Database Users

[Q] What is this huge inaccessible "system data" chunk on my internal storage?

[Q] What is this huge inaccessible "system data" chunk on my internal storage?
Note: I am NOT referring to the /system directory. I'm referring to a section of memory on my internal storage literally labeled "System data". See the first attached screenshot.
I noticed earlier today that I have way less space remaining than I should. I used DiskUsage to look at my internal memory, and a ~3GB chunk of it is taken up by something labeled "System data". It doesn't let me view this data and I can't figure out where/what it is. It's always listed as "other" when I view the used space in Solid Explorer or Airdroid. What is this space, and how can I reclaim it? My storage numbers also don't add up.
Stock rooted 4.2.1, 16GB.
Edit: I think it might be due (for the most part, at least) to CWM backups. As stated in ROM Manager: "In Android 4.2, backups are placed in secure directory, inaccessible to other apps." This was also speculated in a few other threads I found.
Edit 2: I deleted one of my 2 backups and the space used by "system data" was cut nearly in half, so I'm pretty sure it is the backups. However, the space used is not exactly the same as the size of the remaining backup, so maybe there are a couple other smaller things contributing to it as well.

thevoiceless said:
I noticed earlier today that I have way less space remaining than I should. I used DiskUsage to look at my internal memory, and a ~3GB chunk of it is taken up by something labeled "System data". It doesn't let me view this data and I can't figure out where/what it is. It's always listed as "other" when I view the used space in Solid Explorer or Airdroid. What is this space, and how can I reclaim it?
Stock rooted 4.2.1, 16GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the name of it is usually a hint... its the "System data" of your Android System.
You get it back when you delete it...
Unfortunately the phone wont boot anymore because it wont have a system on it...
No idea why you have 3 GBs, CM10.1 only has 0.5GB, I guess you use stock.

Testraindrop said:
Well the name of it is usually a hint... its the "System data" of your Android System.
You get it back when you delete it...
Unfortunately the phone wont boot anymore because it wont have a system on it...
No idea why you have 3 GBs, CM10.1 only has 0.5GB, I guess you use stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression that system data was stored on the other ~3GB that I don't have access to (16GB - 12.96GB out of the box).
Are you saying that I'm now losing more space to stuff I have no control over? And if so, is there a way to figure out what is using so much space?
And yes, I said in my post that I'm running stock rooted 4.2.1
Edit:
Assuming that Ivan Volosyuk's (the developer of DiskUsage) post in 2010 is still correct...
System data consists of several things:
1. Unpacked dalvik bytecodes corresponding to your installed apks. If you install app on external storage, it still consumes space on your data partition.
2. Crash dumps stored in tombstones directory.
3. Any other data or settings android store on your device.
This data is hidden and DiskUsage can't easily identify how much space each of this consume. Usually (1) consumes most, so if you want to cleanup some space you may want to delete apps on external storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I emailed him to see if that is still the case.

thevoiceless said:
I was under the impression that system data was stored on the other ~3GB that I don't have access to (16GB - 12.96GB out of the box).
Are you saying that I'm now losing more space to stuff I have no control over? And if so, is there a way to figure out what is using so much space?
And yes, I said in my post that I'm running stock rooted 4.2.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
16GB is unformatted storage. (Usually counted with 1000 bytes =1kbyte.)
You will loose storage for formatting (1024B=1kB), then there is the system.
That is also counted in the "16GB".
the system also needs some more space for cache etc.
With root you can view it, see the attachment for what I have there.
As you said you have root, why can't you view it?
I guess I may have misunderstood you in the first place...
Gesendet von meinem Nexus 4 mit Tapatalk 2

Yes, you have misunderstood me. Look at the DiskUsage screenshot I posted in my original post. I'm not referring to the /system directory, I'm referring to some directory called System data that shows up on my internal storage, but it only shows up in DiskUsage. The space is shown as used in file browsers (such as Solid Explorer), but I'm unable to view what is actually taking up the space.

-Ignore-

Um...did you mean to post the same thing twice?

