[Q] Freeing up memory - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
I'm new to the forums and I'm trying to figure something out about freeing up memory for my low memory smartphone .
Things I'm familiar with are:
app 2 SD, using titanium backup to move apps to sd, using root explorer to delete stock apps, clear dalvik cache. I also noticed that each time u place an app to the SD, there is still a part that is placed on the internal memory.
I like having lots of apps so I'm looking for all possible ways to free up memory. Right now I have about 24MB free space. At 18-19MB it starts giving the low memory warning.
Since the custom rom I'm using, uses quite some space and because I ran out of options to get more space I tried something new:
removing files from the system folder
I used root explorer to delete:
ringtones I'm not using, startup & shutdown sound, T9 languages I'm never gonna use, log files (crash dump)
Root explorer shows I got 41 MB free memory (so I deleted about 17 MB of system files I'm not using anyway)
But when I looked at how much free internal space inside the settings menu, I noticed the value didn't change (24MB)! .
So if I install about 5 MB of apps it's gonna give me the low memory warning again.
I tried rebooting: doesnt change a thing.
I tried clearing dalvik cache: it seemed to work for a moment. The menu showed I have 36 MB of free space. But then as soon as I changed a file it popped back to 24MB
It's like the phone doesnt know there is free space he can use
Does anyone got a solution for this weird problem?
ps: my specs
GT-i5800 (Samsung galaxy 3 / apollo)
using Kyrillos' rom v7.0 overclocked

Hardedge said:
Hi,
I'm new to the forums and I'm trying to figure something out about freeing up memory for my low memory smartphone .
Things I'm familiar with are:
app 2 SD, using titanium backup to move apps to sd, using root explorer to delete stock apps, clear dalvik cache. I also noticed that each time u place an app to the SD, there is still a part that is placed on the internal memory.
I like having lots of apps so I'm looking for all possible ways to free up memory. Right now I have about 24MB free space. At 18-19MB it starts giving the low memory warning.
Since the custom rom I'm using, uses quite some space and because I ran out of options to get more space I tried something new:
removing files from the system folder
I used root explorer to delete:
ringtones I'm not using, startup & shutdown sound, T9 languages I'm never gonna use, log files (crash dump)
Root explorer shows I got 41 MB free memory (so I deleted about 17 MB of system files I'm not using anyway)
But when I looked at how much free internal space inside the settings menu, I noticed the value didn't change (24MB)! .
So if I install about 5 MB of apps it's gonna give me the low memory warning again.
I tried rebooting: doesnt change a thing.
I tried clearing dalvik cache: it seemed to work for a moment. The menu showed I have 36 MB of free space. But then as soon as I changed a file it popped back to 24MB
It's like the phone doesnt know there is free space he can use
Does anyone got a solution for this weird problem?
ps: my specs
GT-i5800 (Samsung galaxy 3 / apollo)
using Kyrillos' rom v7.0 overclocked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage&hl=en
Check where most of the space is used at, try clearing cache+dalvik in recovery and see if it improves. What is your phone's max Storage amount[avail for apps]

Ace42 said:
market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage&hl=en
Check where most of the space is used at, try clearing cache+dalvik in recovery and see if it improves. What is your phone's max Storage amount[avail for apps]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got DiskUsage and it pretty much tells me the same as root explorer.
When I go into /system it shows I got 41,6 MB free space (& 10,6 MB System data),
but strangely enough when I go into /data it shows I got 23,9 MB free space & (38,7 MB system data).
I wrote down what Diskusage shows with the most important subfolders:
App storage (3 dirs):
Data (192,4MiB)
> 43.1 MiB Applications
> 125.5 MiB System Data
> 23.9 MiB Free space
[Root required] > /Data (24 dirs)
/data (192,4MiB) :
> 83.9 MiB dalvik cache
> 26.0 MiB data
> 16.0 MiB app
> log
> ...
> 38,7 MiB System data
> 23.9 Mib
[Root required] > /System (22 dirs)
/system (209 Mib)
> 59.7 MiB app
> 53.0 MiB lib
> 14.3 MiB framework
> ...
> 10.6 Mib System data
> 41.6 Mib Free Space
I'll try clearing dalvick once more but this time I'll clear cache too to see if that works, as you said.

by the way, Ace42 , thanks for the quick reply.
But I tried what you said and it didn't change much. I'm thinking there's a cap/maximum for the amount of storage that can be used for apps.
Or maybe there is a mimimum amount of space that is reserved for system files or system resources.
I don't know..

