Samsung Galaxy S5 help Storage Problems

[Jillrefan1986]

Hi! I'm new to this site and I have been using Android devices for a few years now. I wanted to see if anyone could help me with my storage issue, I don't know if it is a glitch or some kind of technical issues.

I got the Samsung Galaxy S5 a little over a year ago, the phone seem to be doing fine until updates started to come out. The recent update through Verizon, seemed to crash my phone and make it crazy! Causing it to reboot everytime I would make or receive a call, it would turn on the back light on it's own, start texting with random characters among other things. They did release a patch and it seemed to fix those issues.

My main problem now is that the storage keeps coming up that it is running out of space and this is frequently. I have no pictures or music on the device itself (they are all on the SD card), all the apps I have downloaded are on the SD card and cache files are cleared. I did notice in my "Miscellaneous Files" that the updates are 5. Something GBs. I called Verizon customer support and they said it didn't make sense as I should have more space than what it's saying (I only have 500MB free on the device itself). I have disabled majority of the apps that can't be uninstalled except some of the major ones from Verizon and Samsung.

Anybody have a clue to why this is doing what it's doing with the storage space and how I can fix it?

 

[Courtenay Dawn]

In having the same issue with storage! Not long after I updated to lollipop and it keeps happening. I have a 32gb SD card and all my music and pictures are on there same with my apps but when playstore has updates it will say insufficient memory. Sometimes it's caused by my apps randomly putting them selves back over to my phone so I have to put them back on again.

Another thing I tried was to delete all updates for stock samsung apps that I don't use such as chat on, hang outs, smart remote etc. Then I changed my settings in the playstore so I can manually select which ones I want but I shouldn't have to do this. I think it's an issue with the software because I never had this issue running kitkat

Posted via the Android Central App - SM-G900W8

 

[anon(749368)]

Maybe going into recovery and deleting cache would help? Also, back up and then reformat your SD card (it may be corrupted). Other than that, check the number of apps you have installed on your device and delete a few if needed. Go to settings, storage and check how much free space you have on your device. I had this issue once when trying to download something and indeed I had a lot of apps and no space left.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Courtenay Dawn]

Maybe going into recovery and deleting cache would help? Also, back up and then reformat your SD card (it may be corrupted). Other than that, check the number of apps you have installed on your device and delete a few if needed. Go to settings, storage and check how much free space you have on your device. I had this issue once when trying to download something and indeed I had a lot of apps and no space left.

Posted via the Android Central App

The cached data, what all does that include? Does it keep your game stats and bookmarks?

Posted via the Android Central App - SM-G900W8

 

[SweetSaudade]

Holy cow me too! I can't even get new emails because it says I only have 400 mb avail! Everything that CAN go on my SD card is on it, and I don't have too many apps. This just started happening a few days ago and I have no idea what to do..

 

[SweetSaudade]

No one has any ideas?

 

[Courtenay Dawn]

Have you guys tried what I did?

Posted via the Android Central App - SM-G900W8

 

[SweetSaudade]

I deleted all the updates for the included apps I don't need, deleted as many apps as I could, and changed my email's period to sync to 3 days. I don't get the error anymore, but my phone is now consistently around 106 degrees and my battery dies within a couple of hours.. I will be starting to back things up and go into the update and do the cache partition wipe etc etc and see how things are then.. but I am so tired of having to jump through hoops with this phone. And I'm tired of my Apple FanBoy husband taunting me about it..

 

[Brian_Blaire]

That's weird, the S5 base model(I think there's a 32GB version) comes with an internal storage of 16GBs and even with that you should still have a lot of space even with the phone firmware taking up some memory. Could you guys post screenshots of your storage usage by going to "My Files> 3 dots on upper right corner> Storage Usage"

Posted via the Samsung Galaxy S5

 

[dgcamero]

I deleted all the updates for the included apps I don't need, deleted as many apps as I could, and changed my email's period to sync to 3 days. I don't get the error anymore, but my phone is now consistently around 106 degrees and my battery dies within a couple of hours.. I will be starting to back things up and go into the update and do the cache partition wipe etc etc and see how things are then.. but I am so tired of having to jump through hoops with this phone. And I'm tired of my Apple FanBoy husband taunting me about it..

Essentially, you have to uncheck the backup your data option here and factory data reset your phone after backing everything up. Lollipop changes the runtime of the apps, and not all application developers took that into account so they have bunk data that doesn't sync correctly and ruins battery life...or something like that is how it was explained to me by an app developer.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[thecomicbookandme]

There are a few things that can be done to help free up space in device storage.
#1 Use the my files app in the app drawer to move data from device storage to the SD card.
#2 Go to settings, storage, and press cached data. A window will appear asking if you want to clear cached data. Press ok. This will not remove any settings or important stuff you need to keep.
#3 Go to settings, application manager, and swipe to SD card. Make sure every available box is checked. This needs to be done every time an application on the card is updated.
#4 Go to the phone app and dial *#9900#. Press the bar marked delete dumpstate/logcat. Press ok. Scroll down to exit. Again, you will not lose any important information by doing this.
#5 If you still don't have enough space in device storage, download an app from the playstore called SD maid. This is a sweet little app that can free up space and only works when you run it. It is never active until you use it.
Also, make sure you delete any unnecessary emails, clear spam, clear junk, and empty trash in your email app. Email clogs up device storage, and if you have a lot of them it's advisable to forward them to your computer and delete them from your phone.
Hope this helps.

Yea, heavy and a bottle of bread.

 

[Chris Tryon]

#2 really did the trick for me. Thanks!!

 

[fotd]

The offending app appears to always be Download Manager for me. It usually has around 2GB of data in it. Clearing the cache like #2 above will wipe it and other apps cache. Or you can go into Applications->Application Manager->All->Download Manager->Clear cache to only clear the download manager cache.

 

[Joan0516]

I too have this problem. Talked to Samsung about it, they told me factory reset. I said no thank you. Called Verizon and found a tech there with the same problem. She said ghost files from apps.that attach themselves and just grow. I said ok...solution...factory reset. Did that (and don't believe them when they say all apps will be moved over as well as everything else) Freed up over 5 GB. Great!!! I did this in August. Somehow in 1 month i have lost a GB and have not added anything. She said she has to do it a few times a year. Now I know what to expect and have moved everything over to the could and SD card bit still a PITA to do.

 

[Marnz Renee]

This advice was SO helpful. Thanks a million!