdmaid, systemcleanup, root cleaner, clean master etc but none helped with my problem. even after using these said cleaner apps and deleting them after internal was reduced to 15mb. i manually went through every single folder in /data checking size of files but nothing suspicious. but system data was now 122mb (seen to be growing every reboot) and the system data folder is not accessible with any root browser apps.
i was trying to figure out the problem so i made a cwm backup when phone was low in storage (15mb free, avg), so if bootloop i had a backup of phone when internal storage was full so i could continue troubleshooting. bootloop was inevitable.
the strangest thing now is after restoring the same said backup where internal storage was full and rebooting i saw internal storage was now 140mb. i got back all of my internal space but how? is it the system data shown in diskusage is filled with "ghost" like files. i read somewhere that android keep a little bit of data of every app ever installed, even after deleting.
my question is, is there a apk or script to clean system data.
i dont want to have to backup and restore every few days. cause this is what worked for me to regain my internal storage.
i hope u all understand what i'm saying. thanks in advance.
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Can anyone explain to me why when I have a 1Gb Ext4 partition on my SD card with only 367Mb used I am getting Low Storage warning when restoring my apps (143 of them) through Titanium Backup onto a clean HardDroid2 CM7 build with A2SD flashed and confirmed working? When I check it states 199Mb used, 13Mb free but when I use Root Explorer to look into SD-Ext I have App, Private App, Data, Dalvik, etc and all of the app APKs appear to be in there. Am I missing something here? I had the same issue for the first time a couple of days ago when I reflashed Hyperdroid - never had it before, and always do full Task29/fresh MAGLDR/fresh CWM/CWM wipe wipe wipe/etc for each new ROM so SD Ext is always reformatted too. It's driving me nuts
when you install an app, the size of that app gets knocked off the available space, but gets restored when you reboot, so try installing a few, check eth remaining space, then reboot, see if the reported space changes. (Ive never tested it myself, just repeating something i read)_
..also using app2sd and my phone mem seems to decrease also.
When i look into /data and /sdext i see in both the app folder with all apps installed.
but the used space seems to be bigger on the sd-ext.
...when you install e.g. Angry birds with 20 mb you will notice that your internal storage will NOT decrease to that amount: thats the reason why the data folder is smaller than the sd ext.
Seems so that parts of the apps are stored on the phone mem although we ve got app2sd with an sd ext.
Once i tried to delete that data folder, but then all apps stopped working.
In twyeens rom you can move your apps to sd, there was a fix some months ago, so that all apps runs fine from it also e.g. angry birds.
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So I had my S4 (i9500) on Omega v10. I wanted to install a game but it wouldn't install saying there wasn't enough space. After checking the storage I found something weird happening. The phones internal showed 500mb available. From which Applications took 5GB and Misc took 2GB.... so i deleted all files under 2GB. It still showed device has 500mb left so i wiped caches etc to see if the number updates. no go.
So I full wiped and stuff from recovery and flashed Omega v11 hoping it would fix it. But to my surprise the internal has 8.90GB available (which I understand is normal) and then 4.90GB free....
Well then wheres the other 4gb? I looked at all folders through root explorer to see anything unusual but nope. System folder is about 2gb and internal sd after wipte is 3.90gb... I am at a dead end. What do I do?
Figured it out, seems like clockworkmod recovery was the culprit. It was backing up to internal sd card too. Those who have a similar issue check the files at /mnt/shell/~
Heya guys,
yesterday, I found that I was in dire need of some more free space on my GT-I9505's internal storage and found that only the contents of /sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails were taking up space. After a while of trying to get rid of those files that kept creating themselves again, I followed some advice I read on an Android forum: I deleted the contents of the .thumbnail folder, went to Settings -> Apps and cleared the data of the Gallery and Media Storage apps, respectively, before rebooting the phone.
The contents did disappear for good, but neither Total Commander nor the list of installed apps in the settings nor the Storage summary in the settings showed any different amount of free space than before. To make matters worse, the number didn't even change after I found and deleted about 1 GB of files left by an already uninstalled app, i.e. it seems to be stuck on that value. At the same time, SD Maid tells me that I should have a good 5 GB of free space more than the system is showing. Neither restarting nor wiping the cache and dalvik cache helped.
