Please help with new tablet!

[Sebastian Kaine]

Hello, this is my first post, and my first tablet. I am decently computer literate so I will try to explain things the best I can. I appreciate any help in advance and thank you.

Have a Proscan PLT7223g Tablet with Jellybean 4.1.1 - It has 8gb built in ram for storage, however, it seems to be running out of space after only installing a few apps for my son, even though it says it has over 5.15 gb free space. The storage screen is laid out as such:

Internal Storage:
Total Space: 746mb
Apps (app data and media content): 395mb
Available: 82.86mb
NAND Flash:
Total Space: 5.28gb
Apps (app data and media content): 132mb
Pictures/Videos: 368kb
Audio Files: 24.00kb
Misc: 16.00kb
Available: 5.15gb

Then it has some options to mount,unmount,erase SD card, or set up USB storage.

As you can see it appears to have over 5gb of available free internal storage, but I am getting alerts that I am out of space and can't install anything else. This may be a new guy question, but why is this happening? I realize it has to lock or allocate some stuff for system files, ect, but not 5gb. That's why I bought him the 8gb model as opposed to the 4gb. There appear to be no options to set it up to use this available space? I have never seen something so ridiculous as to have that much space you can't use. A 8gb storage that you can only use 746mb of? There has to be a way to use that free space. Also if I buy a 32gb micro for more storage will I have this same problem?

I am really stumped here. Can anyone please give me a helping hand? I really want to load this thing up for my son for Christmas with all the stuff he's been wanting. Again thank you in advance. And I am literate but in no way a computer whiz or anything, so the simpler the better in explanations for me please.

 

[zedorda]

Well that tablet is list as only having 4gb of space on Newegg.com. If that is true than there is only about 3.6 gb left after format than 2gb will be used by the OS plus bloatware if there is any. So 746mb sounds about right.

As for adding SDcards for additional space. It will not increase the space for apps. Sdcards are for stuff like mp3, photos, videos, etc.

Where did you buy the device? I would consider returning it since you didn't get an 8gb model.

 

[Sebastian Kaine]

Thanks but as I said I did get the 8gb model. There is a 4gb and an 8gb model and the model number for them is the same. I also listed the amount of free space the screen showed above, so it's definitely 8gb. It has just over 5gb free prior to adding any sd cards. (can add up to a 32gb as per manufacturer)

 

[zedorda]

I understand that but mistakes are made and in most cases the cheap tabs just have a internal sdcard and the wrong one or even a faulty one may of been installed during assembly. So your first choice should be to return it because if your right and there isn't much installed then something you cant fix is wrong.

It is not uncommon with cheap sdcards ordered through the internet to show for example a 32gb sdcard as 32gb total but only 8gb free while empty. Thats why I ask where did you buy it.

P.S. I assume you already did a factory reset to try and fix this yourself.

 

[Sebastian Kaine]

It was purchased from best buy I believe (wife) for our son, and I have done everything I could find to do. It shows as I said 8gb of internal memory, with 5.15gb free. It looks however like it may have a partition or something set up for 746mb that everything downloads and installs to. Can't seem to be able to move anything or install anything to the 5gb free space. I don't know if it is in truth another partition, but that is what it seems to be behaving as. I don't have much experience with android systems.

 

[zedorda]

Android has a few partitions and yes the /system and /data are different partitions. The internal space on that tablet looks to be 746mb for apps and the NAND Flash is the other 5.28gb. All thats left is 82.86mb for more apps. If the unit had Ice-cream sandwich instead of JellyBean you would have an option to move apps to SD and free up some space. Also remember you need double the space needed for an app to install it. Room to download then room to install it to because it can't erase the download till the install is finished.

 

[Sebastian Kaine]

So I can't move the apps into the 5gb NFLASH area? That is very deceptive to sell something as advertised with 8gb storage and you can't use it. If I buy a 32gb memory card, will I be able to install the future apps to it? Also, if you can't install things to the NFLASH space, what good is it? As I said, selling you 8gb storage and allowing you only 746mb is beyond deceptive.

 

[zedorda]

You can use the NAND flash for anything but apps. Photos, music, pictures, movies, App save data, etc. Cheap tablets cut corners in costs and one of the main ones is memory. The base memory is expensive because it has to be fast. The cheaper you go the more deceptive they get.

