How do you overcome the 16GB storage limit? - Sony Xperia Z Ultra

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.

Related

[Q] Device memory only 1.97Gb?

Hi,
I actually picked the S2 over the Sensation because of the slightly higher specs and the fact that phone has 16gb internal memory. Being new to android (switch from iPhone) I really don't get what device memory is and why it's filling up so fast. I have barely installed 5 tiny apps and already 140Mb out of the 1.97Gb has already been used. I installed loads of apps on my iPhone and I intend to do that same on my new one so could someone please explain this concept of device memory and what exactly is stored in there. Also, if I run out of device memory, how do I free it up or increase the 1.97Gb limit?
2GB /data rest as internal sd card, system partition, cache, etc.
You can move apps to sd card if the data partition is full.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Relax, there's plenty of space. I've more than 80 apps installed, and they uses 664MB, so around 240 apps before memory is filled up... Remember that large games like Gameloft games installs their main data on the 12GB partition. And there is also a possibility to move most of the apps to that area as well, but it is unlikely that you need that.
The 140MB used on your phone probably includes some pre-installed apps.
Phew! That's big relief... Thanks so much. Just one last small doubt, I realized that only some apps are allow to be moved to the SD card while others like facebook have the this option greyed out. Why is this exactly?
some apps have the ability to be moved to sd card while others dont due to the way they are built..
can use device internal memory to store app data?
guys is it possible to use the device internal memory (1.9gb) to store app data in absence of internal and external SD card? my camera/apps don't run in absence of the SD card any way to get around this by using the the device internal memory? ( i have 1.5gb free after installation of all the necessarily apps)

sd card question

how the heck can i move my apps to my sd card?? i run the app App 2 SD and all it does is move my apps from phone storage (internal) to the phones (''sd card'') i cant move google chrome, google+, facebook, adobe...all fairly large apps. when i look at apps under settings > apps, the only options i have is to move it to phone storage or internal storage. im pretty lost
Linch89 said:
how the heck can i move my apps to my sd card?? i run the app App 2 SD and all it does is move my apps from phone storage (internal) to the phones (''sd card'') i cant move google chrome, google+, facebook, adobe...all fairly large apps. when i look at apps under settings > apps, the only options i have is to move it to phone storage or internal storage. im pretty lost
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you may need root.
don't hold me to that though
thats what i was thinking but i wasnt trying to talk out of my rear end ah well at least i can still store my music and pics on my sd card...without root a 32gb card seems pretty extreme doncha think? without all the nandroids and roms lol
Linch89 said:
how the heck can i move my apps to my sd card?? i run the app App 2 SD and all it does is move my apps from phone storage (internal) to the phones (''sd card'') i cant move google chrome, google+, facebook, adobe...all fairly large apps. when i look at apps under settings > apps, the only options i have is to move it to phone storage or internal storage. im pretty lost
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
know i don't know if this will work with apps but it work for photos, i opened the phone's card and long pressed on the ones i wanted to move and selected the option-move to, and transfered photos from phone card to sdcard. i did this with es file explorer. from the phones card not the internal storage or memory wharever it's called
Tried using es file explorer and my sd card didn't even show up. This is what it looks like in disk usage
The storage card is the phones hard drive I think (it's 8 gbs right? And we can't use all 8?)
The /mnt/sdcard/ext_sd is my 32 gig sd card. But when I move my apps it goes to internal storage
Linch89 said:
Tried using es file explorer and my sd card didn't even show up. This is what it looks like in disk usage
The storage card is the phones hard drive I think (it's 8 gbs right? And we can't use all 8?)
The /mnt/sdcard/ext_sd is my 32 gig sd card. But when I move my apps it goes to internal storage
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Click to collapse
Have you tried plugging in phone to computer and dragging and droping from one drive to the other, just a suggestion, don't know if it will work
I'll try that after work thanks boss
Aldo101t said:
Have you tried plugging in phone to computer and dragging and droping from one drive to the other, just a suggestion, don't know if it will work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We established this in another thread about a month ago. With the introduction of Android 4.0, Google decided to change the way mounts work in Android. Google, assuming that microSD card would be phased out in the introduction of larger capacity internal storage phones without microSD slots, decided to make the internal eMMC storage be named 'sdcard', since most apps already used the 'sdcard' location for saving data, and name a real SD card 'sdcard2', also reachable by a folder in 'sdcard' name 'sd_ext'.
The largest phone out there right now that I know of has 64GB total of internal storage, while phones like ours only have 8GB total, with about half being taken up by the system, necessitating the usage of a real SD card for storage. The /data partition on our phone only has about 1GB available, and a dozen medium-sized apps and their data will use that up quickly. In short, there's no way to install apps to the real SD card since ICS, and once your eMMC 'sdcard' fills up, you're out of luck. A large oversight, in my opinion, by Google and HTC.
If our phone had 16GB of internal storage, we might not have that problem nearly as quickly, but games like DEAD Trigger, which is nearly 200MB, will quickly fill up our phone.
Basically, pick and choose the apps you want carefully, and keep the eMMC 'sdcard' partition as empty as possible, aside from your larger apps.
Aldo101t said:
Have you tried plugging in phone to computer and dragging and droping from one drive to the other, just a suggestion, don't know if it will work
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Click to collapse
When you move an app to 'Phone storage', it saves in the eMMC internal storage '/sdcard/.android_secure/' folder as a '.asec' file. In my testing, if you move it to actual SD card, that is '/sdcard2/.android_secure/', it won't recognize it. It displays 'Application not installed' when clicking on the app to run it. The Android system saves the pointer to the apk, whether it's saved in '/data/app' or '/sdcard/.android_secure/', and that's the only place it will look for it. You can't move it to the real SD card unless someone else has found a workaround, and I haven't heard of it if the have. I'll find the link to our previous discussion and post it.
IceDragon59 said:
We established this in another thread about a month ago. With the introduction of Android 4.0, Google decided to change the way mounts work in Android. Google, assuming that microSD card would be phased out in the introduction of larger capacity internal storage phones without microSD slots, decided to make the internal eMMC storage be named 'sdcard', since most apps already used the 'sdcard' location for saving data, and name a real SD card 'sdcard2', also reachable by a folder in 'sdcard' name 'sd_ext'.
The largest phone out there right now that I know of has 64GB total of internal storage, while phones like ours only have 8GB total, with about half being taken up by the system, necessitating the usage of a real SD card for storage. The /data partition on our phone only has about 1GB available, and a dozen medium-sized apps and their data will use that up quickly. In short, there's no way to install apps to the real SD card since ICS, and once your eMMC 'sdcard' fills up, you're out of luck. A large oversight, in my opinion, by Google and HTC.
If our phone had 16GB of internal storage, we might not have that problem nearly as quickly, but games like DEAD Trigger, which is nearly 200MB, will quickly fill up our phone.
Basically, pick and choose the apps you want carefully, and keep the eMMC 'sdcard' partition as empty as possible, aside from your larger apps.
When you move an app to 'Phone storage', it saves in the eMMC internal storage '/sdcard/.android_secure/' folder as a '.asec' file. In my testing, if you move it to actual SD card, that is '/sdcard2/.android_secure/', it won't recognize it. It displays 'Application not installed' when clicking on the app to run it. The Android system saves the pointer to the apk, whether it's saved in '/data/app' or '/sdcard/.android_secure/', and that's the only place it will look for it. You can't move it to the real SD card unless someone else has found a workaround, and I haven't heard of it if the have. I'll find the link to our previous discussion and post it.
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okey dokey, maybe after root we can do something with it.
Has anyone tried a 64 GB card with this phone? I jumped the gun and bought one for $44 because they work in the Incredible 2.
itll work for media like pics and music I think. Thanks for all the info. I'm new to this phone and also official ICS
bberryhill0 said:
Has anyone tried a 64 GB card with this phone? I jumped the gun and bought one for $44 because they work in the Incredible 2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1841317