My rooted GT-I9505 is running this unofficial port of AOKP 4.3, Milestone 1, and version 6.15.6 of PhilZ/CWM Advanced. I'm not sure whether there's more information I might need to provide, other than that the size of the thumbnails files apparently exploded (about 4 GB) when I moved quite a lot of data and obb folders to my external storage using FolderMount.
I didn't find any information about this kind of problem anywhere and am afraid I messed up so badly that I might need to reflash...or worse. Do you have an idea how I can try to fix it?
Aironfaar said:
Heya guys,
yesterday, I found that I was in dire need of some more free space on my GT-I9505's internal storage and found that only the contents of /sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails were taking up space. After a while of trying to get rid of those files that kept creating themselves again, I followed some advice I read on an Android forum: I deleted the contents of the .thumbnail folder, went to Settings -> Apps and cleared the data of the Gallery and Media Storage apps, respectively, before rebooting the phone.
The contents did disappear for good, but neither Total Commander nor the list of installed apps in the settings nor the Storage summary in the settings showed any different amount of free space than before. To make matters worse, the number didn't even change after I found and deleted about 1 GB of files left by an already uninstalled app, i.e. it seems to be stuck on that value. At the same time, SD Maid tells me that I should have a good 5 GB of free space more than the system is showing. Neither restarting nor wiping the cache and dalvik cache helped.
My rooted GT-I9505 is running this unofficial port of AOKP 4.3, Milestone 1, and version 6.15.6 of PhilZ/CWM Advanced. I'm not sure whether there's more information I might need to provide, other than that the size of the thumbnails files apparently exploded (about 4 GB) when I moved quite a lot of data and obb folders to my external storage using FolderMount.
I didn't find any information about this kind of problem anywhere and am afraid I messed up so badly that I might need to reflash...or worse. Do you have an idea how I can try to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This will always be in the sdcard and sdcard/DCIM
Androiders96 said:
This will always be in the sdcard and sdcard/DCIM
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply. However, the .thumbnails folder is empty since I deleted its content, cleared the data of the Gallery and Media Storage apps and rebooted as I described in my original post...so apparently, it will not always be there but still take up the space if you mess something up as I did.
Since then, the amount of free space seems to be stuck at the value from before the deletion of the .thumbnails contents, even though I deleted other, considerably large amounts of files since then as well, which should have freed up some more space. That can't be healthy for any kind of storage.
Some error in the file system, perhaps? Maybe some part of the OS keeps the space allocated but forgot what it was allocated for because I cleared the Gallery and Media Storage apps' information about it along with the data? I do not know, neither do I know how to fix it, and I'm getting increasingly worried.
Aironfaar said:
Thank you for your reply. However, the .thumbnails folder is empty since I deleted its content, cleared the data of the Gallery and Media Storage apps and rebooted as I described in my original post...so apparently, it will not always be there but still take up the space if you mess something up as I did.
Since then, the amount of free space seems to be stuck at the value from before the deletion of the .thumbnails contents, even though I deleted other, considerably large amounts of files since then as well, which should have freed up some more space. That can't be healthy for any kind of storage.
Some error in the file system, perhaps? Maybe some part of the OS keeps the space allocated but forgot what it was allocated for because I cleared the Gallery and Media Storage apps' information about it along with the data? I do not know, neither do I know how to fix it, and I'm getting increasingly worried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, it's from the rom, every rom will appear .thumbnail
Cache images on the gallery
All will be stored in .thumbnail
I do not know how to fix this :/
Androiders96 said:
no, it's from the rom, every rom will appear .thumbnail
Cache images on the gallery
All will be stored in .thumbnail
I do not know how to fix this :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you're saying it's controlled by the rom and Media Storage and Gallery merely use system functions or the like to create and manage those thumbnail files? I see, thanks for that information.
I assume that means I'm humped. After all, I made those two apps forget that they told the rom to allocate the space, which the rom apparently still is doing...
I guess I'll try if reflashing the rom will help, but I most probably won't have the time for that for a week or two. Until then, I'd be more than happy and thankful to hear more ideas.
I had Asphalt 8 installed on my phone while running a GPE rom. Then I decided to try CM12 out. So I got the rom, wiped everthing (except internal) and flashed the rom. When I restored the game using Titanium Backup it asked me to download the data again. I, of course, thought it's because of the wipe.
After some time I got bored of the game and deleted it (including the data). Then I wanted to go back to the GPE rom. So I got the latest zip, wiped everything (except internal) and flashed. Next thing I know is that the Asphalt 8 game data is back in the /android/obb folder, even though I deleted it.
