[Android Central Question]

I've only had my phone for about 3 months and I get this message that will not go away. I took it to an AT&T store and even they haven't seen it before. I have 32G of storage remaining. The message also reads "Too many files have been created on your phone. Apps may stop working correctly and your phone may no longer start up. Back up any important data and factory reset your phone."

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! That sounds odd. According to this comparison, FAT32 (which is how most SD cards are formatted) can handle over 4 million discrete files on a volume, while exFAT (which is how Internal Storage of a phone is formatted) can handle virtually unlimited files. NTFS.com. NTFS vs FAT vs exFAT

Which phone do you have? Is this message appearing in your notification panel, or is it a popup window in the middle of the screen?

[dw2680]

I have a Samsung Note 8 and the message is appearing in the notification bar.

[B. Diddy]

Swipe down the notification panel and long-press the notification, then tap App Info. Which app is giving you the notification?

[Android Central Question]

I am one of a bunch of people using the Samsung Note 8. It appears we are all, at some point, getting a File System Limit warning notification and then the device packs in a few days later, never to wake again.
The warning is of Android System origin.
Any ideas as to the cause? And can it be cleared without a factory reset?

[Neelesh Rupear]

Guys , i guess i have a solution for that . I am using a Samsung J7 prime(non rooted) and i had the "File System Limit" as well. I tried cleaning cache and so on but that didn't work along. What i tried to do is that , i have clicked the notification message for some second and it hasd open the settings of the (Android System) and then i clicked (force Stop) , the message (File System limit) had disappear and then my phone work properly. In my opinion i guess that's a bug in the system and its a common one.

[Rukbat]

Thanks for the fix, Neelesh - and thank you, Samsung, for causing the problem.

[Adryanss]

Hello folks.
I've started experiencing this issue 3 days ago.
Same message appeared, but on my case, the phone hangs and freezes every now and then, no pictures appear on gallery, apps crash every now and then, fingerprint reader sometimes stops to work, and so on.
I thought maybe there was not enough space on memory, so I freed up 9GB on internal memory and 5GB on external. No difference.
I tried safe mode, but it keeps giving same problem. Most times, even play store does not works.
Last night, after doing the tip above (forcing restart on android service), the message disappeared and the phone got better, much better.
Until this morning, when wifi won't turn on. I then restarted my phone, wifi was normal again but fingerprint didn't work. When opened whatsapp, messages were corrupted and i had to restore backup from yesterday. It took ages, as the phone kept on freezing.
And now the message of "File system limit" is there again.

What can I do? I really dont want to factory reset the phone, as i have lots of settings on my apps, and putting everything on place will be a huge PITA.

[Rukbat]

Something tells me it's going to take more than a factory reset - you'll have to reflash the ROM. Then restore everything you backed up.

[Adryanss]

There was an update of 25mb that was installed some days before the problem started. I think security patch. Could it be the cause? Is it possible to remove this update without reflashing?

I just remeber that many months ago, for no reason the phone restarted on its own, and did a factory reset. I remeber there was a message telling that there was a major software issue and that's why the phone was factory reset. At that time, i had just a few apps and lots of free space, as I was still using other phone for most things.

After that, everything worked fine, and never had other issues, aside of my 4G connection being extremely slow.

whe using 3G, i have a good speed (up to 10Mbps), wich is good for my location. when going to 4G, even a message on whats will take some minutes to send. and speed tests will fail with 0.05-0.01Mbps.
I could figure this out, so I just use 3G, but maybe it's related?

[Adryanss]

I gave up of trying to fix it, so i need to backup and reset.
but I can't make Samsung Cloud work, it says there is error.
Helium also fails on most of apps, and smart switch says there is no app data to backup. Kies cannot connect to my phone, and smart switch on computer keeps asking me to download its app on google play on my phone, even it is there and works.

Anyone can help me on making backup of my apps and settings?

[Alluvial]

I just created an account on this forum just to reply to this same issue. I'm getting it also. About a month ago I got this error for the first time. I did some research online and only found like 2-3 threads on it on the entire internet, so I figured it must not be a common issue. I tried several different things, but the problem wouldn't go away, so I decided just to format/reinstall (samsung cloud backed up most of my settings and stuff, which was great). Its been about 3-4 weeks and now the same error is back again! SO does this mean I have to format/reinstall my phone every month? This seems a bit ridiculous.

Things I've tried:

• I tried formatting my SD card to exFAT, this did not help
• I tried removing some unused apps, deleting pictures/videos, etc.
• I tried formatting/reinstalling, this delayed the problem which
  eventually came back in a matter of weeks
• I tried "force stop" the android system process, this helped for awhile, but the problem eventually returned.

