Using GS4 I9505, and my internal storage is getting shorter shorter, day by day. almost like its vanished. i've check emulated 0 and legacy drives nothing there. but as i gethered it coz of CWM, now using twrp, uninstalled CWM but still storage isn't available for usage.
Your space is still lost because it's still allocated to CWM for nandroid backups, even though you no longer have CWM on the device. Therefore, you need to put CWM back on the device, go into its backups and storage menu, delete any existing backups it made, then free the allocated space.
When you put TWRP back on to the S4, your space should return.
He can delete the CMW folder from the storage. The backups are there and they are not hidden.
I provided an in-depth explanation of this in an earlier thread on the same topic, but in essence CWM protects the nandroid backups space so nothing else can write to that area. This is because CWM performs incremental backups by default, and deleting older restore points messes up all of them. The protection persists even after CWM is removed, so when switching recoveries, all backups need to be deleted in CWM, and all allocated space freed using the "free allocated space" option in the backup and restore menu.
EDIT: To point out the obvious, there would be no need for a "free allocated space" option in CWM if the space weren't protected.
Well, that's stupid. With TWRP I can simply go inside the folder and delete the backups (without the need of booting into recovery and deleting them from there).
Calling it stupid is a bit harsh, and besides, Koush probably will disagree with you.
By default CWM is set to do incremental backups and does this as a space-saving feature. For example purposes let's say a nandroid backup is 2GB. Using the standard .TAR method four nandroid backups would take up 8GB. Switch to .DUP and those same four backups may only take 3GB. This is because .DUP only backs up the files that have changed between the current system and the previous backups, rather than backing up the entire partition. Since CWM in .DUP doesn't back up the entire partition when making its backups, it's vitally important that the backups be protected. Otherwise, deleting an older backup makes it impossible to restore any later backups.
The example I used in my other discussion to illustrate this was four backups, labeled A through D. A is the master backup and B through D are the incremental backups. If the space wasn't protected, deleting backup C in a file manager would render backup D invalid because of missing files. Naturally, deleting backup A would render all subsequent backups invalid, as it is the master backup.
In CWM it is possible to switch from .DUP to .TAR and thus stop CWM from allocating space for backups. The OP didn't do that, which is why his space disappeared even after switching to TWRP. There may be a manual method of removing the allocation through a terminal, but it's simply easier to restore CWM, delete the backups, free the space, then switch back to TWRP.
Related
I'd like to back up my new Nook and also backup periodically the rooted Nook. I'm aware of a method using diskimage and mini-partition wizard, but that seems overkill because it requires deleting all partitions of the Nook, thus if anything goes wrong with the backup the nook is destroyed. Besides, I think the image produced by diskimage will be a total backup whereas I think only the rooted part needs to be backup up periodically.
Is there any way to do periodic backups without using the diskimage/partition wizard procedure?
Well, you only need to delete all the partitions to restore the backup.
Or you can use CWM
won't Titanium work on the nst / glowworm?
backups
Yes, I have titanium backup and back up all my apps, etc. Works very well. But what if the system root becomes corrupt? I'm not very knowledgeable about android, but by analogy with a windows system, backing up up my programs and data will make it easier to restore many things after a system crash, but won't help to restore the system to working condition.
As I understand rooting, the original nook system is not altered but some partitions are changed or added by rooting. Only the boot program is changed to allow choice of either nook original or nook rooted. Is that correct?
What I'm looking, then, for is some way to restore all the rooted partitions only, without first destroying all the nook partitions if the root becomes corrupted (but not the original nook part of the system). If I knew which were the root partitions, I could choose those partitions that had been backed up with diskimage, but how would I restore only those partitions - mini partition wizard won't do that apparently. It requires all partitions be deleted before it will restore the disimage backup; I can't pick and choose partitions, as far as I understand from directions about that app.
I'm worrying about in destroying all the nook partitions is that something goes wrong with my restore procedure. If that happens, then the nook is bricked, probably forever. If only the rooted partitions were replaced, then the restore could be repeated (or I could re-root the Nook).
Perhaps cwm does what I need?
The image based backup (boot from noogie; dd the image of the complete device) is your complete backup.
The Titanium backup is your incremental backup.
Keep a couple of full image backups around and back up more often with Titanium. Restore your rooted backup, then run Titanium to restore your apps.
Rooting changes /boot, /system and /data and the best way to get a reliable /boot backup is to boot from a different disk (noogie) and do the full backup.
