Hey everyone. I have searched around and can't find an answer to this, so here goes;
I have a Verizon Galaxy S4 and while I love the phone and all the ROM's out for it, I HATE that due to it's limited 16GB internal memory, I am CONSTANTLY running out of space on the phone. I have moved everything I can to my SD card but still can't get it down. When I open my phone on my PC and look at the internal memory, I see a ton of folders that I don't know what the hell they are. I would love to just go through arbitrarily and delete them all but obviously that's not a great idea. Can anyone tell me and/or compile a list of files and folders that commonly end up on our phones from bloat and whatnot?
Here's a screenshot of what I see in mine, just as a for instance...
Do you have a lot of photos?
They would be in the DCIM folder
joshuabg said:
Do you have a lot of photos?
They would be in the DCIM folder
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. There are a lot in there. Can I not move that folder to the SD card?
I only got the S4 last Saturday, and today UPS brought my 32G SD card. When I went to the camera app to see if there were any way to change the target location, a popup said (about), "You now have an SD card, so all single shots will now go there. Multi-shots will still go to the internal storage." There is indeed a setting for that though, Internal or SD. I plan to leave the DCIM folder on the Internal, but let it be empty
I Hate Import Cars said:
Hey everyone. I have searched around and can't find an answer to this, so here goes;
I have a Verizon Galaxy S4 and while I love the phone and all the ROM's out for it, I HATE that due to it's limited 16GB internal memory, I am CONSTANTLY running out of space on the phone. I have moved everything I can to my SD card but still can't get it down. When I open my phone on my PC and look at the internal memory, I see a ton of folders that I don't know what the hell they are. I would love to just go through arbitrarily and delete them all but obviously that's not a great idea. Can anyone tell me and/or compile a list of files and folders that commonly end up on our phones from bloat and whatnot?
Here's a screenshot of what I see in mine, just as a for instance...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably already know this...but here goes:
-By all means invest in an external sdcard. Use the sdcard to store all your pictures, video, music and any other documents you may be storing on your phone.
-There are two apps in the Play Store that enable you to "sort of" move apps to sdcard. Aparted will allow you to partition your sdcard. You create a partition that will be reserved for app data, cache and other "stuff". Link2SD is the app that will use that partition to "link" your apps to the data etc being stored on the sdcard partition. I saved about 1gb by using these two apps. This only works on your downloaded apps, not on system apps. Your apps will update and run as normal, but their associated data etc will be stored on the sdcard partition you create.
-Consider the type ROM you're running, if you have an option. Generally speaking, TW ROMs are more "heavy" than AOSP ROMS. You have to pick your poison. If you like and use all the unique features Samsung has put on the S4 (hand gestures, smart screen etc) then a AOSP ROM may not be what you want as your daily driver. Yes, it will use less resources in terms of RAM and internal storage, but some of those unique features that you like will not be available because most of the supporting firmware has been removed in an AOSP ROM. If you're forced to use SafeStrap to flash ROMs then your options are even fewer.
-There are a number of "safe to remove or freeze" list floating around on the web or in this forum. Like most things, one man's passion is another man's poison. Just because some guy says "xxxx.apk" is safe to remove or freeze doesn't mean it won't have an undesirable effect for you. Besides, you really don't save a lot of storage space by deleting most of those things. Unless it is truely "bloat" like NFL Football or Blockbuster I just freeze those things associated with functions or apps that I know I will never use. On a TW ROM that usually means most of the Samsung "stuff".
Hope this helps.
Remove Stuff
Removing all of the Samsung stuff that you dont use dose free up some space. Even with that I have found on the TW roms I can only hold 2 of them on my internal storage. Usually I have my Daily driver rom on there and any new roms that I want to try I just have to keep deleing those when I want to put a new one on.
Related
Hey guys,
i think compared to my previous mobilephones the storage management of the atrix 4g is pretty confusing or i just didnt understand its behaviour.
how are you managing your files? i tried to safe all my music to my 16gb sd card, so i have had the internal storage left for all my apps and everything i needed additionally. but since some of those hd games (or other apps, camera apps for example) wont let you choose wether you want to safe those bytes to your internal storage or to the external one, this wont do anymore. well, i dont know, maybe im just stupid, but ive got the feeling im doing something wrong because i never really know where the files im looking for are. :silly:
im on epinters cm10 with the oc1300 kernel. btw, is there anybody playing nfs most wanted smoothly without hwa?
thanks for paying me attention
I was keeping the same layout. All the music on the external sdcard and all the other stuff on the internal. I moved all my music to Google Music now so now I only use the insternal sdcard.