A bit frustrated that this problem isn't common and there seems to be no real fix for it. Is this a way for them to get us to buy a better phone? My phone was around $100 I got it like 2 years ago, Samsung J3 Duos, not top of the line by any means, but it should work. Might have to buy a new phone if I can't solve this problem soon as I see no other easy fix solution.

[joestriker]

Hello guys,

I also opened an account on this forum because i've been experiencing the same issue.

It happened for the first time about 2 months ago, where the phone was getting this Android system notifications "Too many files ecc ecc.." and my phone got slower and slower, basically unusable and i had to perform a factory reset and i thought that would be enough.

I was wrong.

Here we go again, today i'm starting getting the same notification again so i'm not sure on what to do next if the factory reset didn't fix the issue?

Is this a hardware issue?

The phone is a Samsung S7 Edge.

If anybody has any recommendation i would gladly appreciate.

[Pyralog]

Hello folks,

I had the same issue and somehow I was able to get rid of it- not sure if I solve it only temporally or it is pernament fix, so it would be great if someone with this problem can test it and we will see.


First time I saw this error like 2-3 weeks ago - I was like "OK, lets put phone to factory setting, it is good to do it after some time anyway". But this solved issue only for reeealy short time. It came back - and stronger then ever - my phone (Samsung J7) was lagging, I had to even remove battery to force-restart phone few times whet it gets stuck.

Deleting most of my apps, bloatware things or cleaning the phone with the tool in setting din't help. So before the final step - to reinstall phone again - I tried to search for updates in Settings - software update - Download updates manually (or something like that, my interface is not in english).

And after that, the message dissapear and phone was working again - even if there was no update avaiable.

IDK if it is real solution or some kind of magic, but I want to share my findings anyway.

[joestriker]

it says the update i have installed is the last one available

[gamermaniac55]

So I try doing the solution that Neelesh suggested, but i can't find a force stop option? Maybe i'm blind idk. I'm having the same issue though and it's driving me nuts

[landless83]

i have Samsung j7 prime and want to share my findings . i tried every solutions here in this post . none of them worked . or it worked just for a few hours . i hopelessly tried a solution which has been worked for me and my phone has been stable for this two days and it still works. maybe this works for you too : i installed Clean Master app and did all it suggest me to do for boosting my phone . including removing junk files ... boosting ram ..battery and ... . if anyone tried this solution please keep me informed about results.

[Jim Agnew]

Had the same issue with my Samsung S7 with android7, with random app crashes, email not syncing etc. Did a factory default but after a month the symtoms returned so started researching the issue. My internal storage was 90% full (29GB / 32GB) even though i have not many apps installed (90 total). I have all my media like photos videos and music on a sd card. File managers apps dont allow you to view all the folders (unless you root your device - but mine is still under warranty so no option).
I did find the culprit apps however - ping tools was using 3 GB of data storage. When clearing it (under settings - apps) it took over a minute to complete. You can also sort the apps by size, had also a game assistant app (wtr assistant) using 11GB storage. After clearing and removing these apps my s7 became stable. Wish there was a way to view all folder data without rooting the device, as it would make troubleshooting these sorts of issues so much easier. Just my 2 cents worth after 25 years of sys admin work.

[gamermaniac55]

@landless83 I'll be giving that a shot. I'll try to post in the next couple of days how it goes

[gamermaniac55]

It worked temporarily but now I'm forced to factory reset for the 4th time this month

[Jim Agnew]

Hi gamermaniac55
The root cause of the error (at least on my samsung s7) is an app generating lots of files..they can be small files but if there are too many then youll see the message :Too many files have been created on your phone.
Check under settings - apps - all apps - sort by size
Note it can take a minute before the sizes are calculated for all apps.
Any app with more than 500 MB ..or apps where storage is growing daily could be causing the issue.
I can confirm since doing clear data under storage for the biggest size apps has SOLVED this issue now for good. Good luck

[gamermaniac55]

I clear the cache and data of my apps on the daily and it still gets it after about a week :/ i even tried installing the clean master app and using it twice a day and nothing. I'll give it another go and update you guys with what happens

[B. Diddy]

Oh dear God, uninstall Clean Master right now, and anything else from Cheetah. The latest in that company's long history of shadiness: https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/1...-fraud-scheme/

[Jim Agnew]

Well I've got news for you regarding clean master for all those with Samsung galaxy

[Jim Agnew]

Clean master is intergrated in the samsung android 7 OS!! Check under settings-- device maintenance-- storage. Check out the link below:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/com...ses_for_their/