Difference between phone storage and available free app storage?

[AC Question]

When connected to my laptop as a media device, my available internal memory reads 49.6 MB. However, under Settings > Storage, my phone storage's available space reads 59.6 MB. And under Apps in my settings, my free internal storage reads 261 MB?

I've cleared all the caches from the apps, made sure I've moved the ones I can to my SD card, cleared my photos and videos, rebooted, etc. I can't update or install any app at all. Any help at all would be really appreciated.

I use a BLU Studio 5.0 C HD, Android version 4.4.2.

 

[Crashdamage]

261MB free is not much. The OS must reserve some space for normal operation, writing temp files, stuff like that. If it gets too low on free space it will become unstable or crash altogether. On most devices the reserve is around 200-300MB, so you're right around the limit.

Install this simple little app called Storage Truth. It's very small and will install in very limited space. It will tell you how much space you actually have left for installing apps:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...pps/details?id=sa.storagetruth&token=kqh1Eu9J

To make space you can:

Delete texts or emails. If you have a lot saved on the phone, this can help.
Delete or move photos, videos, documents, etc.
Uninstall app updates. Uninstall apps. Clear cache files. However, this will only make space temporarily as cache files will rebuild over time. Also, while clearing cache files won't hurt anything, they're there to speed up operation and should be left alone.

If you can't move any more stuff to a SD card, move them to your computer or cloud storage.