ALl the apps should point to the internal sdcard/emmc as it is the default for our phone. Although this can be switches based on each rom.There are some hacks that you can do to have more usage in your external sdcard. Like App2sd.
Ever since first phones with huge internal storage ( >= 8 GB) came out, things with managing user storage started being complicated. Originally, Android phones had DATA storage (for apps) and USER storage (for pics, videos, music, documents, whatever). Phones with large storage brough in another user storage, so now we have DATA, PRIMARY and SECONDARY. The reason the two user storages are not treated equally is exactly because of the first phones - many apps were (and still are) made with the assumption there is only ONE storage. For those apps, the storage you select as PRIMARY will be their only storage. Other apps might be able to make use of both storages, but those are normally quite rare. Bottom line is, the way things are at the moment, it is ultimately up to you to manage your user storage(s), any way you prefer.
Another note: using your external storage as primary so as to leave the internal one for apps makes less sense than you'd think - unless we're talking about games and navigation apps and such, apps already have their dedicated storage (DATA).
ravilov said:
Ever since first phones with huge internal storage ( >= 8 GB) came out, things with managing user storage started being complicated. Originally, Android phones had DATA storage (for apps) and USER storage (for pics, videos, music, documents, whatever). Phones with large storage brough in another user storage, so now we have DATA, PRIMARY and SECONDARY. The reason the two user storages are not treated equally is exactly because of the first phones - many apps were (and still are) made with the assumption there is only ONE storage. For those apps, the storage you select as PRIMARY will be their only storage. Other apps might be able to make use of both storages, but those are normally quite rare. Bottom line is, the way things are at the moment, it is ultimately up to you to manage your user storage(s), any way you prefer.
Another note: using your external storage as primary so as to leave the internal one for apps makes less sense than you'd think - unless we're talking about games and navigation apps and such, apps already have their dedicated storage (DATA).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the only way to solve my problem, to keep 16gb music at just one storage instead of having to split them into two folders+playing some fancy hd games, to buy another 32gb sd card? too bad
anyway, thanks for your requests, maybe this thread can help other confused people too :good:
I use AndroZip. And I am really confused about the different folders..
I included 2 screenshots for this part of my question..
First one.. can someone tell me what those folders mean..
Second picture.. what the heck are all those folders..
Is the actual external SD card one of those folders. I figured it would be the obvious one but I swear I had more stuff in that folder and Its not there...
Is there a way to make the external sd card the default to where all pics and stuff are saved??
Seems I am running out of storage space on my phone already for some reason.
3rd picture is of a screenshot of my storage use.. ridiculous. I dont understand why everything is on my phone and nothing is on the card..
It was worse a few days ago. My phone kept telling me I had no space left.. it was at like
System storge was 15.23gb/16.00gb
Sd card was 2.20gb/29.71gb
Sorry my question is kinda lame. Im just not good at this stuff.
Thanks for your guys help I really appreciate it
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
Not sure what all those folders mean, but emulated sd is actually still internal...your "ext sd" is your external sd. when you open your camera for the first time, it should give the option to save all photos to ext sd. If you missed it, you should be able to hit the menu button, go into settings and change it within a secondary settings menu in there. I use es file explorer or astro typically and have never seen all those usb folders. Perhaps you are plugged into a desktop?
Mount Points
For whatever reason, the Galaxy S4 has many, many mount points for its emulated SD Card. If you're rooted, the actual path to it is "/data/media/0/"
However, the folders in the first picture are ALL paths to your internal or emulated SD Card. sdcard0, ext_sdcard, emulated, legacy, etc.
In the second picture, those look like pre-created mount points for... multiple flash drives? Either way, no reason to worry about them unless you somehow manage to plug up about 7 flash drives or SD Cards to your device.
And as for the space issue... That really is a good question. Factory resetting is never out of the question if you're up for it, however, assuming you're not, the only explanation I could come up with is just a ton of apps with big extra files. Like Minecraft, Call of Duty Black Ops Zombies, Temple Run 2.
Hope I helped, sorry if I didn't. I'm new to Android this year, so I haven't thoroughly looked at all of the quirky stuff it tends to do, but your data usage has to be from something, and if it's not from stuff you put on your emulated SD Card, it has to be from big apps or malware, assuming you didn't tamper with anything in a root file explorer. Are you sure you haven't messed around and copied files to some directory you thought was the emulated SD?
