What is the Miscellaneous file for?

[SkysLady]

Im trying to save as much memory as I can on my Samsung Galaxy Core Prime and I find that a large amount of memory is being used in the miscellaneous file. But the files inside aren't very descriptive (.chartboost, .mmscache, etc.), so I don't know if I can delete them. My question is, what are they and can they be deleted?

 

[nahoku]

Some things in that folder can be deleted without consequence. However, some of it is actually data. If you're not careful what you delete, then you could lose things. As an example, lets say you create a back up folder for some of your photos. That backup folder may show up in Misc files. If you delete that folder, you also delete the photos you saved in it. Android doesn't have a place for every single thing, so many times things get thrown in the Misc files. On my Note 4, all the S Notes data show up in Misc files. If I delete anything associated with S Notes, I delete all my S Notes data. Not a good thing!

I normally look at the size of the file to determine what I may delete. The smaller the file, the less likely it's data. However things that are small will not gain you much space at all, and they may get regenerated later anyways. I also look at the application name and if I know I don't need what might be stored, I feel safe in deleting it. For instance, I did some photo editing in TouchRetouch and now there's some data of about 3.6mb in the Misc files. I already copied the photo to another folder and renamed it, so I already know I don't need the data that TouchRetouch stored in the Misc files. I can safely delete it.

You're going to have to determine what and what you cannot delete in the Misc files. Not all phones have the same files shown, so many phones will show different stuff. I don't have chartboost, or mmscache, but I do have other things.

Lastly, some phones store OS related stuff in this folder. The size of the Misc folder can show gigs of data, but when you add everything up (what you can see), it doesn't add up at all. Bottom line... if it's small, then it's not even worth deleting (might get regenerated)... if it's large (in the megabytes), then it's probably data, so be careful about deleting it unless you know what it is.

 

[anon(8394188)]

Some things in that folder can be deleted without consequence. However, some of it is actually data. If you're not careful what you delete, then you could lose things. As an example, lets say you create a back up folder for some of your photos. That backup folder may show up in Misc files. If you delete that folder, you also delete the photos you saved in it. Android doesn't have a place for every single thing, so many times things get thrown in the Misc files. On my Note 4, all the S Notes data show up in Misc files. If I delete anything associated with S Notes, I delete all my S Notes data. Not a good thing!

I normally look at the size of the file to determine what I may delete. The smaller the file, the less likely it's data. However things that are small will not gain you much space at all, and they may get regenerated later anyways. I also look at the application name and if I know I don't need what might be stored, I feel safe in deleting it. For instance, I did some photo editing in TouchRetouch and now there's some data of about 3.6mb in the Misc files. I already copied the photo to another folder and renamed it, so I already know I don't need the data that TouchRetouch stored in the Misc files. I can safely delete it.

You're going to have to determine what and what you cannot delete in the Misc files. Not all phones have the same files shown, so many phones will show different stuff. I don't have chartboost, or mmscache, but I do have other things.

Lastly, some phones store OS related stuff in this folder. The size of the Misc folder can show gigs of data, but when you add everything up (what you can see), it doesn't add up at all. Bottom line... if it's small, then it's not even worth deleting (might get regenerated)... if it's large (in the megabytes), then it's probably data, so be careful about deleting it unless you know what it is.

I've never had any problems with removing all Miscellaneous items from Android.

 

[nahoku]

I've never had any problems with removing all Miscellaneous items from Android.

It all depends what's in there. Not all of it is trash on some phones.