Cache wipe

[Codger1212]

So I had a bit of a close call decided to do a cache wipe after the Lolipop update. Everything ran pretty good before the Cache wipe but there were a few small glitches so I figured I'd do it. I followed all the steps and the screen said clearing cache so I waited. About a half hour later I come back to the phone and it is black so I think it's done. Then the android guy on his back starts flashing on the screen(no command) He only pops up for less than half a second. I know the step after wipe cache was to reboot device which I could not do. I held power and volume up for 3 seconds and it restarted. Whew, that was close. Seems to be ok but not sure what happened.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Einsteindks]

Maybe having the update program waiting in the wings, behind the scene, had an odd influence on the way your Turbo did the usual auto-restart at the end of the wipe?

 

[Codger1212]

Not sure, gave lollipop 3 days to work itself in before the wipe.

 

[hannsoft]

Re: Cache wipe Oddities post 5.1 update

So I had a bit of a close call decided to do a cache wipe after the Lolipop update. Everything ran pretty good before the Cache wipe but there were a few small glitches so I figured I'd do it. I followed all the steps and the screen said clearing cache so I waited. About a half hour later I come back to the phone and it is black so I think it's done. Then the android guy on his back starts flashing on the screen(no command) He only pops up for less than half a second. I know the step after wipe cache was to reboot device which I could not do. I held power and volume up for 3 seconds and it restarted. Whew, that was close. Seems to be ok but not sure what happened.

Posted via the Android Central App

YES! I have had this same exact thing happen to me a number of times now, including just this morning, and this morning I thought I was "done for" - the phone just would not come back to life.

Basically it's just as Codger1212 says. You set up a cache wipe, walk away from the phone, and then come back and the screen is black. Watch it closely and you'll see faint flashes of the Android fella with the "no command" verbage right below him. The phone will not respond to any attempts to revive it (in my panic at the moment, I don't have much memory of the things that I tried that didn't work ;-) ).

What did eventually work was I held down the down-volume and power button and got back to the bootloader menu. I chose the restart button and the phone went back to the Android dude flashes. I tried again and this time, using the volume button, I cycled around the different bootloader choices (Restart, recovery, factory, etc), hoping to see a choice there that might make sense to try. After circulating around all of them I came back to restart and THAT time it worked - the phone rebooted normally. I don't know if it was the circulating around the bootloader menus or the TIME it took to do that and read the little text verbage on each one ... but I suspect it was the latter.

Anybody have anything similar happen?

 

[Davidoo]

With KK when I did a cache wipe the Turbo automatically rebooted once the wipe was done, so you could start the wipe and walk away. Now with L the sequence has changed as once the wipe is finished it takes you back to the recovery screen where you have to select the restart option. I think that screen only sits there waiting for you so long then eventually turns off or goes to sleep to avoid a complete battery rundown while waiting for your decision on what to do next. What I do now is keep it in front of me when I do the wipe such as at my desk at work or on the table in front of me while watching TV.

 

[DatabaseMX]

How long do these wipes typically take ... all things being equal ?

 

[hannsoft]

With KK when I did a cache wipe the Turbo automatically rebooted once the wipe was done, so you could start the wipe and walk away. Now with L the sequence has changed as once the wipe is finished it takes you back to the recovery screen where you have to select the restart option. I think that screen only sits there waiting for you so long then eventually turns off or goes to sleep to avoid a complete battery rundown while waiting for your decision on what to do next. What I do now is keep it in front of me when I do the wipe such as at my desk at work or on the table in front of me while watching TV.

I think you're right. These instances have all been when the phone could have been standing idle for a good number of minutes, yet it's never happened to me when I've done the wipe while near the phone. I did suspect that maybe what we had was a sleep mode situation, so I hit the power button thinking that, if the phone asleep and positioned at the "restart" item on the menu, that hitting the button would be tantamount to selecting Restart and off we'd go. Baaantt. Incorrect answer.

A bit of a bummer if it ends up that a cache wipe has to be watched, though. I've been having great results pre-5.1 with setting up the cache wipe before jumping into the shower each morning, coming out and having a fully charged and clean phone with which to start out the day.

 

[hannsoft]

How long do these wipes typically take ... all things being equal ?

In my experience, when you do them frequently, no more than 10 minutes or so. Longer, I think, if it's been a while since the last one.

 

[jesta192]

Wow, I don't believe it is helpful to wipe the cache daily... From my understanding, wiping the cache means that Android will just rebuild it as soon as you boot the phone up. Theoretically this rebuilding could slow down the phone, so your wipe may actually have the opposite effect! It would be somewhat like uninstalling all the Windows Updates on your desktop each morning, and then waiting for them to redownload and reinstall in the background.

I have wiped the cache on my Turbo probably once or twice since release day (excluding automatic wipes by the couple of system updates). For me it's just not necessary.

 

[88horizon5speed]

I just did my first cache wipe since buying the phone in November and it took only 7-10 minutes. I did the wipe finally because my battery has been as good as my gnex was...which is pretty terrible. Kit kat was amazing with 2-3 days. Yesterday was only 16 hours with 2.5 SOT

 

[hannsoft]

Wow, I don't believe it is helpful to wipe the cache daily... From my understanding, wiping the cache means that Android will just rebuild it as soon as you boot the phone up. Theoretically this rebuilding could slow down the phone, so your wipe may actually have the opposite effect! It would be somewhat like uninstalling all the Windows Updates on your desktop each morning, and then waiting for them to redownload and reinstall in the background.

I have wiped the cache on my Turbo probably once or twice since release day (excluding automatic wipes by the couple of system updates). For me it's just not necessary.

My understanding is that the cache contains data that the OS needs only temporarily. During the wiping process, that area is reformatted, but it isn't instantly filled with usable data.

In any event, I don't mean to recommend that everyone wipe it daily. I simply like to because it has worked well into my routine, and I feel like I'll prevent certain types of issues from ever becoming a problem for me.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Crashdamage]

More and more I see people recommending cache wipes as a fix for almost everything. And not only wipe but on a regular schedule, even daily. This is just wrong. Cache files do not require regular maintenance and should be left alone. I never mess with cache files, never give them a thought. All our devices run fine.

Cache files are there for a reason. Cache files rebuild anyway when the associated apps are used, so it's usually a waste of CPU cycles and power to clear caches.

But there are exceptions, rare exceptions. If an app is struggling it might help. Or another exception is after a major system update like Lollipop if the device is acting funky clearing all caches so they can rebuild sometimes straightens it out. Unfortunately, this seems to have started the cache partition cleaning craze.

Basically, f it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[doogald]

The cache partition doesn't store application caches in almost every case - those caches are in the data partition. The cache partition holds log files for the OS, some temp files, the OTA updates are downloaded to cache, and occasionally there will be third party app that the OS will store some temp data to the cache partition.

It's rather benign to wipe it, it does sometimes help (particularly if you have had crashing issues, where the android OS itself crashes and restarts), but I do agree it's generally not helpful to wipe all that often. I certainly have seen no controlled study that showed that wiping the cache partition regularly helps with performance/battery life.