As long as you have a viable restore to how the device was shipped, you should in a pinch be able to re-root, reinstall Titanium and then restore your programs and data. I have ~36 gig of NST and glowworm backups in the house and am very glad that I do. Disk is cheap and I think the restore is faster from an image based backup than from a CWR backup.
Hi,
I know cwm is NOT supposed to backup the sdcard but just /system, /data and a few other small partitions.
On my nexus 7 I have hardly any data, apps plus data are under 1G but a single cwm backup (I have just one backup) takes 2.8GB.
Its as though its backing up the sdcard as well as the size of the backup seems to be about right for an entire backup including the sdcard.
I wonder if the fact /data and /sdcard are actually accessing the same real storage (/sdcard sits on internal storage) is confusing cwm.
Has anyone else noticed this.
If its not the case then why is the backup so large.
BTW I know im not doing anything stupid like miscalculating the amount of data and apps etc.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
I think the problem was I still had old backup blobs from deleted cwm backups. Looks like just deleting the backup via cwm doesn't delete the blobs, I had to chose the option to free nandroid space.
However I've switched to twrp now anyway as I don't like the way cwm uses these blobs. I find it much better to have each backup completely separate and then I can copy an individual backup off the system and store elsewhere.
I also find thousands of blobs/files slows things down when using apps to manage the internal sdcard filesystem
Hello
I made a full backup with philz and transferred it to my pc. Tried to delete the backup folder from my internal sd card but can't. Get this message:
Cannot delete backup: the storage is write-protected. Remove the write-protection and try again.
BTW, I'm on stock kk 4.4.2
Thanks for your help
By default, CWM and Philz protect the nandroid data from being deleted since they utilize an incremental backup scheme rather than the older image file setup. For example, let's say you have three nandroid backups: A, B, and C. If the nandroid data wasn't write protected and you delete backup A, you would screw up ALL your nandroid backups. A is the master backup. When the recovery makes backup B, it only backs up the changes made between A and B. If you then made backup C, it would back up the changes between A AND B, and C. Since the possibility of screwing up all your backups by deleting the oldest is a major problem, CWM and Philz write protect the storage.
Go into Philz, then enter the backups menu. Delete the existing backups using its delete function, then select "free unused storage data" to recover the space. After doing that, switch to TWRP 2.8.6.0, as it doesn't make incremental backups and thus doesn't write protect the storage space. Also, unlike CWM and Philz, you can place the backups on your MicroSD card..
Done....thanks very much Strephon
hi, i have the same problem and it work, thanks!
hi folks,
i have an i9505 running stock rooted 4.4.2. i noticed that under device storage it is telling me that of the 9.95gb available internal memory, only about half is free. it says "applications" is using about 3gb. however all the files on the internal storage only add up to about 800mb. i have used es file explorer's sd card analyzer to look at all the files on the internal storage, and it confirms only 800mb or so is there. where is the 4gb or so other data?
w.
You're rooted. Do you have a custom recovery installed?
yes i have CWM installed. i just used it to wipe the cache partition and davlik cache. didn't make any difference.
You made nandroid backups however, right? Two things you need to know.
1. CWM by default protects the internal storage where nandroid backups are stored. You need to delete the backups and delete protected storage to get the space back.
2. CWM is no longer supported. Switch to TWRP as certain ROMs will not install with CWM. In addition, TWRP does not protect the storage like CWM, and it allows nandroid backups to be stored on the MicroSD.
yes i have several CWM full backups but they are on the ext SD card. no backups on the internal memory. what is the protected storage you're referring to? CWM is supported for a stock kit kat 4.4.2 rom isn't it?
In CWM the location where the nandroid backups are made is on the internal storage, and is protected from being modified by the user outside of the recovery. This is because of how CWM makes backups. The default backup format is to take incremental backups. The space is allocated so that the end user cannot randomly delete backups outside of the recovery, because in an incremental backup only the changes between the last backup and the current ROM state are backed up. Deleting a backup between the earliest and latest backups screws up all backups following the deleted date. It is possible to change the way CWM does backups, but most end users don't dig deeply enough into the recovery to find these things out.
CWM's protected storage space is on the internal storage, and it is the biggest reason your internal storage isn't reading the correct amount. You need to head into the backup menu and free all unused storage to get that storage back. Once you do that, you really want to install TWRP, because it avoids this problem altogether.
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.