[verdinoldboy]

hi - bought a new 5" generic android a a spare phone - it was cheap but hey. Anyhow when trying to load apps I get the dreaded 'insufficient memory' tried all the simple things like emptying cache removing some useless apps etc. Storage shows nearly 32Gb free (phone should have 4Gb +32Gb). Anyhow connecting to my laptop I see a problem. The device appears as 2 removable drives - when I turn on usb storage on the phone I am able to open one drive which contains all the android files but is only 38MB (35 free). the other drive still shows as a removable drive with 0 MB free of OMB. When I try to open the drive I am just told to insert a disc into the drive.? The supplier has offered to refund the cost but before I toss the phone into the bin is there anything I can do to get access to the 32 Gb which is presumably the size of the removable drive I cannot access - what about formatting it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated

thanks

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

The 32 GB is the microSD slot, while the 4 GB is the internal storage. Apps, in most cases, can only be installed to internal storage and those that can be installed to removable storage still require some internal storage for parts of the app. I would accept their offer of a refund and buy a device with a MINIMUM of 32 GB internal storage.

[verdinoldboy]

good answer - thanks for that. Question - why when I go into 'storage' on the phone does it highlight phone storage and states no sd card inserted then lists all the things installed (which only adds up to around 2.4mb ) and shows 32 gb available ?
Also even if there is only 4gb phone memory why does it not appear when I connect via usb to the laptop ??

As a second phone 4 gb would be ok - my main mobile does have 32gb + another 32 gb micro sd. So 4gb would just about do it but 35mb certainly wont. Do you think the phone is faulty anyhow?
thanks

[verdinoldboy]

hi - have new android mobile running android 5.1. Supposedly has 4gb internal memory and 32gb external when sd card inserted.
When I check 'storage' in the phone menu it shows around 5 mb used and 32 gb available which is odd as I dont have an sd card inserted.
When i connect the mobile to a laptop under usb storage it appears initially as two removable drives neither of which i can access (just tells me to insert a disc). When i then turn on usb storage one drive is named as L-ELEMENT 550 and I am able to look at the files. The other remains as a removable drive still inaccessible. The accessible drive is only 37.8mb in size with 33 mb available which ties in with the amount of memory used under the storage menu in the phone.
Question
why does the internal memory show as 2 drives when connected to a laptop? why is the drive with the android files only 37.8 mb?
where is the 4gb?
why cant i access the other drive? thanks

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I merged your duplicate threads.

If your phone is advertised as having 4 GB of internal storage, that means you'll only have around 1 GB or less of free storage that you can use, since about 3 GB will be taken up by the OS and any bloatware.

When you connect to your laptop, swipe down the notification panel and tap the USB icon. Do you see USB Mass Storage, or only MTP/File Transfer?

It may be helpful to see screenshots of your Settings>Storage menu: http://forums.androidcentral.com/gen...d-central.html

[verdinoldboy]

hi thanks for the info. Have taken a few screenshots (ran out of memory even taking screenshots) here they are



the 3 screenshots show what the phone says I have in terms of memory (32GB!!) and what the options are for usb connection
the next screenshot is from my laptop showing the 2 drives associated with my phone - L-EMENT 550 I can open and list the files but as you see its really small 38mb nowhere near 1GB the second drive E: i cannot open.

thanks

[B. Diddy]

Something is a bit weird there. USB Mass Storage is a pretty outdated option, used more for older devices that partitioned Internal Storage into a smaller App Installation area and a larger "internal SD" that acted like a removable SD card. For example, my old Razr Maxx's 16 GB of Internal Storage was divided into a 3 GB App Installation partition and a 13 GB internal SD partition. I could only install up to 3 GB of apps (maybe a bit more if I used the Move to SD feature -- which would move a portion of an app to the internal SD, not the physically removable external SD card). The USB Mass Storage connection option would unmount the internal SD partition from the phone and mount it as an external drive to the PC -- what this meant was that while that partition was mounted to the PC, it was not accessible at all on the phone.

That screenshot says "XP recommended" -- if you're running a PC with a more recent Windows version (and you really should -- XP is completely out of date, no longer supported by Microsoft, and very vulnerable to malware/cyberattacks), you should use MTP. It might explain why you're only seeing a 38 MB partition when connecting to the PC. When you're connected via MTP, you should still be able to see all user directories (but not any system directories), and they should remain accessible on the phone as well while connected.

From what I can see about the L-EMENT 550, it only comes with 4 GB of internal storage. Therefore, the 32 GB of Phone Storage that the menu is referring to must be the SD card, and that would only be usable for data like media files and documents -- not for direct installation of apps. If the phone supports the Move to SD feature (in Settings>Apps), you could also move a portion of an app to the SD card (but not the whole thing). Since the phone is on Lollipop, it wouldn't support Adoptable Storage, which is where you can format an SD card to become part of Internal Storage.

[verdinoldboy]

hi - thanks for the info. I am using windows 7 on the laptop. I did try using the MTP setting see screenshots from the laptop below - little difference, I can see and open the file but still only a few mb of storage. I dont like to admit defeat but I think the phone is destined for the trash!!


Anyhow thanks again