As far as the internal storage, the OS and "most" of your downloaded apps will go here, unless you use foldermount ("move to sd" only moves part of the file). Anyways, I have about 60 apps on my phone and am running hyperdrive and have about the same amount of internal storage left as you. After formatting and whatnot, the device does not have 16gb internal memory...it's more like 11 or 12. Before I was running hyperdrive and was just stock rooted, on that same screen as your 3rd picture, it showed me that I had 9.82gb of internal memory TOTAL, but I had way less used (I currently have no more or no less than I did then, but shows I have 8.23gb out of 16, instead of the 3.9gb out of 9.82 it used to show). Most of which is under "miscellaneous" files and when you go in there to see whats actually there via phone settings, you can't really see what's using all the space. You really need to be rooted and use root explorer (or similar) to see whats using all the storage.
Greetings.
I've had the pleasure to deal with many android devices, ranging from the very first EVO 4G to a rooted nook and KFire, galaxy tab, and my current GAlaxy S4. Nonetheless I've noted a pattern that hopefully one or several of you can help with...
I usually have SD cards that are larger than the native storage of most of my devices however.... I always run out of room for apps. I wouldn't say I install everything I See but I do install apps I need for work (medical apps) which for the most part don't exactly take much space but some are known to take 300-1Gb at most. Anyway, my devices always seem to fill the native storage while the SD Card remains fairly unused. Here is an example of my phone.
So my main gripe/issue is: My SD cards are always fairly empty and only have contents I've actively copied over to them from my desktop or notebook. I am under the impression that most programs do not install the data to SD Card and use the native storage instead. Is there anyway this can change? Any tips to get more space (besides backing up pictures and deleting those, 700+ mb!).
Thank you in advance!
good question.
theartofbone said:
Greetings.
I've had the pleasure to deal with many android devices, ranging from the very first EVO 4G to a rooted nook and KFire, galaxy tab, and my current GAlaxy S4. Nonetheless I've noted a pattern that hopefully one or several of you can help with...
I usually have SD cards that are larger than the native storage of most of my devices however.... I always run out of room for apps. I wouldn't say I install everything I See but I do install apps I need for work (medical apps) which for the most part don't exactly take much space but some are known to take 300-1Gb at most. Anyway, my devices always seem to fill the native storage while the SD Card remains fairly unused. Here is an example of my phone.
So my main gripe/issue is: My SD cards are always fairly empty and only have contents I've actively copied over to them from my desktop or notebook. I am under the impression that most programs do not install the data to SD Card and use the native storage instead. Is there anyway this can change? Any tips to get more space (besides backing up pictures and deleting those, 700+ mb!).
Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in agreement with you, as I have progressed thru numerous phones too. After going the route of the first moto linux phone and then jumping aboard the Android system when the first G1 came out from HTC and have always had similiar problems.
There original solution was special purpose apps that would allow you to backup your apps to SD card, then other apps came along to allow you to actually run apps from SD Card but seems that not all apps can actually be accessed from SD card. I havent kept up with it all like I first did and have become rather lazy and carefree or even sloppy with how I maintain my devices files and apps organized. Much now to an overwhelming large mess of old devices and storage media not to mention profiles tied to email google accounts. Its difficult to even start over as every device wants to have a profile to sync to. It could entirely be possible to top out the memory on a brand new device after snyc to one or two profiles.
Also it seems for the average consumer that has a unrooted device it is impossible to thoroughly clean or interrogate the internal device memory . seems like the revisions of the android operating system makes file management of internal memory even more difficult to manage.
I didnt want to get too carried away but I totally feel frustrated as you do, sorry I dont have a solid technical answer to resolve your problem. I am asked all the time to fix my girlfriends tablet and I cant explain it to her where all her memory has disapeared to after a few factory resets. Doesnt seem to matter, if you load alot of apps to just give them a spin for a test ride. Even if you delete or move them to store on sd card . It seems alot of junk files still seem to reside in the internal storage and eventually will eat away at the memory until it gets to the point of inoperability. App managers can make the situatin worse by creating even more orphaned files and junk too. All this stuff is not accessible to view and review and manage.
The only answer is to have a rooted device and the expertise to properly manage this inaccessible memory?
Is there a decent file management that a nonpower consumer can rely upon?
Does every Cyanogenmod rom allow that by default, or dit it die with version 11 or 12 being the last one?
If installing directly to SD is a no go, what good apps are there that do the transfer (and keep everything working, of course
I would recommend Link2SD.
I have used it with satisfaction on several low memory devices.
Not sure why, I find Link2SD and its options terribly confusing Well, I guess I'll need to learn.