So I guess GPE and CM12 use different partitions for this or how is it possible?
And how can I access those "hidden" partitions to delete the data from them? Without changing roms back and forth. Cause, even though I can't see the files and folders on the internal memory, it still uses the space.
Google likely restored the data from the data backup they take of the phone, if you agree to it when setting up your Google account. Simply delete the game again, and this time remove it from your app list in the Play Store. The next time around it shouldn't restore.
Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Google likely restored the data from the data backup they take of the phone, if you agree to it when setting up your Google account. Simply delete the game again, and this time remove it from your app list in the Play Store. The next time around it shouldn't restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They restored 1+ GB of data without me knowing? And without an internet connection? As I was not connected to a wi-fi. I usually also opt, at rom set-up, to not have my stuff backed up to googles servers.
So that's very unlikely.
And even if it were so, why do those files take space on my internal starge?
The MicroSD card is intended for your stuff, not app data. Therefore, to adhere to Google guidelines apps store their parts in internal storage. Now, if you didn't have data of any kind active and opted out of Google backing up data, the only possibilities I can think of are that Titanium Backup didn't delete the data, or the internal storage was not fully wiped.
Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
The MicroSD card is intended for your stuff, not app data. Therefore, to adhere to Google guidelines apps store their parts in internal storage. Now, if you didn't have data of any kind active and opted out of Google backing up data, the only possibilities I can think of are that Titanium Backup didn't delete the data, or the internal storage was not fully wiped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already said that I generally don't wipe the internal storage. I deleted data folder manually using ES File Explorer and emptied the recycle bin while on CM12. On GPE the data was back.
I did the math. Everything on my internal memory combined uses about 1 GB. But it shows me that it has 4GB used. So I went back to GPE, deleted the game data manually, and flashed CM12 back. Now it shows 1 GB used space on the internal memory.
Let me give you another example. A friend had GTA: San Andreas while on GPE. I flashed CM12 on that phone, but did not delete the game data, nor wiped the internal storage, just a simple /cache, /data and /dalvik-cache wipe.
On CM12 she didn't install GTA anymore and there is no trace of the GTA data folder in /android/obb.
Here is the thing: Something is taking up nearly 5 GB on the internal storage. I checked every folder in the internal storage (hidden and visible) and everything combined adds up to a max of 1.5 GB.
Something is using space. That something is the GTA data. It has almost 3 GB of data. Fits perfectly to the used space.
The only explanation I have is that they use different partitions of the internal memory or a different data format. Otherwise I can't explain how the same data doesn't show up on GPE and CM12 if I didn't delete it.
I got a low storage message on my S4. I deleted caches, I deleted the cache partition, I deleted several apps, I deleted all the media files I could, I moved whatever parts of apps I could to the external SD card. I regained enough space to make the message disappear. But lo and behold after some plain old web browing, I lost 250mb overnight, and since this afternoon, another 120mb. Why did the recovered space disappear? How do I get it back? I am so frustrated. The only two things I can think of are to do a factory reset and hope for the best or dump the S4 for something with more system and base storage.
Did you use Clockworkmod or Philz recovery at any point?
How many apps do you have on your device?
How many large games are on your device?
Here's why I asked about Clockworkmod. The last version would allocate space for nandroid backups and would not free it unless you told it to. It would do this because the nandroid backups were in fact incremental backups, and being able to delete one backup would screw up all subsequent backups made. TWRP thankfully doesn't do this, but nandroid backups are located on internal storage. Too many backups and your space goes *poof*.
Large apps and games will consume space as their data is stored in the internal storage, though I'm sure you know that. Thing is, a lot of small apps can have the same effect.
If you ran Clockworkmod at any point and didn't free up the space it reserved for nandroid backups, you'll have to reinstall it and free the space. Otherwise, check for excess numbers of nandroid backups. If there are too many backups and you're running Clockworkmod, delete them all, free up the space using Clockworkmod's commands for that, and switch to TWRP. If there are too many backups and you're running TWRP, delete all but the newest one. As for your apps, you really should go through them and uninstall the ones you haven't accessed in a while.
Browsers such as Chrome (and anything based on it I guess) tend to have large cache.
My Chromium based browser has a 240MB cache.
I have not rooted this phone. I have very few games, nothing large. I do not use Chrome, only Dolphin. I have moved as many apps (or part of them) as possible to the external SD card. Yet, space keeps disappearing.