A
AC Question
Phone: HTC Desire 310 (Worked for 2 years)
OS: Android 4.2.2
SD Card: 1.96 GB free of 7.33 GB
Phone Storage: 0 bytes free of 2.01 GB
SIM(s): Capable of holding 2, held 1 for 2 years, now holds 0 cause I got a new phone.
I am not a geek when it comes to phones, so why giving your answer and/or trying to guide me through the process of getting where I need to get, try to use as basic or simple terminology as possible. If there's a complicated process, please break it down for me to understand. I am 75, technology isn't my strongest point.
Anyway, the phone worked fine for a long time. But around a year ago, the internal memory started getting filled up. So, I moved all photos/videos/audio on the Phone Storage to a location on my computer. Shortly after, the "Storage space is running out" notification returned to the bar at the top. I carefully deleted all unnecessary contacts, SMS texts, and app texts (like Whatsapp, Kik messages etc.), and keep in mind, I am in 7 groups on Whatsapp. Took me a long time to do that, and it paid off for a few weeks. Then, surprise surprise, the notification returned again. I connected the phone to my computer often to transfer music onto it (SD Card), and I started noticing the Phone Storage going down in KBs. I decided to go all out to solve the problem.
I went to "Settings > Storage > Apps (app data & media content)" and saw every app under the "All" tab. I cleared cache, data, force stopped and disabled the following apps to squeeze the space-occupying bytes out of them:
1. Video Highlights
2. Twitter for HTC Sense
3. TalkBack
4. Street View
5. POLARIS Office 5
6. News & Weather
7. Movie Studio
8. Maps
9. Keyboard - Viet vendor1
10. Keyboard - Ukranian Pack with ALM
11. Keyboard - Turkish Pack with ALM
12. Keyboard - Thai Pack without ALM
13. Keyboard - Swedish Pack with ALM
14. Keyboard - Spanish Pack with ALM
15. Keyboard - Slovenian Pack with ALM
16. Keyboard - Slovak Pack with ALM
17. Keyboard - Serbian Pack with ALM
18. Keyboard - Russian Pack with ALM
19. Keyboard - Romanian Pack with ALM
20. Keyboard - Portuguese Pack with ALM
21. Keyboard - Polish Pack with ALM
22. Keyboard - Persian (Farsi) Pack with ALM
23. Keyboard - Norwegian Pack with ALM
24. Keyboard - Malay Pack with ALM
25. Keyboard - Lithuanian Pack with ALM
26. Keyboard - Latvian Pack with ALM
27. Keyboard - Kazakh Pack without ALM
28. Keyboard - Italian Pack with ALM
29. Keyboard - Indonesian Pack with ALM
30. Keyboard - Indic vendor1
31. Keyboard - Hungarian Pack with ALM
32. Keyboard - Hebrew Pack wit ALM
33. Keyboard - Greek Pack with ALM
34. Keyboard - German Pack with ALM
35. Keyboard - French Pack with ALM
36. Keyboard - Finnish Pack with ALM
37. Keyboard - Estonian Pack with ALM
38. Keyboard - Dutch Pack with ALM
39. Keyboard - Danish Pack with ALM
40. Keyboard - Czech Pack with ALM
41. Keyboard - Croatian Pack with ALM
42. Keyboard - Chinese Pack
43. Keyboard - Catalan Pack with ALM
44. Keyboard - Bulgarian Pack with ALM
45. Keyboard - Armenian Pack with ALM
46. Keyboard - Arabic Pack with ALM
47. HTC Weather Service
48. HTC News Plugin
49. Hangouts
50. Google Text-to-speech Engine
51. Google Search
52. Google Play Newsstand
53. Google Play Music
54. Google Play Movies & TV
55. Google Play Books
56. Google Keyboard
57. Google Contacts Sync
58. Gmail
59. Drive
So that is just one less than 60 apps, which is a lot of data free-ed up right there. The rest I left untouched because I required them, and most of them looked vital for the system. I read somewhere online that in Android, when apps get updated, a lot of the old, unnecessary data of the outdated versions of those apps is still left on the phone. I used to use Avast Cleanup every once in a while to create huge chunks of data, usually in 700 - 800 MB range, but that never helped get rid of the notification. So, I figured that Avast Cleanup doesn't really get rid of that unnecessary data left behind by outdated versions of apps. I went ahead and downgraded Google+ to factory version, did the same with YouTube. All of that did work. I even changed the phone's settings so that no apps are automatically updated.
After doing all that work, I felt great to have a lot of my space back again. Avast Cleanup's "Safe Clean" no longer cleared up huge chunks of data, but rather 2 - 5 MBs. I even installed Avast Phone Security to scan for viruses that could be causing problems. No viruses were detected, everything was perfectly fine. I had to remove that app after that. I became careful with all data, like the texts I receive on text messaging apps. I started deleting all unnecessary messages as soon as they became unnecessary. I took all steps to ensure that the Phone Storage wouldn't get filled up.
