No more space - is radical deleting everything the answer?

[AC Question]

Hey Guys,

to start off, I have been reading many articles on how to save space on your android phone, I use the app DiskUsage to monitor where my storage is going to and I keep deleting apps or putting them on my separate SD card (which apparently take the most store on my phone).
Now the problem is the apps that I have constantly update. And all these updates take space. I can't go a few days without at least 5 apps wanting to update. But I can't keep deleting apps, as I already deleted the most useless I have and I'm using a rather small selection on my phone.
I'm not an expert here, but would it help to reset my phone to 0 again and install apps again? And what's up with my Backup? It keeps getting bigger as well and taking up to 3,3 MB of my storage. Is that normal?
I'm a bit lost here and I would appreciate every good advice!!

 

[nahoku]

You know, apps do get updated and sometimes those updates are actually good. However, sometimes the updates are for compatibility with other devices other than your own, or the developer just decided to change something in the user interface. If the apps you're using are running fine and doing everything you need them to do, then there's really no reason to have them constantly update for something that might not even be related to your phone, or for some minor changes.

Take for instance my chess app. The developer decided to update it so the reset screen background displayed as white instead of black. Well, the white color basically sucks as it diminishes contrast with the text shown on it. This isn't the type of update I want to see. So, what do I do... I uninstall the app and reinstall it from my back up of that app. Now the reset screen is back to black like I want it to be. This is just an example of how I control my apps. A little off topic, but something for you to think about concerning how to control your constant updates.

If you don't want your apps to update, then go to Playstore, or Amazon (if that's where you get your apps from), and turn off Auto update for every app in the list. There might be some apps you want auto updated, and you can allow those to do that, but keep in mind that you might not even need those updates.

Try to take as much control as you can of your phone and apps. Become aware of what important apps are being updated by visiting the app stores you use and reviewing those apps. If you see a change in an app and it's important enough to update it, then do so. If the changes are blah, blah... then don't update. You're the one that has to make the decisions so your apps don't start filling up your memory.

As far as factory resetting your phone and going back to 0, its not a terrible idea, but it sure is a lot of work. If you don't mind going through all of that, then make sure you back up your contacts, photos, videos, and the rest of your data before you do it. Also, do the factory reset in "recovery mode", and prior to the factory reset, clear/wipe the cache partition first (also in recovery mode).

And what's up with my Backup? It keeps getting bigger as well and taking up to 3,3 MB of my storage. Is that normal?

What is this backup? Where are you looking at it? I'm assuming you mean 3.3 GB as 3.3 MB is quite small. Beyond that, what kind of phone do your have... model number?

By the way, you will need to become a member of AC in order to reply to any messages... including your own. See the Sticky at the top of this forum.

 

[Grace Afua Tamica]

Thank you Nahoku for your answer!
I will certainly do that from now on. But in order to solve the problem for space right now would it be best to restore it or is there another way that is less work? Deleting apps manually would take just as much work and I think my backup app already saved the updated app versions on it. My photos and videos are backed up through Google Photos. Regarding contacts, I believe they are also backed up with my phones backup app.
I am using a Xperia Z3 compact. And backup is part of the personal settings from this phone. It adds up to 3,3GB, yes, you are right. I didn't know it would take this much space and at the moment I honestly just want to have less space on my phone so I can start managing it correctly, also using the advice you gave me.

 

[Grace Afua Tamica]

Thank you Nahoku for your answer!
I will certainly do that from now on. But in order to solve the problem for space right now would it be best to restore it or is there another way that is less work? Deleting apps manually would take just as much work and I think my backup app already saved the updated app versions on it. My photos and videos are backed up through Google Photos. Regarding contacts, I believe they are also backed up with my phones backup app.
I am using a Xperia Z3 compact. And backup is part of the personal settings from this phone. It adds up to 3,3GB, yes, you are right. I didn't know it would take this much space and at the moment I honestly just want to have less space on my phone so I can start managing it correctly, also using the advice you gave me.

 

[nahoku]

How much memory did your phone come with? 16, 32Gb? How much memory do you have available? This backup you're talking about... do you know what it contains? Can it be refreshed and do you actually need this backup to be present in internal memory? Does your backup program have the ability to save the backup to your SD card instead of your phone memory? 3.3Gb certainly can't be just apps and app data... unless it possibly contains everything from day one, including apps/data you don't even have on your phone anymore. If you install DiskUsage, it might be able to show you what directories are using a lot of memory. It might even expand the backup to see what's in there. There was one user that had 6Gb of video trash in her tablet memory she didn't even know existed, so while DiskUsage isn't perfect, it can be very helpful.

The thing about factory reset is that it doesn't just get rid of your apps, but also all your phone customizations, accounts, setups, home page setups, wifi passwords, etc, etc. Basically, it takes a ton of work to get your phone back to how you might want it. In comparison to uninstalling and reinstalling apps, a factory reset takes a lot more work. However, the good thing about a factory reset is that it also get's rid of remnants left behind by apps and such and you can start all over and only install those apps you actually use nowadays. I don't own your phone, so I really have no knowledge if a factory reset will also get rid of this backup you're talking about, so I would look into it before considering the reset. Sadly, there is no "easy" way to clean up your phone.

By the way, if you go to Settings > Storage... how much Cached Data does it show? What about Misc Files? How big is it?

 

[Grace Afua Tamica]

Took a while to answer, but here I am.

My phone came with 16GB and I literally have only a couple 100MBs. I'm not sure what it contains, usually like contacts, email accounts, wifi networks, device settings and apps. I have no idea apart from that if I need it on internmal memory but I think currently it is stored on my SD card, when using DiskUsage I also have 3,3 GB on my internal storage. I really don't know what is and isn't needed anymore.

The cached and misc data I usually delete every now and then. I already read about it online. I just don't know what is eating all of this memory.

 

[Grace Afua Tamica]

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=OEdudmxZeTJzZy10RExwU3UzZmtYOUZ3cnoxLTNn

Here are the screenshot from diskusage and my phone's storage.

 

[nahoku]

Do you actually have 13 gigs of apps installed? Must be some app is storing data... massive data. You should go through your apps and try to find the culprit. Check all your social media apps first, and then check all the Google apps. Also, if you have videos, photos... stuff you can move to your SD, you should do that. Note, be sure to "copy" your data to the SD and NOT "move" them. You need to verify they have copied correctly before deleting them off your internal storage. Too many people simply move their stuff only to find out the move got corrupted in the process. Use the copy function.

Recently, there have been threads on the forum where Google Play Services has been doing some weird stuff with storing massive amounts of data. I'm not sure if this is the case with your phone, but something to keep in mind. THIS thread and THIS thread come to mind. Note that Google data may include synced data, so be careful about making sure you have a backup of all your data if you're going to follow what these treads recommend. I personally don't have this problem as I sync nothing.

A word about backup. I tend to back up everything of importance to my computer. I also backup all my apps and contacts. This is so if my phone crashes (for whatever reason) or my SD fails, I will always have my PC to fall back on for my data or to sideload my apps at a later time. Some people like cloud storage, but in many threads on the forum, (and there are MANY!), people lose their data simply because something went wrong with their email account. Thousands of photos lost, contacts, etc. I can't count how many people post about losing their data... and normally, they want to somehow recover that data too late after they've drop their phone! Backup, backup, backup!