There are a lot of guides and it's not so complex.
The best way to use it is to create a second partition on sd (consider a backup of your data on pc/otg/cloud/...).
As far as I can remember link2sd will ask you the filesystem type and then it will create some script to use it.
Then you can simply tap on an app from the list and press "link to sd".
From the apps list you can do a lot of operation like convert apps to system/user app, freeze/unfreeze, merge an updated app to rom etc. and using the filter this kind of operation will be very easy and fast.
EDIT:
On the plus (paid) version you can link also data.
If you really want to maximize the free space on the device, this option is worth the few moneys.
EDIT2:
I've always used it on other devices using AOSP based roms, I don't know if there are problems using it with MIUI.
Thanks a lot! So, if you "link" (strange choice of word, it's not actually linking if it gets completely moved to SD and nothing remaing in main storage is it, that's what confused the hell out of me), app and its data to SD, will it be exactly like it was downloaded and installed on SD right from the store, like it used to be on Android versions that supported such thing? I know Cyanogenmod 11 did that perfectly, wonder if it's CM thing by default, or did they moved to new (stupid) concept of raping the main storage in later versions
EDIT: Any chance of "linking" bloody Whatsapp to SD completely? I'm in continuous maintenance mode of my wife phone because that **** consumes the storage for all it's worth.
C64Ever said:
Thanks a lot! So, if you "link" (strange choice of word, it's not actually linking if it gets completely moved to SD and nothing remaing in main storage is it, that's what confused the hell out of me), app and its data to SD, will it be exactly like it was downloaded and installed on SD right from the store, like it used to be on Android versions that supported such thing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Linking is not the same as moving.
For example, if you move to sd and then remove the sd from the device, widgets and app icons will be removed.
Maybe they will be restored when you insert your sd again, but the order could not be the same.
The same doesn't happen linking.
There are also other benefits, try googling for "link2sd faq".
C64Ever said:
EDIT: Any chance of "linking" bloody Whatsapp to SD completely? I'm in continuous maintenance mode of my wife phone because that **** consumes the storage for all it's worth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not using whatsapp so I don't know if it works.
I guess that your are talking about the "whatapp" directory on which msgs and media are store.
If link2sd can't solve your problem, I think that can try to move the whatsapp directory to sd and then manually create a link (keep the original name) on the original position.
Or you can try with apps like foldermount
EDIT:
try looking at this thread
Maybe your can try xposed app..xinternalsd..swap sdcard to be phone memory
I love the SGP611, except it's low memory. I was anxiously awaiting MM and then so disappointed when they didn't allow you to utilize SD card more. My daughters tablet is used for apps and its stores such a sorry amount of apps. Is there any way I can change the memory to SD card without rooting it? I don't want to brick my daughters tablet and I'm not sure I'm confident enough to root it, plus we couldn't afford a new tablet if something went wrong. Any advice would be appreciated.
dude just revent to KITKAT via FLASHTOOL.it still is the best OS in every single category included battery life..
kos25k said:
dude just revent to KITKAT via FLASHTOOL.it still is the best OS in every single category included battery life..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does that help give it more memory/space?
SamraLee said:
How does that help give it more memory/space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you mean storage, not memory (two different things altogether)...that's why the other person recommended going back to 4.4. Pretty sure he was referring to better RAM management than 6.0.
Really, your best bet is to have her be mindful of what apps she actually uses. Most times there are games rarely ever opened hogging up storage.
Bandage said:
I think you mean storage, not memory (two different things altogether)...that's why the other person recommended going back to 4.4. Pretty sure he was referring to better RAM management than 6.0.
Really, your best bet is to have her be mindful of what apps she actually uses. Most times there are games rarely ever opened hogging up storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, you are right I do mean storage. I wasn't aware of the different wording. All I really want is for my memory card to be able to have more on it. I wonder why Sony chose not to go with making external storage your main storage. Is there a way to force it to go to SD card without rooting?
oh sorry I had in nind that on kitkat you can transfer apps on sd.I saw it now and I can't.beside this,if you plan to root it,it worths cause in MM there is very high risk if you transfer apps to sd..
SamraLee said:
Thank you, you are right I do mean storage. I wasn't aware of the different wording. All I really want is for my memory card to be able to have more on it. I wonder why Sony chose not to go with making external storage your main storage. Is there a way to force it to go to SD card without rooting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you can do SAFELY, is go into your App settings and change what storage they use. Not every App has the ability to do this. Some games have this option, Pokemon Go being one of them. You can move the data stored on device internally to instead be stored on SD card. This can add up if several apps can do this.