Hardedge said:
by the way, Ace42 , thanks for the quick reply.
But I tried what you said and it didn't change much. I'm thinking there's a cap/maximum for the amount of storage that can be used for apps.
Or maybe there is a mimimum amount of space that is reserved for system files or system resources.
I don't know..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the phone's ROM space is for /system , from what I see the /data partition is pretty much 200MB. Dalvik/cache gets recreated, and there's a folder for all installed apps[sytem/user] in the dalvik folder[data/dalvik-cache] . You have to lower the amount of apps you use, delete system apps that aren't needed and remove their folder from /data/data & data/dalvik-cache. Or use a ROM that's much smaller, and you'll see more space. The installed apps are using a minor amount of space, so that's not an issue really.

oh forgot to mention that
/system dir = 209 Mib.
I edited it in the post.
How come it's larger than /data or app storage (192,4MiB) :s ?
Can I move the free space to the other folder (or is the correct term partition here)?

How come it's larger than /data or app storage (192,4MiB) :s ?
Can I move the free space to the other folder (or is the correct term partition here)?

Hardedge said:
How come it's larger than /data or app storage (192,4MiB) :s ?
Can I move the free space to the other folder (or is the correct term partition here)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because it contains important system files, and they require a lot of space.
It needs to have the most space compared to anything, and /cache is is normally big too since it also can be used to hold OTA's, when given out.

Ace42 said:
Because it contains important system files, and they require a lot of space.
It needs to have the most space compared to anything, and /cache is is normally big too since it also can be used to hold OTA's, when given out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So is there no way to release the +15MiB I deleted from the system directory? And give it to /data?
Thanks for the info by the way

Related

Low on OS space what can I delete?

I got a message saying I was getting low on space. I bought a program call SD Maid which tells me I've used 1.4 GB out of 1.97 GB. It has an option called "CORPSE FINDER" which comes up with some files like:
com.motorola.batterymonitor
com.motorola.blur.contacts.deferred
com.motorola.android.wmdrm.webpush
com.motorola.android.simmanager
com.mot.readout
com.motorola.dock.provider
these files are located in /data/data/
and /data/data/.com.mot.readout/lib
and /data/data/com.motorola.dock.DesktopDock/shared_prefs/com.motorola.dock
Is is OK to delete these files?
Are there other obvious files I can delete off the phone?
Another app called FREE SPACE tells me I have used 93% of system space or 298MB out of 319MB available. Is there a way to increase the available space?
Thanks for any suggestions
What? Move apps to internal memory if you need space.
How can you fill up 10GB?
Agreed, move apps to internal storage. And you can use DiskUsage to see exactly what is taking up how much space and delete it.
no effect
Moving apps to external SD or uninstalling apps has NO EFFECT on the SYSTEM space, according to FreeSpace (ROOT). After uninstalling apps the space used by the SYSTEM remains unchanged at 93%:
size: 319.5 MB
used: 298.5 MB
free: 20.9 MB
Uninstalling apps or widgets decreases the space used by DATA which currently is:
size: 2015.8 MB
used: 1371.8 MB
free: 643.9 MB
So the issue is how to decrease space used by the (android) SYSTEM.
thanks
nothing user created is being stored on the /system partition. that partition is only for the ROM itself, all your customizations go to /data partition (except if you modify your /system partition with root access and adb/terminal/root explorer) you shouldnt be bothered about the free space in the /system partition. the /system partition is supposed to stay as it is throughout your usage - except if you flash another rom or mod this one. thats it
free space
Thanks for your info. I am rooted, and installed root explorer, but thats it. I have recently gotten the laptop dock. The only reason this came up was because of a message about low space in my drop down menu. I have a lot of apps installed but have ample space in all partitions except the system partition. I didn't write the message down, but if it comes up again I will in order to get an idea of where its coming from.
WAIT. THAT's IT.....the laptop dock. That message must have come from using the dock !!
I will confirm next time it happens......
thanks guys.
The message is about the Ram consumption, which the webdock consumes rather fast with several programs open (firefox with many tabs, open office and so on)

