Phone internal storage is displayed to be max 16 GB but only 2 GB are usable. Does anyone know why?

[ninjaiscrazy]

Hey guys,

I just recently got a V19 "generic" brand phone and ironically, the RAM of the device is indeed 4 GB and displays that way, the Internal and Phone storages both show 16 GB. Now, usually I would actually expect the RAM to have been incorrect, not the internal storage. However, in this case, the Internal storage is ironically unusable after the first 2 GB of it are full. I'm including some screenshots of the device, for you to get the idea. Obviously, some chinese kid played in his garage a bit to make this phone because the serial number is 0123456789ABCDEF - LOL!

Because I've less than 10 posts here hence I can't post links to this thread, the phone specs are:

GPU: Mali-450 MP
CPU: MTK6592 Octa Core 2.0GHz
RAM: 4GB
ROM: 16GB displayed, although listing supposedly advertised 32 GB
5.5 Inch HD IPs display 1920X1080

Question: Is there any way to actually see the available space? Obviously, the chinese fellow has "fooled" the hardware into thinking it's much more. Now, I also think it might have something to do with SuperSU being a "Default" app which cannot be removed. Also, the phone has a launcher so I'd probably have better luck changing the ROM to something else, which would probably give me the correct internal storage while breaking almost everything else down. So is there anything I could do to actually see it or "unlock" the rest of it if something might be blocking it? Would installing another launcher allow me to at least see some of the "built-in" stuff, since Titanium Backup doesn't seem to detect the SuperSU (It shows "Detecting SU and BusyBox", guess if it actually goes beyond that after 10 minutes of waiting? ) ?

I wouldn't care much if this turns out to be unfixable or if I have to live on with it, mainly because I got the phone for 100 bucks on AliExpress and because I got plenty of SD cards I don't use so I could plug one in and get my issue resolved very quickly but it bugs me to have this issue hence my question. Any help or hints will be appreciated.

 

[Rukbat]

Depending on how the storage is partitioned (logically it works the same as a hard drive) you can have 32GB of total storage and only 2GB of storage for data. Only the userdata partition is available for your use.

A lot of Chinese phones are partitioned in a way that makes no sense. A lot of other Chinese "cheap imitation" phones (like Samsung "Note 4"s - with Samsung logos on them - that don't even have 4G radios) claim 32GB of storage and have about 6GB, so you have enough to run Android and little more. (NAND storage can be programmed to claim it's any size, regardless of how much storage there is. That's how most of the $10 "64GB" SD cards are made - by reprogramming 4GB cards - which are worth a couple of cents).

BTW:

1. No phone for $100 is going to have 32GB of storage these days (in 10 years, you won't be able to find a phone with that little bit of storage - but not today).

2. Ali is a marketing company for Chinese fakers. Almost all of what they sell is cheap imitations of the real thing (even things like shoes and clothing - that "t-shirt" is made of fabric about as thin as spider silk and not as strong as wet tissue - and the cellphones they advertise aren't worth what they're charging for them.

 

[ninjaiscrazy]

Definitely useful information, Rukbat, thanks a million I also had a couple of SD cards from China and something just seems fishy about them. Indeed, when I plug the damned phone onto my computer even the MTK tools software doesn't detect it, and with the storage displayed being only like 1.3 GB I can see what you're talking about. Guess there's no point in even bothering to root it. I'll just go for something else then. Only problem is, here in Bulgaria phones are very overpriced but that's another story. The topic can be closed. Again: thanks a million for the useful info, you have no idea how much you helped me with it!