I keep getting down under 50mb left for internal storage space even though I've moved all my large apps to the SD card. I don't have tons of apps on my phone to begin with. I get the feeling that there must be a lot of stray installation files or other unneeded files stranded on the internal storage. Is there some way to get in there to see what's taking up the space and delete any offenders? I haven't found a file explorer that will look at anything not on the SD card. Or is there an app that scans for space taking unused files? Thanks.
how to manage files taking up space on phone?
- Thread starter jk175d
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ratsttam
Well-known member
Not all apps can be moved to SD card, and the ones that can be moved, have to leave a fair chunk behind. Most of the moveable ones, only move the sound, video, graphics resources, and the actual program stays behind on internal memory. I would say try to move everything you can, and once that's done, figure out which apps you don't really use all that often.
For some reason even things like SMS and call logs can take up a good chunk of space.
For some reason even things like SMS and call logs can take up a good chunk of space.
I use Norton Mobile Utilities and found out that the worst culprit for hogging space is Google Currents. I had to uninstall and reinstall weekly and finally just stopped using it after it starting taking 50mb of space after the last update. Crazy for an app moved to an SD card. Sneaky app that started small but explodes after each successive update.
is it possible that there are stranded update or installation files taking up sapce? Is there not a way to explore the files in internal storage?
ratsttam
Well-known member
No... and Yes.
Basically to browse anything besides the SD card, you're looking at being rooted, and using a program like root explorer, or ES File Explorer. Good idea to backup anything you touch from internal memory, it can be a dangerous place if you remove something important.
I'm rooted and have ES File Explorer but it only shows me contents of SD card. how do I use it to view internal storage?
ratsttam
Well-known member
From your list of folders, hit menu, settings, about half way down is a checkmark for "Up to Root". It'll ask for SuperUser permission at that point. Go back out to your folders, and browse your whole phone
It's off be default so prevent issues with non-rooted devices.
From your list of folders, hit menu, settings, about half way down is a checkmark for "Up to Root". It'll ask for SuperUser permission at that point. Go back out to your folders, and browse your whole phone
It's off be default so prevent issues with non-rooted devices.
thanks, that helps. I see that there are tones of files taking up quite a bit of space in the dalvik-cache folder. I know that clearing the dalvik-cahe is an option in clockwork, but I don't actually know what the dalvik-cache is and whether it would be a terrible idea to clear it out.
ratsttam
Well-known member
The Dalvik cache is just that, a cache to make things faster. Clearing it out may make the next reboot take a couple minutes longer, but if you've got a massive amount of space used in it, that'll be a small price to pay for a little spring cleaning.
WTF?!?! I cleared the dalvik in CWM but there was no change in free space. about 57MB before and after clearing and rebooting. So next I checked the folder in ES File Explorer and there were 140MB of files in there. Just deleted all those through ES File Explorer and before rebooting checked the storage and it showed 139MB free. so I rebooted and now suddenly have only 7MB free! WTF happened? I know that the needed files in Davlik are repopulated. I would have expected some not to be regenerated as I've uninstalled a lot of apps over the months. ES File Explore says there are 142MB of files in the folder now. So what is accounting for the loss of nearly 50MB of space??
ratsttam
Well-known member
Well, ya got me on that one. I've never really ran low on space like you are. At this point, I would recommend to backup your stuff, and restart from scratch.
Make a nandroid in CWM. Flash stock through odin, with the mapping file and repartition checked. It sounds like corrupted partition readings. Once your on a clean flash, verify internal space, reflash your rom, then boot to recovery and advance restore data only as your last step. See if this fixes your internal space glitches.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2
rather than going quite that far I just did a full data wipe and reflashed the rom. I also deleted everything off the SD card except the folders holding media and backups from titanium.
Booted up, reinstalled all my apps, now I have 100MB free instead of just 50.
Still don't know what was gonig on, but it's all good now. It's good to clean house once in a while I guess.
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