Anyways, it's a thought.
Bandage said:
What you can do SAFELY, is go into your App settings and change what storage they use. Not every App has the ability to do this. Some games have this option, Pokemon Go being one of them. You can move the data stored on device internally to instead be stored on SD card. This can add up if several apps can do this.
Anyways, it's a thought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, thank you. I have done this already. I appreciate your advice. Is there anything I can do that is less risky than rooting, and perhaps a little more novice friendly, but isn't 100% risk free? My daughter is only 4, but she loves having loads of different apps and rememebers ones I've deleted.
Here's a post I found that digs into the issue more. With some solves laid out in a tutorial. Sony seems to have disabled the feature in MM...this will enable it.
Adaptable Storage
You can also give the Sony suggested walk-through below a try...let us know if it helps.
You might also try using a lower capacity SD card...sometimes certain devices can be finicky with anything 32GB or over.
It looks like Sony devices have been mentioned in that regard.
Here's some tips for managing your available memory. Try these methods one after the other.
Open the notification by dragging the status bar downwards, then tap the notification. The storage menu opens.
Move files or apps to the memory card (SD card), if you have one inserted.
Move files to a computer (if you no longer need them on your device).
Delete files from the internal memory.
To move files from the device memory to the microSD card (if inserted):
Open Settings > Storage
Scroll down to the end of the menu and select Transfer data to SD card.
Select the items (photos, videos and music) you wish to move to the SD card.
Un-select a category if you see the information, that there is not enough memory on the SD card to transfer all files.
Select Transfer to start the transfer to the SD card.
To delete files from the device memory:
Open Settings > Storage > Internal Storage.
Tap a category to select what you want to delete from the device memory.
Depending on the category selected you have different options on how to proceed:
Apps: Selecting Apps will open the Apps menu. Here you can uninstall downloaded applications, if you do not need them anymore.
Pictures, videos: Selecting this option will open the Album application or Google Photos. In these applications you can delete pictures or videos to free device memory.
Audio: If you tap Audio you can see the audio tracks currently stored on your device memory. You can delete tracks using the File Commander or the Music / Walkman application.
Downloads: In this category you can see a list of all files you have downloaded to your Xperia™ phone or tablet. To delete a file just touch and hold it and then tap the trash bin icon in the top right corner.
Cached Data: Applications can aggregate quite huge amounts of cached data while working. If you select this category you can delete all cached data at once. This will not delete any personal data. Deleting the application cache from time to time is highly recommended to free device memory.
Misc.: In this category you can see files and folders which have been created manually on the device memory. To delete a file or folder just tick the checkbox in front of the file or folder name and tap the trash bin icon in the top row. Please be careful while deleting files and folders, as a deleted item cannot be recovered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bandage said:
Here's a post I found that digs into the issue more. With some solves laid out in a tutorial. Sony seems to have disabled the feature in MM...this will enable it.
Adaptable Storage
You can also give the Sony suggested walk-through below a try...let us know if it helps.
You might also try using a lower capacity SD card...sometimes certain devices can be finicky with anything 32GB or over.
It looks like Sony devices have been mentioned in that regard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just bought a Z3c tablet and a 64GB SANDISK U3
90MB/S micro sd card, do you think I'll have issues?
Bandage said:
Here's a post I found that digs into the issue more. With some solves laid out in a tutorial. Sony seems to have disabled the feature in MM...this will enable it.
Adaptable Storage
You can also give the Sony suggested walk-through below a try...let us know if it helps.
You might also try using a lower capacity SD card...sometimes certain devices can be finicky with anything 32GB or over.
It looks like Sony devices have been mentioned in that regard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Note that as of Marshmallow you can definitely move apps to the SD card, but only the ones that Sony hasn't bundled as part of the ROM. However, even doing so doesn't change the cached files that those apps use... For example, I had Hearthstone installed, and while I can "move" the app to the SD card, it still unpacks over 1GB of files to the internal storage, which sort of defeats the purpose. I have a 64 GB card, and as long as its Class 10 or above you shouldn't have any issues with not being able to write or use it for media files, etc
I ended up removing the game all together, and I can't remove enough of the bloatware to free up space.
When you're in the Storage screen as listed in the above guide, you also can't set the SD card as default.. the option to do so doesn't appear within Sony's ROM.
I would suggest that OP looks at the games she has, and removes the larger ones, keeping more of the smaller ones installed. Otherwise, unlocking the bootloader and flashing a custom ROM is the only other choice if you want to stick with that hardware and want to free up more room