"Ghost" Files? I should have 8gb more free space than I do

[Android Central Question]

This has been frustrating for quite a while now. Let me first give you some history.

I've cleared cache
Uninstalled and reinstalled large apps
Turned "show hidden" on
Gone through My Files and looked for junk that could account for it
Reset phone
Used "cleaning" services
Moved what I can to SD, even after updates
Used every means of evaluating storage, what type of files take up what space
Found residual apk/obb files not in use and deleted (there was only one)
Deleted all multimedia and or moved it all to SD or cloud backup
Everything that makes sense

I still however am missing 8g that *should* be there... except it's not..

Any ideas?

Trying to attach a screenshot..

 

[Matt Venable]

Here's a SS

Only thing I haven't done is a factory reset. I'd rather not - that just cheaply steps around the *real* problem..

I want to find out and understand this.. what's going on here..

Edit: I also did a My Files search option. For all files larger than 25mb. Nothing out of the ordinary there..

 

[ManiacJoe]

The Android OS will take about 8 GB in many cases.

 

[Edger Ak]

Bro...go to wipe partition .then wipe it and come back and try to delete all file or create back and reset ur phone.hope this will help u

 

[chanchan05]

Tap the 3 dots on the upper left, select storage settings, tap internal storage. Depends on device, but on my S7E in there it says system memory takes up 7.27GB.

 

[Rukbat]

If you're adding the sizes of Documents, Images, Audio, Videos and Apps, that's not going to equal the 13GB you see. As Chanchan said, you also have to add over 7GB for Linux and Android, and each of them also has data files. There's also wasted space in computer storage, averaging about 1.2 allocation unit per file (it's been like that since drive packs were invented, and there's nothing we can do about that).

The question keeps coming up here, and the answer is always the same - there are many GB of files you can't see, but they're necessary for the system to function, so keep your data files on an external SD card and, as long as the phone is running the last version of Android or the current version, and it's not a "bottom of the line phone", it should have enough space for all the apps you need. If, due to your situation, you need more storage, you just have to buy a phone with more. (And keep replacing it every 2 or 3 years, most likely.)

This isn't your father's landline, it's a computer that can also make phone calls. And you don't expect an Apple ][ or a Commodore 64 to still be usable. Don't keep expecting a phone to be usable for the rest of your life. It's not going to be.