Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (US-version) — What is using the storage space on my phone

JGT1942

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I have a Note 8 that has 64GB of storage on the phone and 128 GB on an SD card. Of the main storage, I'm using 58GB of the available 64 and on the SD card, I'm using 15 GB of the 128GB.
I've moved my pictures and audiobooks to the SD card. What else could I move to the SD card to free up space on the Main storage?

On the phone, I use "File Manager +" to view and manage files. When I view the contents of the main storage I don't see anything that seems to be big. What should I be looking for? How do I do it?

I currently have the phone connected to my PC via USB cable. Using the file manager on my PC I can see the contents of the phone storage and SD storage. On the PC I'm also running TreeSize and it reports that the SD card is a total of 119GB and 13.9 GB is used. The main storage is 53GB and 47GB is used. I realize that the numbers may be different than what the Android app shows but I was just using the Windows App to see what it would tell me. TreeSize "should" show me the size of each folder but here it seems to have an issue and possibly does not report things correctly or possibly I'm doing something wrong. It reports that on 4.1GB of main storage is used in the main display but if I right-click on "Phone" (this is the main storage) and then select properties it shows that 47GB is used. Highly likely we have a user error here.
 

L0n3N1nja

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I might be mistaken but I don't think a windows PC can see everything that's on a phone when you plug it in.

Your best bet to get a good idea of what's using your phone storage is to go into the settings on your phone, go to device care, and select storage. It breaks it down by what type of files are using the storage. Once you know that it's a lot easier to figure out if you have data you can move to the SD card.

Some apps build up a lot of data and cache information over time that isn't really needed either.
 

JGT1942

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Try a app like this to see if anything else taking up storage, apps like telegram kik,social media can fill it up.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage

I just installed DiskUsage, possibly I just don't know how to use it, but it does show that the phone storage usage is 52.9 GB, to the right of that I think it breaks down the 52.9 GB and I see Media 4.52 GB, System data 42.7 GB and free space 5.65 GB. I don't see how to have it expand "System Data" Back in "File Manager +" it has a function to analyze a folder and report the number of items and the total size but it does not seem to see the "System Data" (possibly this is hidden, I'm just guessing).

When I looked for DiskUsage in the play store I see a bunch of apps that may give me more info.
 

mustang7757

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I just installed DiskUsage, possibly I just don't know how to use it, but it does show that the phone storage usage is 52.9 GB, to the right of that I think it breaks down the 52.9 GB and I see Media 4.52 GB, System data 42.7 GB and free space 5.65 GB. I don't see how to have it expand "System Data" Back in "File Manager +" it has a function to analyze a folder and report the number of items and the total size but it does not seem to see the "System Data" (possibly this is hidden, I'm just guessing).

When I looked for DiskUsage in the play store I see a bunch of apps that may give me more info.
Can u give a screenshot, been a while since i used that app
 

B. Diddy

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Some messaging and social media apps can generate huge amounts of cached data, so see how much cache and data those kinds of apps are taking up.
 

MNMobileGuy

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Some messaging and social media apps can generate huge amounts of cached data, so see how much cache and data those kinds of apps are taking up.
Yep, go to Settings-->Apps and pull up the full list of all apps on the phone (sort by size if possible). There are many apps that can balloon to over 1 GB in size, due to all the cached data they store. Tap on any large apps that you see and tap Clear Cache
 

JGT1942

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I might be mistaken but I don't think a windows PC can see everything that's on a phone when you plug it in.

Your best bet to get a good idea of what's using your phone storage is to go into the settings on your phone, go to device care, and select storage. It breaks it down by what type of files are using the storage. Once you know that it's a lot easier to figure out if you have data you can move to the SD card.

Some apps build up a lot of data and cache information over time that isn't really needed either.

I think you are correct in that via the PC you cannot see everything on the Phone.

On YouTube I just found "Galaxy Note 8 Move Apps To SD Card", see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_PxzNobGLA, tomorrow I will see what I can move. I have a LARGE number of apps installed and possibly I can move the hogs to the SD card. I just discovered that I cannot increase the internal storage but I could get a larger SD card but currently the SD card is not my issue at this time. When I go to Settings > Storage I see that Apps is using 34 GB. The other things being reported are very small and still, about 20 GB is not reported for the Phone storage.

