running out of space, internal, help!

dianehelen

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I have a rooted sm-p600, 4.4.2 16gb

I have all these useless google and samsung and other apps that are taking up too much internal space. I have moved all the apps I can to extSD. All docs, video & pics are in the extSD.

BUT, I still i'm hitting an impass with my internal storage at 11.4gb., which include system stuff.

How can I get rid of stuff like Polaris, business week, trip advisor, ny times, and others to give me space to download again. Also, some apps that do let me move to sd card, wont work if I do, and had to move them back.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Diane
 

Rukbat

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Uninstall the apps you don't want. (I'd back them up - use App Backup & Restore - just in case you ever change your mind. Keep the backup in a cloud account, a PC or both.) If an app was pre-installed, you'll probably have to root the phone to uninstall it.

Most apps won't run from the SD card, which is why some won't allow you to move them. (The developer is good enough to test the app, and if it doesn't run, he turns off the ability to move it to the SD card.) NO widgets will run from the SD card. And even if you do move an app, it's not like it's installed on the SD card. Pieces of the app are moved to the card and links to those pieces are left in internal storage (because that's where Android looks for them). If the pieces are small enough, the links are larger than the pieces being moved, and moving the app to the SD card leaves you with less free space than before.

Also, unlike eMMC memory (which is what internal storage is), SD memory isn't meant to be written to constantly. So the trick of rooting the phone, then remounting internal and external storage as each other (so if you have a 64GB card, you have 64GB of "internal" storage) shortens the life of the card (because apps keep their date where they run from, and an Android app is responsible for keeping its current state stored at all times. (Android can kill an app if it needs the space to run another app. Then when you close the second one, it runs the one it killed, telling it not to start from the beginning, but from where it left off. Good for speed and space, bad for SD cards.)
 

dianehelen

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So, basically you are all saying , Im screwed? NO way to remove pre installed apps, that do not give you the option to remove?

Polaris, Newsweek, Trip Advisor, etc?
 

Bosbouer

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If you are still rooted, use Titanium to backup to cloud the apps you want to Uninstall then go ahead and Uninstall the system apps. If you run into issues you can Re install from cloud
 

dianehelen

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If you are still rooted, use Titanium to backup to cloud the apps you want to Uninstall then go ahead and Uninstall the system apps. If you run into issues you can Re install from cloud


Ya, but how can I unistall those items? There is no option. It's just uninstall updates.


Ok duhhh, just grabbed an app remover app for rooted devices. got rid of a few of the ones I have no need for.
 
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Bosbouer

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Titanium lets you have a go at almost everything (if not all) on the device.

Glad you were able to free up some space.
 

Gary_Berg

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If you uninstall updates and then disable them you will free up storage used by the updates, which are the full most recent versions of the apps. The original versions are baked into the firmware and can't be removed to recover storage.

You can go into the storage menu in Settings and look at how much storage is being used by apps , photos, etc.
 

Bosbouer

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If you uninstall updates and then disable them you will free up storage used by the updates, which are the full most recent versions of the apps. The original versions are baked into the firmware and can't be removed to recover storage.
.

Rooted (as Diane is) and using a decent app manager tool, you can totally Uninstall baked in apps. Proceed with caution though.
 

Moshe Barash

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Little clarification here: pre-installed apps do not take up any space that the user can touch. On android there are separate partitions for system apps and user apps. However the data of system apps will take up space, so all you need to do is clear the app data and disable the app if you want. You may also want to clear the dalvik cache to free up space, to do this reboot to the recovery mode (power off the device and then hold down the power key, volume up key, and the home button simultaneously until you see a line ripple through the screen), once you're in the recovery mode use the volume buttons to scroll to the option to wipe the dalvik cache, press the power button to select it, reboot the system when it's finished.
 

dianehelen

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So, still battling this. I cleared the dalvik cache, removed as many apps as possible, but still at 11.28gb used of 11.77 available.

Do widgets take up storage , and if so how can they be deleted?

I am puzzled how my gs4 phone has all the same apps I use on the Note, but have about 3gigs available

Seems something is hogging my space that I'm not seeing.
 

dianehelen

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Install DiskUsage to find out what's taking up space. Now whether you can do anything about it, who knows.


O.M.F.G !!!

Thank you thank you thank you.

Took me a few moments to see how that app reads, but WOW once I did.

The culprit was from an app called Mega Cast, that does on the fly encoding any video format to be able to chromecast it to the tv.

Its a nice app, but very sloppy programming, that leaves the pieces of every video it reads. It was hogging freaking 6gb of my internal storage.

If you use that app, periodically check your android > data > com.mega.cast >files

Thank you so much for suggesting this useful app that led me to where nothing else has

Whoohoo I can reload some apps.
:)
 
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