storage issues, miscellaneous files are huge

[AC Question]

Hi, hope this is a duplicate question and has already been answered.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 for which I paid a lot (this is a pricey gadget). And today it complained about not having sufficient memory left for sms or pretty much anything else. I have a 64gb SD card and all my music and image files are on it.

What seems to be taking all the credit here is the "miscellaneous files" section, its about 7.8Gb in size and when I tap it to see the details I only see a few items there totalling less than 300Mb.

What's happening there? how can I release more space?

Model Number: SM-G900M
Android Version: 4.4.2

Thanks in advance

 

[LeoRex]

Your app data..... apps store and cache and keep around all sorts of crap.

I find that I have the best luck tracking down space issues with something this: DiskUsage

It gives you a visual representation of what's taking up all that space... and root is only required if you want to look at, well, the root directory.

You'd be surprised.... If you have a lot of pics, Photos can cache 600 to 700mb.... I have a huge library in Play Music, and that puppy takes up like 500mb (and that is WITHOUT local caching... I assume it's album art).

 

[Miramos]

I'm having the same issue. My apps (all 32 of them not including bloatware) take up approx. 8 GB of space. The miscellaneous files are hogging up about 5.6 GB of space. When looking at it though it only adds up to about 360 Mb. What gives? I have transferred all photos to pc. Any apps that could be moved have been moved to SD yet the apps + miscellaneous file take up over 13GB total I find myself constantly trying to clean up apps and junk take up space. Unfortunately we don't have the option to uninstall forced apps. I tried updating the apps that I have and it is telling me I don't have enough space. UGhhhh. Frustrating!

Anyone have an idea of why misc. files are eating up so much space or how to clean it out?

 

[Taline Petrousian]

I had this issue and deleted almost every app, picture, or video but nothing helped until I actually went to My Files -> Android -> Data and selected all from that Data folder and deleted. I have had no issues with any of my apps and that out of space error is not showing anymore.

Note: I was so frustrated that I didn't care about deleting everything in that folder, because my next step was to format my phone to its original setting and erase everything. But thankfully that delete all didn't break anything on my phone, but you can review those files if you want before deleting.

 

[Rukbat]

1) Deleting everything in the /data folder, if the phone isn't rooted, deleted something invisible, because the folder should have seemed to be empty.

2) If you use Disk Usage, be prepared to replace your eyes. The app is great, don't get me wrong, but you'll be spending hours staring at the screen if you want to see everything that's in there. It's like clicking links in Wikipedia - you can get lost for week.