Why do I never have storage space?

[LimeS]

I rarely have more than 200mb of space on my device storage and it's annoying because I can't do things like recieve emails. My phone is Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017).

I have a few questions:

How can I stop apps transferring to device storage from my SD card automatically?

I assume they save to device when they update, if so how can I tell my phone to automatically save apps to external storage?

What could be taking up all the space on my device?

I have tried looking through all my files, including hidden files, to find what is taking up so much room but I can barely find anything. My device has 16gb storage and when I transfer as many things as I can to SD and delete caches on all apps (which takes an annoying amount of time doing it one by one) I can clear 1gb. Some apps don't want to move, that's fine. If we allow for perhaps a few more GB for my files that won't transfer, that's a lot being taken up by something else. It can't all be system data, can it?

Thank you

 

[hallux]

How can I stop apps transferring to device storage from my SD card automatically?

You can't. Not easily anyway.

I assume they save to device when they update, if so how can I tell my phone to automatically save apps to external storage?

Android doesn't allow this anymore. SD cards are unreliable and slower so to avoid issues that arise from that Google has decided to make this very difficult.

What could be taking up all the space on my device?

In your device settings should be a way to look at storage used. Can you join and post a screenshot?

See this link for instructions on how to join Android Central.

 

[mustang7757]

Can you post a screenshot of your storage?

https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=413366

 

[LimeS]

I'll attach a screenshot of the storage usage. Here I have about 700mb after deleting caches.

For apps here in device maintenance it only takes into account ones I've downloaded and not built in apps. But I have worked out that my built in apps currently take up about 4.5gb. I forgot about this when I posted before. I can clear more room by deleting the data of some of these apps. If I do this as well as deleting caches of other apps I might have 2gb free but this will be filled up again probably within a week. Do you think it must be automatic updates that cause this to happen? If I could stop that 2gb from filling up again then everything would function fine and that would be good enough for me.

I don't know how to know exactly how much space is taken up by the system. Or what that really means. That 4.5gb of built in apps includes system apps. Is all system data included in system apps or is there more? Because after all the apps are taken into account, 8gb storage left for system data is perhaps not a lot? So maybe I shouldn't be surprised that I dont have any space left? But I don't really know how much space the system can be expected to take up.


Thank you very much for replying
I hope I attached the screenshot correctly...

 

[mustang7757]

I'll attach a screenshot of the storage usage. Here I have about 700mb after deleting caches.

For apps here in device maintenance it only takes into account ones I've downloaded and not built in apps. But I have worked out that my built in apps currently take up about 4.5gb. I forgot about this when I posted before. I can clear more room by deleting the data of some of these apps. If I do this as well as deleting caches of other apps I might have 2gb free but this will be filled up again probably within a week. Do you think it must be automatic updates that cause this to happen? If I could stop that 2gb from filling up again then everything would function fine and that would be good enough for me.

I don't know how to know exactly how much space is taken up by the system. Or what that really means. That 4.5gb of built in apps includes system apps. Is all system data included in system apps or is there more? Because after all the apps are taken into account, 8gb storage left for system data is perhaps not a lot? So maybe I shouldn't be surprised that I dont have any space left? But I don't really know how much space the system can be expected to take up.


Thank you very much for replying
I hope I attached the screenshot correctly...

Hi, welcome !

With the SD card I would put only picture, videos and documents, as they can cause error and get corrupt then cause issues if you put app data there. 16gb phone is not enough for today usage.
I would try uninstall as many apps as you could to get 2gb free . Maybe start planning for a phone with more storage like 64gb or higher.

 

[Mooncatt]

Do you have your texting app set to auto-delete old texts? If not, those can take up a lot of storage over time.

In the grand scheme of things, 16GB is not a lot in today's world. You'll likely be fighting this issue until you move to a better phone. 64 GB with an SD card slot, or 128 GB without, it's about the minimum I would suggest for storage these days. The OS is getting bigger, apps are getting bigger, photos are getting bigger, videos are getting bigger, everything is is getting bigger and taking up more space. 64 GB may sound like a lot compared to what you have now, but not really if you're planning to keep the phone for a long while.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

I don't store much on my phone and I am at about 98GB used of my 512GB!! So it does mount up very quickly these days

 

[Mooncatt]

I don't store much on my phone and I am at about 98GB used of my 512GB!! So it does mount up very quickly these days

Mhmm. 59 GB out of 128 GB used internally, and almost 28 GB out of 128 GB used on my SD card.

 

[BergerKing]

I concur with @Mooncatt, as I'm currently using a 16 GB/2GB device as my actual active phone, supporting my deactivated Note 9 via Hotspot from the J2.

I fight memory issues constantly, even with a stripped-down listing of apps. The device is simply not designed for apps and OS of today. Caches will eat your memory quickly, especially social media apps like Facebook, which I just checked and cleared, with a cache of over half a gigabyte as it was. Caches can easily chew, swallow, and retain well over a gigabyte of space in no time.

The low RAM sucks, too, as part of RAM "saves" some space as a reserve, simply to retain any functionality at all. A 32 gig device in today's app environment would feel like a 16 Gig device did 7 years ago.

A larger space device with low RAM wouldn't do you any better. Hot processors are sweet, but give them 2 GB of RAM, you just put a Corvette on a go-kart track. You can make the curves, but only slowly, and you'll never get very fast, even on the straightaways.

For a device to function well, at least in multitasking operations, you simply need space. I'll give you a simple description. As I explained, I have the Note 9, compared to the J2 Core. I set them side-by-side, and open the Weather widget on both phones.

Simultaneously, I tap the "Radar" feature on both screens. The 9 takes a click, promptly loading the radar page and rendering everything in full in a second or two. The Core, meanwhile, is about 20-30 seconds loading the exact same page.

Sometimes, just to open an app takes a ridiculous amount of time. 9, tap an app, it opens right away. The Core, it sits there, and maybe responds as much as a few seconds later. It drives me batty to do much more than simple actions on it.

I'm a raging multitasker, zipping through this app and that, looking up thinks, doing research, playing games, checking social media, moderating web pages and Facebook groups back and forth, to and fro. I dunno how you use your device, but you might consider backing it up, and performing a Factory Reset.

Then, at least, your phone will run better, for a little while. Additionally, memory kinda fragments a bit too, leaving kind of null, unusable bits of memory, or, computer constipation. Give your phone an electronic enema via a Factory Reset.

 

[LimeS]

Wow I knew 16gb was small but I didn't expect you all to say it's just not enough. Makes perfect sense though. I will delete some apps for now because I don't need them all and I don't want to start paying for a new phone right now. Seems like I definitely should aim to replace it with a better one though.

Thanks for the tips about being careful keeping apps on an SD card, and the factory reset to improve performance is a good idea. I'm so used to it being slow, I forget that it's not normal. Has anyone tried using a defragging app?

Thank you all

 

[Mooncatt]

Has anyone tried using a defragging app?

Thank you all

I wouldn't bother. It makes sense on traditional hard drives with moving heads that read the platters, because it means the heads move less and thus speed up performance. Solid state memory has no moving parts, so there's really nothing to be gained by defragging. Not that I've breasts of, anyway.

 

[hallux]

Has anyone tried using a defragging app?

Thank you all

No need, as indicated. In fact, due to the limited erase and write cycles on solid state storage (look it up, they may be relatively high now but it's still a consideration) it's just not recommended because it will reduce the life of the storage chips.

 

[LimeS]

Ah okay, good to know. I've learned a lot today! Thank you all very much for your help

 

[mustang7757]

Ah okay, good to know. I've learned a lot today! Thank you all very much for your help

That's what's great about this community , we all learn from each other .