However, the entire epidemic somehow managed to return, with full force. I can't update any of the apps that I have, and most of the problems with them are fixed in the latest updates. Apart from that, there are 0 bytes left on the Phone Storage, so forget transferring any data "on" the Phone Storage, I can't even take a screenshot. It just won't save anything. I can't download any multimedia sent to me on messaging apps either. No matter what I do, there always seems to be 0 bytes left on the phone. I can't install any new apps to solve the problem, and deleting the apps I have won't give me any extra space. I removed "Snapchat" after this happened, but no space was retrieved. So, I'm left with a bunch of problematic non-updating apps, a non-functional screenshot feature, and no space to install new apps or download data onto my Phone Storage. I can still receive texts on messaging apps though, and those are essential.
So, I've given a lot of details. The point is, I don't know how to solve this issue. Is there anything I can do to solve it? Or do I have to give it over to someone at the repair shop? And regardless of that answer, I have one question before that which needs answering.
How do I ensure that I don't lose my data? Here's a list of apps that I have installed on my phone:
1. MX Player (require it to watch videos with S/W decoder for high volume)
2. Rain Sounds HD (require it to sleep at night with calm music)
3. Whatsapp (require it to receive texts from close friends)
4. Kik (require it to receive texts from distant friends)
5. Truecaller (require it to identify unknown number owners)
6. Avast Cleanup (require it to clean up any data that I can, which these days is 0 bytes every time I try to safe clean)
There are other texting apps that don't store the texts on the phone, which is why I can't read them unless I'm connected to the internet. So, in short, I can take care of those. But, what can I do about Whatsapp and Kik? I don't want to lose those messages. Is there like a Whatsapp and Kik cloud, where I can backup my messages and then restore them once I do a factory reset on the phone, or get it back after the person at the store repairs it?
Once I have safeguarded all the data I require, what can I do to get down to solving this issue? How can I un-corrupt the internal memory? If you have read all of it, thanks for taking the time to read it.
ADVICE for Google:
Please don't bombard your OS with unnecessary apps. I don't require most of the Google apps, and you don't allow users like me to uninstall it. No one should have to meddle with inner settings and "disable" those apps in the first place. I need my phones in working condition, please don't put such heavy load on the average customer's head by complicating things.
OS: Android 4.2.2
SD Card: 1.96 GB free of 7.33 GB
Phone Storage: 0 bytes free of 2.01 GB
SIM(s): Capable of holding 2, held 1 for 2 years, now holds 0 cause I got a new phone.
I am not a geek when it comes to phones, so why giving your answer and/or trying to guide me through the process of getting where I need to get, try to use as basic or simple terminology as possible. If there's a complicated process, please break it down for me to understand. I am 75, technology isn't my strongest point.
Anyway, the phone worked fine for a long time. But around a year ago, the internal memory started getting filled up. So, I moved all photos/videos/audio on the Phone Storage to a location on my computer. Shortly after, the "Storage space is running out" notification returned to the bar at the top. I carefully deleted all unnecessary contacts, SMS texts, and app texts (like Whatsapp, Kik messages etc.), and keep in mind, I am in 7 groups on Whatsapp. Took me a long time to do that, and it paid off for a few weeks. Then, surprise surprise, the notification returned again. I connected the phone to my computer often to transfer music onto it (SD Card), and I started noticing the Phone Storage going down in KBs. I decided to go all out to solve the problem.