99.99999% sure it's your backups, as you edited your OP to show. No such space hog exists on my 8GB N4... 5.67 GB total space, currently have 4.09 GB free... bone stock 4.2.1

nbell13 said:
99.99999% sure it's your backups, as you edited your OP to show. No such space hog exists on my 8GB N4... 5.67 GB total space, currently have 4.09 GB free... bone stock 4.2.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's definitely a large part of it. I just deleted one of my two backups and the "system data" space was cut in half. It's still not exactly the same size as the remaining backup, but perhaps there's some other stuff in there as well.

thevoiceless said:
Um...did you mean to post the same thing twice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry Tapatalk -.-
But the other guy is right, Backups of custom recoveries are are stored there.

Same issue
I find the same directory "System Data" but it is in system directory, data even in the sd card, i got a rooted Huawei y200 and i need free space but how can i gain some space? if these "System data" goes from 5mb to 70mb that in my device is critical cause it have a limited space memory.
Even a clear the applets used by busybox using this file found in this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1853419, works fine but only give me some kbs, so i want to try with this.
I will appreciate your help.
best regards.

game data and such goes there too. if you have any large games/apps, they take that space.

simms22 said:
game data and such goes there too. if you have any large games/apps, they take that space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
yeah i got installed some biggest games up to 45mb but they are in the ext partition with their dalvik and libs apps bigguest than 4mb on sd and i alredy done a cleanup of stock apps and provider apps, i tested many apps and later uninstall it and clean with sd maid, but I'm newbie and i dont know if some files still keep in memory after that or if this "System data" is like an recycle bin or something like that.

Luissin said:
Thanks for the reply.
yeah i got installed some biggest games up to 45mb but they are in the ext partition with their dalvik and libs apps bigguest than 4mb on sd and i alredy done a cleanup of stock apps and provider apps, i tested many apps and later uninstall it and clean with sd maid, but I'm newbie and i dont know if some files still keep in memory after that or if this "System data" is like an recycle bin or something like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
look in the android folder in your storage, it has a data and obb folder. thats where your "system data" is. you can look and see what it contains. for me it has some of my big game data, my music that i store on the phone for google play music, and other such stuff

Reply
simms22 said:
look in the android folder in your storage, it has a data and obb folder. thats where your "system data" is. you can look and see what it contains. for me it has some of my big game data, my music that i store on the phone for google play music, and other such stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did it, and only found the data folder with media, maps and other with up to 2mb size between the 3 folders and no obb, where else can i search?

Luissin said:
I did it, and only found the data folder with media, maps and other with up to 2mb size between the 3 folders and no obb, where else can i search?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you emptied your cache(s)? it can take a lot of space if not emptied every so often. also, the browser cache.
---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 PM ----------
Luissin said:
I did it, and only found the data folder with media, maps and other with up to 2mb size between the 3 folders and no obb, where else can i search?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
btw, are you sure your android folder only takes up a few mb's?? mine takes 3.4gb..

Try looking in /data/media/ and checking them folders.
Don't check the 0 folder as that is your sdcard
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Reply
simms22 said:
have you emptied your cache(s)? it can take a lot of space if not emptied every so often. also, the browser cache.
---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 PM ----------
btw, are you sure your android folder only takes up a few mb's?? mine takes 3.4gb..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I clean cache 1 or 2 times a day for the same reason no empty space and the cache & data partition share this free memory for sure because always have the same amount and only are 15 to 20mb, the android folder is in \HWUserData\Android and \sdcard\Android both have the same files custom.dat, data folder and inside this 3 apps folder com.cooliris.media(52kb), com.google.android.apps.maps(1.07mb), com.google.android.apps.translate(24kb) and a file .nomedia.
Sorry for cant put some screenshoot but wont work fine the app and i dont understand the sdk method

Luissin said:
I clean cache 1 or 2 times a day for the same reason no empty space and the cache & data partition share this free memory for sure because always have the same amount and only are 15 to 20mb, the android folder is in \HWUserData\Android and \sdcard\Android both have the same files custom.dat, data folder and inside this 3 apps folder com.cooliris.media(52kb), com.google.android.apps.maps(1.07mb), com.google.android.apps.translate(24kb) and a file .nomedia.
Sorry for cant put some screenshoot but wont work fine the app and i dont understand the sdk method
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you dont need any broken apps for screenshots.. its native to your phone
power button + volume down takes a screenshot, hold them down for a second or two.

