Settings says my Internal Shared Storage is full when it should not

[Android Central Question]

I have a Moto G4 with Android 7.
At some point in the past I copied a lot of my apps to an SD card.
I wanted to copy some more but couldn't remember how i did it.

I went through Settings -> Storage -> Internal Shared Storage -> Menu option "Migrate Data".

I suspect this tried to copy data back from my SD card to my internal shared Storage.

After a while it returned an error saying it was full.

When I now go to Settings -> Storage -> Internal Shared Storage, it says 10.12GB used of 10.82GB (I have cleared a little since.) It says Apps is 4.75GB and Cached data is 32.39 MB.

I have deleted a load of stuff to get it down to 4.75GB but the system still thinks the disk is full.

I have rebooted the phone and run cleanup programs and file manager apps. It seems the file manager apps can only see the SD card. None will let be browse the internal Shared Storage.

It was only after I deleted some more apps that I could install new apps. The phone thinks it is full.

How do I free up the Internal Shared Storage.

Thanks
Mike

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! How did you copy apps to the SD card? Do you mean you used the Move to SD feature? Or that you copied the actual app data folders and .obb files to the SD card?

 

[mikeszzz]

Thanks B. Daddy. I have properly signed up now.

I used an automated feature. I can't remember how I accessed it.
I definitely didn't just copy the folders.


I am now getting error messages. "Storage space running out"

 

[B. Diddy]

Show us a screenshot of the Settings>Storage menu: http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html

This app might also be helpful to give more details: DiskUsage

 

[mikeszzz]

Sorry for the delay in updating. I have deleted some more apps which means the numbers are slightly different but it still appears there is some storage gone missing.

 

[mikeszzz]

See also this screenshot.

 

[Rukbat]

One is of the userdata partition, the other is of internal storage, all partitions added together. You can't figure what "should be" by looking at what's being taken up and subtracting that from the advertised space on the phone. That space is partitioned into anywhere up to over a dozen partitions, depending on the manufacturer, but you get only one of them, userdata, to use for "internal storage". It can be 90% of the total, it can be 10% of the total, depending on the phone.

If you install a terminal app, so you can run Linux commands (Android is an app running in Linux), you can run the df -h command to see where your emulated storage partition is (look for the word "emulated" in the partition's name), how large it is, how much is on it, and how much is free.

 

[mikeszzz]

My data partition appears to be 11GB. It appears to be nearly full but I only have 4GB of apps. How come?

 

[mikeszzz]

It appears the reply I was given was actually incorrect.
I did a factory reset on my phone and got all the space back I expected. There is now about 3GB free after I reinstalled all my apps.

I have since dropped my phone and broken the screen. Oh well!

 

[pbenitez]

The same thing happened to me yesterday, without the option to delete or do anything. In my case the system says I have 4.8gb of photos where clearly I don't. I managed to free 250 mb deleting even Google Play data. I'm very frustated right now

 

[B. Diddy]

Which phone do you have -- also a Moto G4? Did you check to see how big the cache is for Google Photos, or any other gallery app?