[Q] Avatarrom / JB 4.2: memory issues - not enough space

Several weeks ago I installed the Avatarrom with Jelly Bean 4.2 on my Galaxy S2 I9100. At first I was very pleased with everything. It was much faster, and in many ways better. Since then I've installed two updates. I'm constantly running out of memory. I cannot read my Gmail using the default gmail app anymore (your device doesn't have enough storage space to sync). Updating apps in the playstore doesn't work (Insufficient storage available). I removed many apps, cleared the general cache and that of many apps, moved numerous apps to the external SD, and that freed up enough memory to get the rest working, but not for long. With the second update, things seemed improved and I could open gmail again, but only for two days.
I've installed the app DiskUsage. This reports the following:
App storage (system ram I suppose)
Total 2015 MB
System data: 1645 MB
Applications: 309 MB
Free: 60 MB
Storage card
Total 11781 MB
Free 4900 MB
Storage SD card
total 14972 MB
6700 MB free
If I remember correctly the system data was "only" 1200MB when installing the avatarrom. Now it's 1645MB. How can that be? My phone has 2GB system memory, and if I'm correct there are not many phones with more than that. So if it grows 200MB with each update, something's wrong, isn't it? Or am I missing something? Should I clear some other cache or download folder? Does the free space on the storage card make a difference? Can I increase the system memory space, like resizing a partition?
roger9000 said:
Several weeks ago I installed the Avatarrom with Jelly Bean 4.2 on my Galaxy S2 I9100. At first I was very pleased with everything. It was much faster, and in many ways better. Since then I've installed two updates. I'm constantly running out of memory. I cannot read my Gmail using the default gmail app anymore (your device doesn't have enough storage space to sync). Updating apps in the playstore doesn't work (Insufficient storage available). I removed many apps, cleared the general cache and that of many apps, moved numerous apps to the external SD, and that freed up enough memory to get the rest working, but not for long. With the second update, things seemed improved and I could open gmail again, but only for two days.
I've installed the app DiskUsage. This reports the following:
App storage (system ram I suppose)
Total 2015 MB
System data: 1645 MB
Applications: 309 MB
Free: 60 MB
Storage card
Total 11781 MB
Free 4900 MB
Storage SD card
total 14972 MB
6700 MB free
If I remember correctly the system data was "only" 1200MB when installing the avatarrom. Now it's 1645MB. How can that be? My phone has 2GB system memory, and if I'm correct there are not many phones with more than that. So if it grows 200MB with each update, something's wrong, isn't it? Or am I missing something? Should I clear some other cache or download folder? Does the free space on the storage card make a difference? Can I increase the system memory space, like resizing a partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Clear the cache files occasionally, every app generates cache data like Chrome Browser can generate more than 100mb of cache over a period of time.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Many apps store data on the system /data partition, the only chance to get more free space in the standard way is:
- remove unused apps
- move apps and/or data to sd (but not all apps will alow that)
This should give you some additional free memory, but yes, I agree, the /data partition is a bit small.
Hey, my friend has the same problem.
I installed him 3 different 4.1 JB roms, but the problem is same in all 3 roms.
We did factory reset and also wiped phone in recovery mode, but it didn't help.
We also tried this with sd card in phone and without sd card with phone, no difference at all.
What should my friend do to fix this?

