Internal Storage Space is Disappearing, Please Help

[Adam Z]

I'm not sure what's going on. First of all my internal storage space is down below 600mb and the phone has become sluggish. I don't have an abnormally high number of apps. I moved big apps to the SD card and deleted apps I didn't use. Is that number sound close to right and is there anything else I can do? Thanks.

 

[FrankXS]

I'm not sure what's going on. First of all my internal storage space is down below 600mb and the phone has become sluggish. I don't have an abnormally high number of apps. I moved big apps to the SD card and deleted apps I didn't use. Is that number sound close to right and is there anything else I can do? Thanks.

How many apps? I have ~100 apps and my internal storage still has about 1.9GB left. None have been moved to the SD Card. It started at about 2.4GB. So, I've used about 500MB of internal storage. Are you sure you're looking at "left" rather than "used"?

-Frank

 

[Adam Z]

I don't have the exact number but it's less than 100. That's what makes this so weird.

 

[Adam Z]

Oops. It's like 130 apps. Still doesn't seem like a lot.

 

[Adam Z]

Frank, yeah, under Internal Storage, it says Available Space is 712mb. I've been deleting old and unused apps and I'm still only at 712mb.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

Frank, yeah, under Internal Storage, it says Available Space is 712mb. I've been deleting old and unused apps and I'm still only at 712mb.

May not be apps...?

SMS and MMS messages are also saved to internal memory, do you have a lot of those (especially MMS with pictures and video)?

It does seem strange to have that little space left, unless you're saving *something* other than usual stuff to the internal storage.

 

[mightyfacundo]

There's definitely something funny going on. I have a ton of apps on my phone. I have moved most to my sd card but I still have 2.1 GB left. Let me think about it......

 

[Adam Z]

I just checked and saw the mail app is using 1.04GB. That seems incredibly high. It might also explain why my mail has been so sluggish. Any thoughts?

 

[mightyfacundo]

I just checked my mail app and it's only using 8.53 mb, so I think you found the problem. Have you tried restarting the phone? I'm sure you have. Are you rooted or stock? My cache has nothing in it. Is yours using memory? I'm just thinking out loud trying to figure out why it's usung 1.04 GB.

 

[Adam Z]

So we have found the problem. I am stock. I will try emptying the cache if it let's me.

 

[Adam Z]

It won't let me clear cache or clear data. Maybe the old reboot will work. Any other suggestions? Thanks for the help by the way.

 

[anon(394005)]

The e-mail account that you're syncing to, does it have 1GB+ worth of stuff in the mailbox? If so, sounds like time for some housekeeping or may be changing what syncs to the phone to minimize using so much storage space.

 

[mightyfacundo]

How much is in the cache? Do you have any very large emails that might be causing this? I just went into my app and deleted a bunch of emails. I'm now down to 7.28 mb used. I also have it set to only store email from the past 14 days. What's yours set at?

 

[cadzilla74]

I'm not sure what Mail app you're using. I use K-9 mail and have 4 email accounts feeding to it but I have restricted each one to only deliver 20 messages at a time from each one and poll every 30 minutes. That keeps the amount of mail on the phone at any one time to a minimum.

Also try free app History Eraser (it's like Disk Cleanup in Windows). You can choose what you want it to clean or just choose Clean All. It wipes old SMS, MMS, browser caches, browser search histories, etc.

Also get Astro File Manager which will let you find temp files and crap left behind by uninstalled apps that didn't clean up after themselves.

But it really sounds like you need to manage your mail first. I've got ~140 apps and very few, mostly large games, on SD card and still have over 1gb internal memory left.

You mentioned it wouldn't let you clear the cache. Try Force Stopping your Mail app first because if it is running it is probably holding the cache file open.