Can't find 11GBytes of memory being used in Miscellaneous

[krauster]

I have a Note4 with 32GBytes. I go to Settings > General > Storage and I see that I am using 7.59GB of System memory, 9.41GB of Used space, 1.5GB of Cached data and 11.87 of Miscellaneous files. When I click on the Miscellaneous files list I don't anywhere near 12GB of data listed. I care about this because my Note4 says I only have 1.59GB of Available space.

I don't have any music or movies stored on the phone. I do have photos in the Gallery and in Google Photos but I don't know how to see how much that is using. And I don't see where that is listed in Miscellaneous files.

How can I see what is using the 12BG of Miscellaneous files?

 

[swharshbar]

If your data is backed up, I'd suggest a factory reset and then download information individually to see if you can find it.

 

[nahoku]

On the Note 4, the OS stores approx 8.5GB of system files for Kitkat and Lollipop in Misc Files. Marshmallow is quite a bit larger, perhaps up to 10+ GB, if memory serves, so it may account for the larger amount. Misc Files never add up to what is shown being used. Also, be careful of what you delete in that folder as some of it is actual user data. A factory reset will not help.

Edit... Hmmm... now that I think about it, did MM change the storage layout? Can't remember. On KK and LP, there is no sub-category for System Memory.

 

[krauster]

I am running 5.1.1 Would a complete fresh start (I guess that is a "factory reset") put the latest AT&T Note4 operating system into the System memory and keep it out of the Miscellaneous files space?

 

[nahoku]

I guess ATT is different from VZW in their storage setup. On VZW, there is no System Memory category... the OS System files are held in Misc Files. However, for 5.1.1, your System memory allocation looks about the right size. I wouldn't worry about it.

That being said, your Misc Files size at 11Gb now seems excessive. Try installing DiskUsage from Playstore and run it. See if it can identify anything on your phone that's taking up a lot of memory. It may not show you anything obvious, but it has served many people well.

I wouldn't advise you factory reset your phone yet.

EDIT: Oh yah, forgot to mention, you can clear the cached data. It's just cache and it'll rebuild eventually, but 1.5Gb of cache is excessive.

 

[krauster]

I downloaded DiskUsage and ran it. Strange. When it opened it brought up a highlighted white box that said View in blue and one selection below for Storage card, no selection to just look at the internal 32G of the phone. The thing is that I did have a 64G storage card where I was storing a lot of music at one point. But I took it out a while ago per suggestions I had read that the memory card was why my Note4 seemed so sluggish. (even though I bought a fast Samsung one). I took it out and the phone got back to being decently fast again and I learned to live without the huge collection of music on my phone that I wasn't listening to anyway.

But now when I run the Diskusage app it is giving very strange numbers without the card in there. On my 32G internal memory phone it says I have 24G Storage card, 11G of meda, 10.5G of apps, 11.7G of Android, 11.7 of data, in fact a bunch of 11G entries.

So Diskusage is showing stuff that doesn't make sense.

 

[nahoku]

Storage card is the internal memory. If you had a SD, it would list two things with one called "ext storage".

Can you post a screen shot of DiskUsage. Every large box contains everything to the right. You can see on my spare phone that System is ~ 24GB, Apps is ~1.3GB, Media is ~270Mb.






EDIT: Also post a screen shot of your Settings > Storage listing.

 

[krauster]

Thank you. Now that you've explained it I understand what I am seeing in the DiskUsage app. I found a big culprit for the memory use. I am using the PocketCast app for podcasts and I see that I was using a lot of memory holding on to some old podcasts.
So I've connected my Note4 to my PC and now used Windows10 to delete all the podcasts. I cleared up 11GB. Thanks very much.

 

[nahoku]

Thank you. Now that you've explained it I understand what I am seeing in the DiskUsage app. I found a big culprit for the memory use. I am using the PocketCast app for podcasts and I see that I was using a lot of memory holding on to some old podcasts.
So I've connected my Note4 to my PC and now used Windows10 to delete all the podcasts. I cleared up 11GB. Thanks very much.

Excellent! I'm glad you traced the problem. Good going! Did you clear the 1.5Gb cached data in storage? It's large, so you should clear it. After clearing, you should only see a few hundred kilobytes, if that. As stated, it'll build up again eventually.

As for your SD cards, I would install SD Insight to check them out. If they're legit cards, the app will tell you.

 

[AXEL314]

Nice Nahoku! This app that you've shared is really a fantastic little storage manager, cleverly visualized in a way that makes sense (once you figure out its laid out left to right and broken down) - I managed to free up about four gigs. Now I'm on the hunt for more data (have to be careful with what I delete!)

 

[nahoku]

Nice Nahoku! This app that you've shared is really a fantastic little storage manager, cleverly visualized in a way that makes sense (once you figure out its laid out right to left) - I managed to free up about four gigs. Now I'm on the hunt for more data (have to be careful with what I delete!)

I've been using Spacemonger on PC for years but they don't make an app for android so this is the next best thing.

If you want to know what's on your PC, check out Spacemonger. This is an older portable version (1.4) when the program was free. I don't know what's been going on with the program, so I don't know if this will work on newer OS's than what's listed in the link. I believe the program was sold as I just read of version 3 (paid) which will run on win 10. I only run winXP on my PC's... by choice! Sometimes newer isn't always better!