[SOLVED][Q] Device memory eaten

The Device Memory section at the storage page in setting displays that:
Total space: 1.97 GB
Applications: 1.23 GB
Available: 49.52 MB
Where did the 700MB gone?
This happens when I upgrade the Android from 4.0.4 to 4.1.2. I've installed less apps in 4.1.2 than in 4.0.4 (I wiped my phone before upgrade).
I tried to wipe dalvik cache which give only 10~20MB. How to freed the eaten device memory?
Also, strange enough, I've move many apps moved to sdcard but it seems their data are still remain in device memory. I check one large apps' info:
Total: 165 MB
Application: 100 KB
USB storage app 51.81 MB
Data: 113 MB
SD Card 0.00B
Does this mean 113MB data still in device memory?
EDIT:
I finally found out what take up the near 700MB space.
I delete all files in /data/lost+found/ freed 666MB.
I use an apps called disk usage to locate this.
Jelly bean takes up a lot more storage space than ICS for a start. How many apps do you have installed? I have about 60 downloaded apps installed (not including the pre-installed apps) & I have 0.97GB free in that partition. Do you have a few hundred installed?
Sent from a galaxy far, far away
In my App To SD in ZDBox (an integrate toolbox apps with app2sd, taskkill, etc function), I have 43 Apps in phone (only 8 apps movable) and 41 Apps on SD Card, not counting android component. But in the "All" page in Application Management in Options, I got 200 Apps including android components.
I don't know which is more trustworthy but no matter how, many large apps have been moved to SD Card. Even from the "All" page in Application Management which includes many android component, I manually add up the space occupied. It is just 1.25 GB.
Where do the 700 MB gone and how can I get them back?
By the way, how many disappeared device memory do you have, Hopper8? I mean when you subtract the sum of all components including available space from total.
Weird. From what I manually added up all apps in phone and sd card, its just 1.25GB.
But there are 1.23 GB of Application in "Device memory" and 1.66 GB of Application in "USB Storage" in Application Management.
1.23+1.66=2.89 GB >>1.25 GB
I am driven crazy.
xerubium said:
Weird. From what I manually added up all apps in phone and sd card, its just 1.25GB.
But there are 1.23 GB of Application in "Device memory" and 1.66 GB of Application in "USB Storage" in Application Management.
1.23+1.66=2.89 GB >>1.25 GB
I am driven crazy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm. Without seeing what you're adding up, its hard for me to visualize. It does sound like you're missing some space though.
How did you upgrade to JB? Did you flash via odin? Or accept a Kies/OTA notification? I'm thinking that a full wipe is in order. First step is factory reset.
Hopper8 said:
Hmm. Without seeing what you're adding up, its hard for me to visualize. It does sound like you're missing some space though.
How did you upgrade to JB? Did you flash via odin? Or accept a Kies/OTA notification? I'm thinking that a full wipe is in order. First step is factory reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did a Wipe Data/Factory Reset and Wipe Cache and flash [Stock Official Firmwares] I9100XWLSW (4.1.2) - United Kingdom (XEU) [05-06-13] with ODIN.
It's difficult to make a list of my apps but as for my adding up, it includes all data except cache of all apps installed on no matter device storage or external SD card. I also checked the apps' cache size with a system cleaner. Only 30 MB of Cache in total.
Do you have device memory not inside any categories (not even in Miscellaneous or System)? Strangely I just have one categories, Application, except available under Device Memory (or Internal Storage in some version) section at Storage in Options.
Hmm. And you have used a few different system cleaners and such to have a look at what's on there?
As for my listings for the storage usage, I've got available, apps, and cached data for my internal storage. Nothing else.
I really don't know if I can be of any other help to you mate if there are any other posters who can help, please do.
Sent from a galaxy far, far away
I win
PS: You didn't flash any pit files previously, no?
Either you've got "hidden" apps or a piece of your nand is not reachable/writable
Sent from the little guy
I've got the same problem. Running Revolt/JB ROM. But had the same problem with the previous ROM (AOKP/JB).
Storage tab in settings reports: total space: 1.97GB , Apps (app data & media.. : 0.95 GB, Available: 242MB.
So yeah. Android's using some fuzzy math here, or something isn't being reported properly.
I did a full factory wipe, no luck fixing the issue.
95 apps, rough count just flipping through the screens in the app drawer.
Sent from my SGH-M919G using xda app-developers app