I went to "Settings > Storage > Apps (app data & media content)" and saw every app under the "All" tab. I cleared cache, data, force stopped and disabled the following apps to squeeze the space-occupying bytes out of them:
1. Video Highlights
2. Twitter for HTC Sense
3. TalkBack
4. Street View
5. POLARIS Office 5
6. News & Weather
7. Movie Studio
8. Maps
9. Keyboard - Viet vendor1
10. Keyboard - Ukranian Pack with ALM
11. Keyboard - Turkish Pack with ALM
12. Keyboard - Thai Pack without ALM
13. Keyboard - Swedish Pack with ALM
14. Keyboard - Spanish Pack with ALM
15. Keyboard - Slovenian Pack with ALM
16. Keyboard - Slovak Pack with ALM
17. Keyboard - Serbian Pack with ALM
18. Keyboard - Russian Pack with ALM
19. Keyboard - Romanian Pack with ALM
20. Keyboard - Portuguese Pack with ALM
21. Keyboard - Polish Pack with ALM
22. Keyboard - Persian (Farsi) Pack with ALM
23. Keyboard - Norwegian Pack with ALM
24. Keyboard - Malay Pack with ALM
25. Keyboard - Lithuanian Pack with ALM
26. Keyboard - Latvian Pack with ALM
27. Keyboard - Kazakh Pack without ALM
28. Keyboard - Italian Pack with ALM
29. Keyboard - Indonesian Pack with ALM
30. Keyboard - Indic vendor1
31. Keyboard - Hungarian Pack with ALM
32. Keyboard - Hebrew Pack wit ALM
33. Keyboard - Greek Pack with ALM
34. Keyboard - German Pack with ALM
35. Keyboard - French Pack with ALM
36. Keyboard - Finnish Pack with ALM
37. Keyboard - Estonian Pack with ALM
38. Keyboard - Dutch Pack with ALM
39. Keyboard - Danish Pack with ALM
40. Keyboard - Czech Pack with ALM
41. Keyboard - Croatian Pack with ALM
42. Keyboard - Chinese Pack
43. Keyboard - Catalan Pack with ALM
44. Keyboard - Bulgarian Pack with ALM
45. Keyboard - Armenian Pack with ALM
46. Keyboard - Arabic Pack with ALM
47. HTC Weather Service
48. HTC News Plugin
49. Hangouts
50. Google Text-to-speech Engine
51. Google Search
52. Google Play Newsstand
53. Google Play Music
54. Google Play Movies & TV
55. Google Play Books
56. Google Keyboard
57. Google Contacts Sync
58. Gmail
59. Drive
So that is just one less than 60 apps, which is a lot of data free-ed up right there. The rest I left untouched because I required them, and most of them looked vital for the system. I read somewhere online that in Android, when apps get updated, a lot of the old, unnecessary data of the outdated versions of those apps is still left on the phone. I used to use Avast Cleanup every once in a while to create huge chunks of data, usually in 700 - 800 MB range, but that never helped get rid of the notification. So, I figured that Avast Cleanup doesn't really get rid of that unnecessary data left behind by outdated versions of apps. I went ahead and downgraded Google+ to factory version, did the same with YouTube. All of that did work. I even changed the phone's settings so that no apps are automatically updated.
After doing all that work, I felt great to have a lot of my space back again. Avast Cleanup's "Safe Clean" no longer cleared up huge chunks of data, but rather 2 - 5 MBs. I even installed Avast Phone Security to scan for viruses that could be causing problems. No viruses were detected, everything was perfectly fine. I had to remove that app after that. I became careful with all data, like the texts I receive on text messaging apps. I started deleting all unnecessary messages as soon as they became unnecessary. I took all steps to ensure that the Phone Storage wouldn't get filled up.
However, the entire epidemic somehow managed to return, with full force. I can't update any of the apps that I have, and most of the problems with them are fixed in the latest updates. Apart from that, there are 0 bytes left on the Phone Storage, so forget transferring any data "on" the Phone Storage, I can't even take a screenshot. It just won't save anything. I can't download any multimedia sent to me on messaging apps either. No matter what I do, there always seems to be 0 bytes left on the phone. I can't install any new apps to solve the problem, and deleting the apps I have won't give me any extra space. I removed "Snapchat" after this happened, but no space was retrieved. So, I'm left with a bunch of problematic non-updating apps, a non-functional screenshot feature, and no space to install new apps or download data onto my Phone Storage. I can still receive texts on messaging apps though, and those are essential.
So, I've given a lot of details. The point is, I don't know how to solve this issue. Is there anything I can do to solve it? Or do I have to give it over to someone at the repair shop? And regardless of that answer, I have one question before that which needs answering.
How do I ensure that I don't lose my data? Here's a list of apps that I have installed on my phone:
1. MX Player (require it to watch videos with S/W decoder for high volume)
2. Rain Sounds HD (require it to sleep at night with calm music)
3. Whatsapp (require it to receive texts from close friends)
4. Kik (require it to receive texts from distant friends)
5. Truecaller (require it to identify unknown number owners)
6. Avast Cleanup (require it to clean up any data that I can, which these days is 0 bytes every time I try to safe clean)
There are other texting apps that don't store the texts on the phone, which is why I can't read them unless I'm connected to the internet. So, in short, I can take care of those. But, what can I do about Whatsapp and Kik? I don't want to lose those messages. Is there like a Whatsapp and Kik cloud, where I can backup my messages and then restore them once I do a factory reset on the phone, or get it back after the person at the store repairs it?
Once I have safeguarded all the data I require, what can I do to get down to solving this issue? How can I un-corrupt the internal memory? If you have read all of it, thanks for taking the time to read it.
ADVICE for Google:
Please don't bombard your OS with unnecessary apps. I don't require most of the Google apps, and you don't allow users like me to uninstall it. No one should have to meddle with inner settings and "disable" those apps in the first place. I need my phones in working condition, please don't put such heavy load on the average customer's head by complicating things.