Update Ate Up Most Of My Space!

[js10]

Out of nowhere (I actually thought I had automatic updates turned off but apparently not) I woke up a few mornings ago and several things were different about my phone, so an update had obviously been made. Most of the changes are fairly neutral. The Google Photos now has headings for the beginning of every month, things like that. Whatever.

But the most significant difference, unfortunately, is a pretty big negative, in that I now have a storage problem that I didn't have before. It's a little bit confusing, actually, as I actually started running out of space a few months ago and then put in a new SD card as secondary storage. I honestly don't remember the distribution of space before the update, but that fact is that now BOTH are basically filled to capacity.

The space is clearly much more valuable to me than whatever benefits I get from the update. I think I know the answer, but there isn't any way to undo the update, is there? I kind of almost feel like that space (which I paid for, of course) was basically stolen from me.

 

[mustang7757]

Which device?
Sometimes software updates can add apps or take up little more space , u have to try use sd card ,cloud storage to move some of it. Whats your storage size on the device?

 

[B. Diddy]

Do you still have the Moto G6 you posted about previously? Can you show us a screenshot of your Settings>Storage menu?

 

[js10]

Yes, still the MotoG6. As requested, attached is a screenshot of the current state of storage situation. Again, this is NOT what i looked like before the update! Unfortunately I don't have a screenshot of that, as I had no reason to expect this would happen.

Also, by the way, as if there storage issue wasn't enough, I think the battery life may have been diminished as well.

 

[B. Diddy]

Try DiskUsage to get more information about what's taking up so much space.

 

[js10]

I'll certainly take a look at that tomorrow, but in the meantime I have to ask -- going back to my original question, there's no way to undo the update, is there? I mean, whatever the problem is, if that's what caused it (as in introduced whatever is taking up that space), it seems like the best course of action would just be to reverse it and go back to the old version (which was absolutely fine as far as I'm concerned). But I understand that that's often easier said than done.

 

[B. Diddy]

I don't think there's an easy way to roll back -- it would most likely require a firmware flashing procedure which might wipe the phone.

Ultimately, you may want to back up your important data and do a factory reset.

 

[js10]

Okay, I installed DiskUsage and am looking at it now (still trying to avoid having to go the factory reset route, as it would be a real pain to have to start over again like that at a time in which I really can't afford it). There's obviously an option for both Storage card and a /storage/... file. Is there anything in particular I should be checking for?

 

[B. Diddy]

Show us some screenshots so we can see what DiskUsage finds is using up space.

 

[js10]

Okay, here are the screenshots of both of them. Yes, as I suspected, media files make up the vast majority of the space, but it's not like I added a lot of such files overnight. Again, this wasn't a problem until that update took place. So it seems like something must have been added as well that is taking up a lot of what was that extra space.

It's too bad, by the way, that I don't have the same screenshots from BEFORE the update so that they could be compared. Without them, these seem to kind of lack context.

 

[mustang7757]

Media and DCIM are taking up most of your storage you should try put on sd card or cloud storage then erase from device

 

[js10]

Yes, but again, why only now AFTER the update? As I said, it's not like a took a thousand images in one day and that's why all of the sudden I'm running out of space. It wasn't a problem until the update took place, so what ELSE was added?

And, also, I already added the SD card and put a lot of the images on it. So I've already exhausted that option, right?

 

[B. Diddy]

Use a file manager to look directly in the /DCIM/Camera directory (on both Internal Storage and the SD card). Do you only see the photos you took, or do you see a lot of extra stuff there?

 

[mustang7757]

Cant say because we dont have previous to compare , we can only go by what we see now

 

[B. Diddy]

It sounds like the best course of action now would be a factory reset, unfortunately. With older Moto phones, I would've suggested a cache partition wipe, but that's no longer a possibility with newer Moto phones, since they all use dual A/B partitions.

 

[mustang7757]

I agree with B. Diddy

 

[jope28]

Might be worth it to try installing the Files app by Google and have it search for duplicate files or a large thumbnail cache file.
It's a long shot, but hope it helps.

 

[js10]

Okay, I think I know what you're all going to say -- the factory reset -- but I'll just add to this thread anyway by saying that the problem seems to be even worse than I thought.

I tried to transfer some images from the phone to my desktop (not even really to clear space in this case -- just for general reasons) and then, as usual, had to go to the phone's drop-down menu to select the option to transfer files. The first time I did so, my desktop said something like the phone didn't mount correctly. I didn't remember the exact wording, but the point was that it didn't recognize the phone so I couldn't access its files. I disconnected it and then connected it again, but this time in the drop-down menu there was NO option to transfer files! That was strange enough, but then a few minutes later when I picked up the phone to use it again, it had turned off! Furthermore, I had to hold the power button down a LONG time to even get it to boot back up again -- at first I thought it was just totally fried.

And, by the way, this was, I think, the third time this had happened since the update. At first I thought it was just a fluke, but it's becoming increasingly clear that that's not the case.

Have you heard of this behavior before, and, if so, what does it usually indicate?

Whatever it is, apparently the damage caused by this update goes beyond just taking up a large chuck of the leftover space and my needing to get rid of some of the images to create new space.

 

[B. Diddy]

Hard to say if that's a system glitch related to the update, or possibly a hardware failure that's coincident with the update. In any case, doing a factory reset would still be helpful. If the problem clears up, then it may just have been some kind of system corruption. If the problem persists after a factory reset, then I'd be concerned that the motherboard or some other hardware component is dead or dying.

 

[js10]

Makes sense, although I do think that it would be QUITE a coincidence for this problem to pop up exactly after this update took place. Also, again, this turning-off problem only happens minutes after the option to transfer files from the phone disappears. The lack of that option would more likely indicate a software issue, would it not?