storage space running out, by itself! chinese tablet CHUWI VI7

Hi guys,
I bought a new tablet CHUWI VI7, with android 5.1.1
and i have a weird problem, the storage space is running out, now i have 156MB available.
but the funny part is this:
TOTAL SPACE: 3.60GB
AVAILABLE: 155MB
APPS: 792MB
PICTURES,VIDEOS: 488KB
AUDIO: 40KB
DOWNLOAD: 464KB
CACHED DATA:1MB
MISC: 23.42MB
TOTAL:817.404MB!!
every sec, 1 mb is gone...
i try clean cached via recovery, didn't help../
i do a full format from recovery and after one day this happens again.
i try delete every app i can and this is not helping .. i just download waze,google photos,google play services,youtube,rocket player and some small apps from play store.
i think is a virus that is build-in the tablet, but i can't do a root (what is published here didn't works for me..)
and i try to download a antivirus and it not find anything...
what should i do? please help me... this is nice tablet and it works good..
Same here!
At some point I only had Waze, Here Maps (with downloaded maps on External SD) and ES File Explorer, and I couldn't update any of the apps because of lack of space (less than 100Mb free).
I simply cannot understand why...
Sent from my X8 using Tapatalk
Yes, there is a bug in this tablet.
I have to root the device, flash it, and then all bugs are gone.
you can follow this tutorial on http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/mod-t3175515
I have the same problem on my Chuwi vi7 - I can't install apps because there is no space left.
I freed up a fair bit of space on Data by clearing the data used by various apps in Settings, but be careful which apps who's data you clear, or you might lose useful data. Apps that sync with your Google account can soon be restored by syncing again.
I installed Diskinfo from App Store (free). It makes it easy to understand why there is a shortage of space. You'll be able to see that Chuwi created a Cache partition which is 1.1 Gbytes and a Data partition (where the apps are installed) which is 3.7 Gbyte. Unfortunately my Data partition only has 9% space remaining, whereas the cache partition has 95% free!
A more ideal solution would be to either :-
1. Resize the Cache partition to give Data more space. That would require a rooted phone, a repartitioning app, and you'd be wise to backup the partitions before resizing them. I'm sure 500 Mbytes would be ample for Cache. Cache can be cleaned easily enough anyway.
2. Start moving Apps to an external SD card. There are several apps and tools around that will handle that for you. That will free up space on the Data partition.
Hope that helps a little. Colin