Reply
simms22 said:
you dont need any broken apps for screenshots.. its native to your phone
power button + volume down takes a screenshot, hold them down for a second or two.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cant did it, wont work or this device is a diferent way, but i find an trial app that work...

reported internal storage confusion

hi folks,
can anyone explain to me how the the available internal memory is reported in settings->storage on the i9505? mine seems pretty nonsensical.
its reported as follows:
total space 9.25gb
applications 1.74gb
pictures videos 12.54mb
audio 240kb
downloads 20mb
miscellaneous 435mb
available 2.32gb
furthermore, es file explorer is reporting that 6.92gb out of 9.25gb available memory is used, which matches the 2.32gb available reported in settings->storage.
so where is the remaining 4.7gb??!?
i used the sd card analyser in es file explorer to see what's going on and where the data is but adding up all the data there does not account for the missing 4.7gb??
any clues?

whatsisnametake2 said:
hi folks,
can anyone explain to me how the the available internal memory is reported in settings->storage on the i9505? mine seems pretty nonsensical.
its reported as follows:
total space 9.25gb
applications 1.74gb
pictures videos 12.54mb
audio 240kb
downloads 20mb
miscellaneous 435mb
available 2.32gb
furthermore, es file explorer is reporting that 6.92gb out of 9.25gb available memory is used, which matches the 2.32gb available reported in settings->storage.
so where is the remaining 4.7gb??!?
i used the sd card analyser in es file explorer to see what's going on and where the data is but adding up all the data there does not account for the missing 4.7gb??
any clues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Have you perhaps made a nandroid backup which saved to your internal memory?

hi malybru. no - i've done nandroid to extSdCard. if i had mistakenly done it to internal, the data would show up in the clockworkmod folder anyway, which it doesn't.
i have flashed to official BTU roms from odin, without wipe, and rooted afterwards each time. could this have anything to do with it?
when i attach the phone to my windows laptop and examine the internal memory in windows explorer, under properties the phone memory is saying 6.92gb used out of 9.25, yet when i select all the files and go to properties, it only adds up to 500-500mb?!?

whatsisnametake2 said:
hi malybru. no - i've done nandroid to extSdCard. if i had mistakenly done it to internal, the data would show up in the clockworkmod folder anyway, which it doesn't.
i have flashed to official BTU roms from odin, without wipe, and rooted afterwards each time. could this have anything to do with it?
when i attach the phone to my windows laptop and examine the internal memory in windows explorer, under properties the phone memory is saying 6.92gb used out of 9.25, yet when i select all the files and go to properties, it only adds up to 500-500mb?!?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I use a great app from the market,called "FX File Explorer"
It has a "View " button at the bottom of the page which will show you a breakdown of the data on your phone.
Click it when you are in your Main Storage.
It might help to locate some stuff that should not be there.
If not,it's still a great app to have.

yes es file explorer has the same thing. there's no sign anywhere of the missing 4.7gb data! all the files add up to about 600mb.

i still have no clue about this. how about if i backup all the files, reformat internal storage in recovery, copy files back?

i had this problem before.. then i checked data/media.. there should only be 3 folders there which are: 0, legacy and obb.. move every other folder to 0.. hope this helps..

dannyella said:
i had this problem before.. then i checked data/media.. there should only be 3 folders there which are: 0, legacy and obb.. move every other folder to 0.. hope this helps..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you sir are a genius. that was it. there was a clockworkmod folder in data/media with a nandroid backup in it. deleted it and missing storage recovered! thanks!