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.

Xperia M4 internal being used as external

Sony ****ed up on this. See, this phone has an 8GB Internal storage. But 4 is used by Android, about 1 and a half by the apps pre installed, but because of the fact that you can't download anything from Play when I reach 500MB left in storage, I'm left with 2GB or so. Now I got an SD card, a 64GB one, to deal with this very problem. Now I'm a gamer, so naturally I wanna download some games. Obviously, games take a bit more space than your average app. So the solution is to have it install to external by default, that is the SD card. But for whatever reason, despite having 60GB left, I apparently have no space in external, I can't install anything. So the first thing I try is to, and painfully so, delete enough things on the internal to fit this smaller 500MB game. And it works. Clearly, it thinks the internal is the external, and so does all apps that show what is internal and external. Apparently I have two externals. Google Play isn't the only problem. If a game is looking for the data to it, which is typically found in obb, even if I have it in the actual SD card it searches in the internal thinking it's the external. Even the OS itself, the settings app, gets confused. Reading that, for an example, 500MB of the app is on the external, when it really still is on the internal. So how do I solve this? I'm willing to root if necessary.

Limited Storage Workaround

Hi All,
I've got an A21S for my Daughter and she's unable to properly use the SD Card for app storage are there any ROMs which allow moving apps to the SDCard.
Tia
Why is she doing that?
What's taking up all the internal storage space?
She should store data, music, movies, images, etc on the SD card not in the internal memory.
The SD Card won't format as internal storage it only formats as external so we can't move the apps to it. The only thing you can store in the SDCard is photos which makes it kind of pointless.
I read the Samsung forum and it's a known issue. I just wondered if there's a ROM that will do away with this limitation they've suggested putting it into Dev mode and allowing adoptable storage but I'd rather just install a ROM that doesn't have this silly limitation.
Thanks
blackhawk said:
Why is she doing that?
What's taking up all the internal storage space?
She should store data, music, movies, images, etc on the SD card not in the internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
blackhawk said:
Why is she doing that?
What's taking up all the internal storage space?
She should store data, music, movies, images, etc on the SD card not in the internal memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mashed said:
The SD Card won't format as internal storage it only formats as external so we can't move the apps to it. The only thing you can store in the SDCard is photos which makes it kind of pointless.
I read the Samsung forum and it's a known issue. I just wondered if there's a ROM that will do away with this limitation they've suggested putting it into Dev mode and allowing adoptable storage but I'd rather just install a ROM that doesn't have this silly limitation.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's far from pointless.
Just like on a PC you use the faster bus/memory of the internal memory for the apps as they benefit most from it.
The SD card is best suited for use as a data drive, not the primary drive as it's memory/bus speeds are substantially slower.
Music, pics, vids, documents, backups and downloads should be kept here.
The size of the internal memory defines how many apps you can or can't load.
You need at least 1gb headroom preferably 2gb or more.
My internal memory holds about 20gb including the Download folder. I have a fair amount of apps loaded including 4 browsers, 3 of which are heavily used.
My SD card holds 335gb of data.
Unfortunately she has outgrown that phone. Consider using less or lighter apps to regain the headroom you need.
These are lessons I learned the hard way about settings up a platform long ago in my XPx64 days. For a phone my minimum now is 128gb internal (preferabley more) and an SD card is mandatory.

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