Urgent help needed For Cleaning Mics files upto 7 Gb

In my redmi note 3 32 gb...
There seems some misc files which are eating my all space...
I reset phone...
Clear cache thumbnails etc all...possible but still that taking space.
My phone is not rooted.
Pls give me solution to take back those space.
Ss added
This is miscellaneous files, is there because they're not music, video, pics or apps.
That means there are files in your internal stoerage that are taking up space. Look around inside your internal storage to see whats using the space
Checked all storage ....did not find that file....even deleting all things.
Clear your internal storage. Open file manager go to internal server card select all and delete
justinxfan said:
Clear your internal storage. Open file manager go to internal server card select all and delete
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I told...I had reset and delete all ...
But still that misc files ...
It's a big pain.
Any help please
Open security app then click on cleaner.
Amirphp said:
Any help please
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install Disk usage app from play store, it will show what exactly that is.
Use this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage to check which files are consuming space
justinxfan said:
Clear your internal storage. Open file manager go to internal server card select all and delete
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JK-FINN said:
Use this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage to check which files are consuming space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried this app and check at every folder and deeply ....but unfortunately did not what's that is...which is eating my 7.5 gb space.
System data taking my 7 gb from remaining 24 gb.
While already mi told it's 32 gb.
Check screen shot.
Not showing inside system data...what is it?
I think its system partition, where all the files requires to run your phone are stored there.
Amirphp said:
System data taking my 7 gb from remaining 24 gb.
While already mi told it's 32 gb.
Check screen shot.
Not showing inside system data...what is it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Amirphp
Just checked my phone and I don't have the misc data (under settings menu), and I do have a system data partition but it's much smaller.,
so its either
oh see this post too.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/redmi-note-3/help/mystery-data-taking-10gb-space-t3435176
misc files seems to be generated by the Camera app (I use OpenCamera, so that's probably why I don't have this "misc" data)
--------------------- other reasons -----------------
1. you are installing big APK files that don't use obb files (normally amazon app store uses these types, possibly other app stores), so all the big data gets written to the /data/data/ or /data/app dir taking up space.
2. system backups from twrp or similar can eat a lot of space. this could be why it's listed as system data
3. install sdmaid see if it finds anything abnormal.
4. (unlikely) you have a lot of apps installing to the "Internal Memory" - android thinks it's a sdcard - these apps are hidden under /mnt/sdcard0/.android_secure
(mounted with a fake mount point to prevent access, also a hidden folder) so you can't modify apps or view contents - try uninstalling apps to see if size changes.
screenshot of mine - miui 7
otyg said:
@Amirphp
Just checked my phone and I don't have the misc data (under settings menu), and I do have a system data partition but it's much smaller.,
so its either
oh see this post too.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/redmi-note-3/help/mystery-data-taking-10gb-space-t3435176
misc files seems to be generated by the Camera app (I use OpenCamera, so that's probably why I don't have this "misc" data)
--------------------- other reasons -----------------
1. you are installing big APK files that don't use obb files (normally amazon app store uses these types, possibly other app stores), so all the big data gets written to the /data/data/ or /data/app dir taking up space.
2. system backups from twrp or similar can eat a lot of space. this could be why it's listed as system data
3. install sdmaid see if it finds anything abnormal.
4. (unlikely) you have a lot of apps installing to the "Internal Memory" - android thinks it's a sdcard - these apps are hidden under /mnt/sdcard0/.android_secure
(mounted with a fake mount point to prevent access, also a hidden folder) so you can't modify apps or view contents - try uninstalling apps to see if size changes.
screenshot of mine - miui 7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
> Hi I had installed only temple run oz...which using 60 mb of data without obb.
Rest other games data is separate in obb....which I know.
> I did not not manually taken any backup.
My be auto backup was taken before and stored in system.
Though I checked in setting auto backup is disabled.
I still some backup my possible...so how I can remove that and find?
My phone is not rooted and no twrp.
> Ya I have installed many apps in internal memory because I am using dual sim ...and no sd.
I uninstalled all apps and reset to factory ....but still after reset ...those 7 gb misc are still there....
What I can do ...
> I shall check sdmaid and report here soon...
Checked sd maid .....but no help.
It's asking for root to check system data folder.
Any idea or command that I can scan /data folder via adb command on pc?
I don't want to root currently.
Tried all but not able to find what is eating my all space...
Any why it's not deleted even after reset .
open the Camera app properties click force stop and clear data and clear cache, see if that does it, without root you will be unable to browse in /data/data
otyg said:
open the Camera app properties click force stop and clear data and clear cache, see if that does it, without root you will be unable to browse in /data/data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for help...
But deleting camera app data or cache did not help.
--------
Now I think I can't find that misc without root.
So I leaved it until I root.
Now I watched some youtube videos and added my nano sim with sd card.
And able to use both dual sim and sd.
Moved some internal data in sd...atleast made some more space with the help of sd. ??☺☺
Delete local back up
You must have enabled local storage backup. Delete it and you'll free up and lot of space.
Here's how you can delete it

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