Storage takes double the space

I need help with this problem please. It looks like my storage space is doubled, and I am quickly running out of space because of this.
When connecting my Nexus 4 to my computer, I can confirm that everything that I see through the connection is 4.94GB. However, as a drive, it reports only 2.98 GB free. As you may know total memory is 12.92GB.
Now using ES File Explorer, there are these folders that all seem to be pointing somehow to the same "sdcard" storage (the one where all the files are stored).
All these are under Device, so the main root folder
mnt - sdcard (shortcut) - 4.94GB
sdcard (shortcut) - 4.94GB
storage - emulated - 0 - 4.94GB
storage - emulated - legacy - 4.94GB
storage - sdcard (shortcut) - 4.94GB
All the other folders seen through ES File Explorer take 575.06MB, which I'm assuming are the system files
However, if I select all 3, mnt, sdcard and storage, total space taken is only reported as 4.94GB
But if I select only storage, the size is reported as 14.83GB
I'm not sure what is the story with it. I used to have android 4.3, then now I have upgraded to PA 2.99
Anyone could give me any options, where should I look, what folders to check. I would really like back that extra 4.94GB's

Could anyone help me with this please? I can provide any additional details required

Messerschmitt262 said:
Could anyone help me with this please? I can provide any additional details required
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I seem to encounter the same problem. Have you come up with any solution?

I ended up formating the entire phone and re-installing the OS

[Q] Space not freed up after messing with .thumbnails

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.

[Q] Internal memory leak?

So I've been looking around and trying to fix this problem myself but I've had no luck. I've almost completely run out of internal memory. I'm not sure if its a memory leak or what but its starting to affect my phone's ability to update apps. Currently, of the 16gb I have <800mb left but it used to be as low as ~50mb.
At first I tried just moving every app I could to my SD card, and I already transfer and delete every picture and video I have on my phone asap. So afterwards I wiped cache a few times. Finally I completely wiped and reset my phone to stock and still only freed up 1gb of space. I then flashed the negalite ROM. With this new rom and the core set of apps I use, all moved to the SD card, I have 829mb of internal memory free.
I understand that I really only have 8gb to play around with, but this screencap shows that I have 7gb being taken up by miscellaneous files, yet when I check what's in there it does not add up to 7gb (nothing below those files goes above a few hundred kb tops). Is there any way to free up more memory without deleting literally every app I have? I don't think I even have that many frivolous apps.
So to summarize, my phone is a sprint s4 SPH-L720 with 4.4.2 running the Negalite rom, with only 800mb/16gb internal free, trying to free up more. Not sure if its a memory leak or what.

Do you have any nandroid backups with either philz,cwm, or twrp recovery? If so those are about 3-5gbs each.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk

Using a file manager that can show hidden files (ES can) look around and see if you see any folder named something like lost.dir or lost+found it might be that some deleted items were sent or left their instead of going into oblivion. I have had it occur before, after deleting the contents it freed up several 100s of MB to GB of memory.
It's possible it could be this.

daniel4653 said:
Do you have any nandroid backups with either philz,cwm, or twrp recovery? If so those are about 3-5gbs each.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm I just went through the CWM folder and deleted some old backups supposedly but those were only like 9mb big... The mysteries keep mounting!
And catfood I tried looking through the files with file explorer but I couldn't find a lost or a variation of it.
Thanks for the replies though every little bit helps!

pinoysw1mmer said:
Hm I just went through the CWM folder and deleted some old backups supposedly but those were only like 9mb big... The mysteries keep mounting!
And catfood I tried looking through the files with file explorer but I couldn't find a lost or a variation of it.
Thanks for the replies though every little bit helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have any cloud apps like Google Drive or something of the like? Try checking sync options, or the programs settings, something might be downloading data to cache offline.

Backup your data!
Install philz_touch_6.19.6-jflte recovery
then go to Mount and Storage Menu
do a format for{ system, cache, date and(( /data and /data/media ( /sdcard)))

jam97 said:
Backup your data!
Install philz_touch_6.19.6-jflte recovery
then go to Mount and Storage Menu
do a format for{ system, cache, date and(( /data and /data/media ( /sdcard)))
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do I have to install that one or can I just use CWM?
And catfood I will check my cloud settings.

pinoysw1mmer said:
Do I have to install that one or can I just use CWM?
And catfood I will check my cloud settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know but I used that recovery and it works for me.