[Q] How does Android handles cache and storage? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a HTC EVO 3D for months now and I've never experienced issues with it, but I aways have plenty of storage left and have done a system reset once so I don't know how it behaves. I'm very curious about this because I've explored some apps cache sizes and for example Facebook was about 50 MB. Is there a limit?
I'd like to know what happens when the internal storage runs out of space. Does Android (regardless of device / custom manufacturers "skins") automatically take care of deleting old cache files from apps?
I mean, if you run out of internal storage in a Nexus device, what happens?

When you run out of internal storage space, the system will warn you with low disk space message.. I am not sure whther there is any limit for the cache.. But if you are interested in clearing cache.. you can use some apps like Clean Master.. Or if you are in JB, you can do that directly from settings.. Just touch the Cache under storage, then it will prompt you with a message whether to clear the cache or not..

What I'm really interested is in how automatic ("smart") is Android for a non-tech end-user.
IMO the system should be smart enough to handle this by itself, keeping the user away of hassle of manual management.

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[Q] Storage Issues?

Alright, so Ive been saving things to my storage card and what not; But my Hd2 is telling me my devices main memory is running low on space.
Wtf?
I dont save things to the main memory, Im saving it to the Storage Card, 16 Gb. I cant even get the full potential of my Storage Card because my Hd2, keeps warning me that my memory is low. I have loads of space still on my storage card, but my main device has 3 Mb left.
This is very aggitating.
Can someone check this out, cause Im completly lost.
Lack of memory
Sorry, I can't help as the same thing is frustrating me also.
Only way i found was to limit the amount of applications on the phone.
Even if you install to your SD card, your phone memory goes up also.
Grrrrrrr
opera cache, windows temp, youtube cache, photo album cache, install temp folder,,,, and more, they're all in main memory and fill up.
search on clearing temp folders.
windows/opera9/profiles/cache
windows/temp
application data/volatile
windows/profiles/guest/(3 sub folders)
temp/
just to get you started.
oh and some good reading here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=623361
try this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=750492

Memory Issues

If you're having issues with memory, and you know you have more memory than displayed; check one of these places.
DCIM: picture storage, but it will sometimes cache EVERY .jpg file on your device. A couple of reboots will usually do away with this.
com.cooliris.media: this is also a cache for pics and data of some sort. Take a look at this and erase the cache. It stores your photo or video meta info, unencrypted. It had 333 MB of my memory and info stored. *chunk_0* is where your data is stored unencrypted.
LOST.DIR: I just had 2.4 GB wind up in here. Spent an hour looking for the culprit and finally found it by using Storage Analyser from the Play Store.
This isn't normal cache, this is huge chunks of data being placed in these areas.
If I find any more unusual spots that suck up memory, and the cause, I'll try and add it here.
**ALWAYS double check before randomly erasing stuff**
Yeah, this is why I use a cache cleaner (All-In-One Toolbox).
Cache cleaners won't clear out LOST.DIR or chunk_0.
Sorry, I meant an SD card cleaner.

[Q] Cache limit in Android

Well, this morning I was cleaning data on my DX (caché, app data, etc.) using Link2SD (I like how it organizes apps and details size of each type of data). Some apps stored 50MB of cache and it bugs me, cause it isn't phone's memory only, microSD card is storing cache too, and I wonder if we can limit the amount of cache stored in the phone (and SD card too).
If your phones rooted, use an app called cache mate, real simple and straight forward, it does what it needs to, and you can set it up to clear cache at certain times. Its a free app, you can get the pro if you want additional features.
Just search it up on the Play Store.
Cake...

Move data to SD or repartition

I've got an htc droid incredible 4g lte running CM11. Its got 1GB of internal memory.
Apps are only about 200mb
data is 267mb
Davik Cache takes about 460mb
So I always run into "insufficient memory" errors when trying to update apps.
Everyone says "just move apps to SD", sure that helps at first but ...
1. Many apps wont work right if you move them to SD (ie Facebook)
2. You can move apps to SD, but many apps still keep data in internal memory (ie. Facebook)
3. It doesnt matter where your apps are, you're still going to use up space with Davlik cache.
Reducing apps is obviously one solution, but not really. Most of the "important" apps (ie. Google stuff) are large and keep getting bigger. The rest of the apps use a trivial amount of space.
If I could force moving data to the SD card, that would help alot.
Ideally, I'd like to re-partition the internal memory and SD space to give more to internal memory.

How do you overcome the 16GB storage limit?

After using the phone for a while, even if you don't install lots of apps, the 16GB internal storage area will eventually get full. Facebook, chrome, twitter etc develop large caches on the device. The thumbnail file balloons to several GBs. Even if you have a microSD, Google these days limit portability to the microSD. There are some workarounds. I use an app called Link2SD. I have created a 2nd partition on my microSD card, and use this app to move app data and cache files to this storage area.
How do you cope with the 16GB storage limit? How do you move apps and/or app data to the microSD card?
szaim said:
After using the phone for a while, even if you don't install lots of apps, the 16GB internal storage area will eventually get full. Facebook, chrome, twitter etc develop large caches on the device. The thumbnail file balloons to several GBs. Even if you have a microSD, Google these days limit portability to the microSD. There are some workarounds. I use an app called Link2SD. I have created a 2nd partition on my microSD card, and use this app to move app data and cache files to this storage area.
How do you cope with the 16GB storage limit? How do you move apps and/or app data to the microSD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root
And use folder mount. But the ultra does seem to collect a lot of a cache I've noticed over the years. I just clear it. Not to mention es file explorer has a recycling bin which is a nightmare.
I don't use the phone storage expect for Google everything else I run on my SD card.
Link2SD sucks its all complicated folder mount gets right to the point. Plus I use CyanogenMod so out of the box my phone only uses like 700mb
i remember on my desire hd on og the devs made a way to make the phone think that sd card was iternal memory so in other words i had 32gb internal also did this on my samsung tablet too
I have never filled up the internal storage completely. I have a 64GB SD which I use to store some of my music on, and all wallpapers and photos are moved to the SD. The only things I have on the internal storage are apps, and non of them manages to balloon the cache up to several gigs. Chrome has a cache limit of 200 MB, Reddit Sync has an option to clear the cache every day/every time I close it etc, so the things that takes up the most space are games. Those aren't causing any issues either since I only have 2 or 3 games installed at all times. When I'm done with them, I uninstall them. The stock ROM also has "App to SD" (which I don't use, but it's there). So all in all, I don't have to overcome any limits.
I can see how it's an issue if you insist in having 600 apps installed at all times, but then it's not the hardware's fault, but the user that's incredibly messy and stupid.
I use Obb on SD (Xposed) for games such as the GTA series and have a task for cleaning the Album cache with Tasker every day (that app tend to build huge cache files, I have experienced 1 GB....) and I am also careful to move downloaded stuff to the microSD card.
I also clean the cache regularly under storage and is usually with 2 GB free on the internal disk.
It is handy to set up Tasker to do regular cleaning of cache folders for those apps who tend to create big caches as well. When decent Marshmallow ROMs are out, my plan is to format my microSD card as "internal storage" (ext4 per the new feature introduced) which will make everything more seamless.

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