I just found a setting that might help >>>> Developer options > force allow apps on external (this is very near the bottom of a LONG list of settings. This setting "Make any app eligible to be written to external storage, regardless of manifest values." whatever that means. I turned it on and so far I'm able to move apps I tested from the Phone storage to the SD card, see the YouTube video for details.

Moving the apps from the Phone storage to the SD is going to take a long time. Hopefully, I can find some way to quickly determine how much space an app is using and just move the hogs.

HAAA, when viewing Settings > Apps, If I click on the hamburger in the upper right corner I can sort on size.

I moved about 20 apps and the amount of Phone storage decreased from 90% used to 83% used. I was expecting a better return, possibly when I sorted on size, the size is NOT the total storage used. This is WAY above my skill set. I'll try more tomorrow. BTW when I sorted on size and move something and returned to the Apps screen sometimes the order changed. I have NO idea why thus I may resort on name just so I can more effectively work down the list.
 

MNMobileGuy

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HAAA, when viewing Settings > Apps, If I click on the hamburger in the upper right corner I can sort on size.

I moved about 20 apps and the amount of Phone storage decreased from 90% used to 83% used. I was expecting a better return, possibly when I sorted on size, the size is NOT the total storage used. This is WAY above my skill set. I'll try more tomorrow. BTW when I sorted on size and move something and returned to the Apps screen sometimes the order changed. I have NO idea why thus I may resort on name just so I can more effectively work down the list.
Doing the Clear Cache option on the top 10 biggest apps should help you free up a few extra GB also
 

JGT1942

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Doing the Clear Cache option on the top 10 biggest apps should help you free up a few extra GB also

I sorted on size, only one app (maps) presented the option to clear the cache which I did.
Manually I moved several apps to the SD card. Now I'm using about 76% of my internal storage (49 GB of 64 GB is used). This should give me a lot of breathing room.

While going the manual route I encountered several apps that could NOT be moved to the external storage and some apps when moved the widget associated with the app disappeared. I reinstalled it from the play store (MeClockWidget) but cannot download the face I previously used. I keep getting "Try Again" and gave up for now.

I get the feeling that I will see other issues I created by moving the app. Time will tell.
 

mustang7757

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I sorted on size, only one app (maps) presented the option to clear the cache which I did.
Manually I moved several apps to the SD card. Now I'm using about 76% of my internal storage (49 GB of 64 GB is used). This should give me a lot of breathing room.

While going the manual route I encountered several apps that could NOT be moved to the external storage and some apps when moved the widget associated with the app disappeared. I reinstalled it from the play store (MeClockWidget) but cannot download the face I previously used. I keep getting "Try Again" and gave up for now.

I get the feeling that I will see other issues I created by moving the app. Time will tell.
Dont try to move apps to sd card it will cause issues .
 

mustang7757

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EEEEEE, gee whiz..... this is a real bummer!!! I've already moved a bunch of apps! I guess I could move them back!
Yeah i would , back in the day we tried doing this because phones came with low storage but not ideal because they can become corrupt, performance issues,freezes you name it .
 

JGT1942

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Yeah i would , back in the day we tried doing this because phones came with low storage but not ideal because they can become corrupt, performance issues,freezes you name it .

Much thanks for the feedback, I'm attempting to move the apps back to the internal storage. The move back to internal storage is taking longer than the move to the SD card (bummer) but I will get it done.
 

JGT1942

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I just found "AppMgr III (App 2 SD, Hide and Freeze apps)" and installed it. I see that it has the ability to move all apps from external to internal. I'll give it a try. Per the app I have 64 apps on the SD card.

I have no idea how long it will take but it is not super fast. At this time, 5 of the 64 have been moved and about 5 minutes have passed. I'm leaving the phone plugged it but I'm going to move it to another charger, the battery percentage is at 40% and has been moving down.
 

JGT1942

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FYI AppMgr III worked great and moved everything (or so I think) from the SD card to internal storage.
Thanks for the help!
 

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