Please believe me I am with you on the deceptive nature of the US market. In China/Japan they market these types of tablets as "MID" tablets. Which stands for "Mobile Internet Device" because that is about all they do is browse the web. There isn't enough memory to support more than a handful of apps.

 

[Sebastian Kaine]

That is such a shame, it seems to be a really well built device, it's fast, and we have had zero issues. I just hope that if I buy a 32gb memory card that at least can be used for storing apps. My son is only into apps and games.

 

[brownsand]

Hi, curious as to what you did. I am having the same issue with my son's tablet and am guessing it's because it is a cheaper one that they set up the storage the way they did. Debating on sending it back since they are techy and have a BYOT program at their school.

 

[Tara Hunter]

I had a similar problem, I realized you have to "mount the NAND flash in order for apps to go in there. After i mounted the NAND flash, almost all my app info went in there automatically. I'm not the best tech person in the world but I did notice a HUGE problem. Under my app manager the NAND flash is labled under SDCARD for some strange reason, possibly a coding error?? So basically it shows my NAND flash space as my sdcard, its very, very confusing if you have an sd card in your tablet, because now in that case you can not move apps to your real, true sd card.... You should always be able to put apps on your sd card I don't understand why someone is saying otherwise...like I said I'm NOT a tech person, but I did notice something terribly wrong when it came to using a sdcard with this device if you look in your storage it will show the internal, nand and sd card amounts. so when I reference those amount in the app manager, that's how I can see my sd card isn't recognized as the real one, instead it is recognizing the NAND flash.

 

[Angelmama72]

I believe this has happened to us. We just bought 6 of the cheap tablets for late Christmas presents for our family. So far I am only having problem with 2 but odds are the ones the kids just got tonight will have the same issue. HOW DO YOU MOUNT THE TAND FLASH? If I could have an answer before my kids notice this problem it would save me a lot of headache.

 

[Jillian F]

I had the exact same issue. Brand new tablet - downloaded 5 apps and out of memory. I have an 8 gig tablet too. I did the following very easy steps...
1) Go into Settings
2) Click on Storage
3) Click on Apps
4) Select any app you've downloaded
5) Tap on "Move to SD card"

I don't have a SD card in my tablet - but when I tapped on "Move to SD card", the app moved into the other storage and I'm now able to download ton's of apps without having to root my device.

thanks for the previous advice that helped me figure this out.

 

[bcmuffn]

It's amazing how many of us are having the same issues... I have a Hipstreet Phoenix tablet with 16gigs of storage and can't use any of it, can't even update what little I have because it's telling me I have no storage.
Only the Nand flash (1gig) is being used.
I don't have the option to move apps to SD card, it's just not there.
Why is this memory installed, but not accessible ?
I'M SO FRUSTRATED, I WANT TO SCREAM !!

What are my options?

Is there an App or Software I could install to rectify this issue?

Please advise...

 

[Paul8888]

Had the same problem as the OP. New cheap tablet for my son, although advertised as 16gig, it only has 1 gig for apps and about 14gig for storage. First I tried putting a 16 gig sd card in but that does nothing and you cannot transfer any apps to them.

I wasted about 4 hours playing with the annoying contraption! I ended learning how to root it (wasn't as painful as it sounds) and then proceeded to try numerous programs to create partitions and transfer programs to the SD, watched lots of youtube tutorials, all to no avail, as none of it worked...

In the end, I went through each app that came preloaded, things like "Cloud print", "mobile messages" and others I cant remember These system apps couldn't be uninstalled but many have a button to uninstall the updates. I did this on everything that looked useless (some of those updates were huge) and this freed up hundreds of megs. I then clicked on the disable button of them (can always enable them later if there is problems). Disabling them should stop them updating again I presume, and will stop them wasting memory resources and speed it up a little.

I also went through each of the installed games my son has on there. Click on one and scroll down and on mine there is an option that says Move to Phone storage. I expect this would read, move to internal SD storage on other tablets as this is what it means. You cant do it with all of them, and some of them seem to automatically be set up to install like this, but there were a few that I could do it to and this transfers, most, not all, of the data from that app to the internal card.

Doing this I have gone from 90 megs available to 455 megs available. I have told him that if he installs anything, to check if it can then be moved to "Phone storage" as my tablet calls it.

Other than that, I give up and no that when he kills this one, which he surely will, I will do a little more research and not just buy the cheapest junk I can find...

Paul

 

[bcmuffn]

Thanks for your post Paul.. I'll try the Root route and see what happens...
Regards