Database Info

[APP][2.2+] SDCard Watcher - Find out which apps clutter your SDCard

SDCard Watcher
Market Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.desaster.sdcardwatcher
Description / Reasoning
Anyone who installs a lot of apps will soon find their SDCard cluttered with strange directories that don't seem to relate to any app you know. You could just remove them all, but how do you know which directories are from apps you are still using, and might contain some important data?
Since the sdcard filesystem lacks ownership info, there's really no easy way of knowing which app to blame. This app is my approach to the problem.
Basically the app lets you monitor any chosen directory for changes, and when a new file or directory is created, it checks which app is currently visible to the user, and saves this information in a database. This way, next time some app leaves an obscure directory rotting on your sdcard, you will know exactly which app to blame.
Why should you care?
Actually, you probably shouldn't. The extra bits of data often don't take any significant space on your memory card. However, it irritates me, and this app gives me a bit more of a sense of control. The XDA forum is probably the best place for me to post this app, since I know there are at least a few other like-minded people here who care about tweaking little things like these
Battery usage
The app's background process uses the kernel's inotify feature to catch changes in the filesystem, and thus uses virtually no processing power, and will not drain your battery.
Reliability
There are essentially two ways for an app to run a background service; as a background service, and as a background service with a notification icon. My app supports both ways, but the default is to run without a notification icon.
I am still unsure if android lets the service run reliably enough without the notification icon, so if you think you're missing file changes, I'd love to hear about it. In any case, the notification icon can be enabled in the settings and should help with the issue (should there be an issue).
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[Q] Cleanup of internal memory

Alright I'll explain a bit my case.
At CM10 I had no problem with internal memory, I had around 200-170mb free with all my must-have apps, and even other ones I think. I switched to CM10.1, most precisely, to besttt's Slim Bean, as @mikeioannina said, it's just not necessary to wipe /data at any moment, (see this wiki article) so yeah, to update from like.. Slim Bean 7 to SB8, I just wipe /system (even when it's said not to), cache and dalvik. Even after removing a LOT of system apps (over 15), including the google search one (QuickSearchBox.apk) my phone displays a total of 64 megabytes free, with all the SD card apps moved to SD card.
I am experiencing the problems in having low internal storage, such as this problem. I haven't been able to update whatsapp or download any other app, not even BBM that is 13mb, it just won't let me install due to "insufficent storage available", even when I have enough room for both apps.
What do I think that happens? I guess there are some leftovers from previous ROM(s) in /data, and I wanted to know how to clean properly my /data/, or well just entirely my internal storage WITHOUT having to:
Having to reinstall ROM
Wiping the whole /data
Doing a factory reset
Having to redownload ALL my apps again
as I see the procedures listed above unnecessary at my case.
EDIT:I also did a sum of what my apps weigh in Settings>Apps and gave this result (approximate), not exceeding the 200mb, just as it was at CM10.
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EDIT2 The sum of all the apps that were at Settings>Apps>All, I mean, these:
(I have more space free because deleted the YouTube app, it's still really low)
and it gave me an approximate of 240mb, being used by all of those apps, where's my 160mb left of free storage?
Best regards~

No one? This took me a bit of effort..

They may say that it is not necessary, however the best way to do things is always to do a full wipe before installing or updating any ROM. This is especially useful if you encounter problems like this. Yes, it is indeed time consuming and tedious to redownload the apps and restore the save data, but this is the best way to ensure that the installation or update went well. It is to also prevent leftover data from messing up with the ROM installation.
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I think that the dalvik uses around 60-100 MB depending on how much apps you have, and its not showed. Apps like Link2sd tell you that it can move the dalvik to the sd, but if you make a wipe from the cwm the dalvik is created in the phone memory again. At least that is what happen to me.
By the way, you could also erase the apps before you install a rom, delete them from the zip. Just be aware of which ones are important to the system. Maybe you gain some free MB

Odex or Deodex with ART?

So I'm running ART on a deodexed rom and was thinking of re-odexing sys apps and framework. From what I understand is ART converts Deodexed and Odexed files differently. So what would be the better option? Anybody really knowledgeable on ART?

Well it looks like I may not get an answer but I did some real world testing along with some benchmarks on CM11 and can say without a doubt that ART converts odex better. Why? Not really sure. I don't have the knowledge or the time to really dig into this but an odexed system will still provide a performance improvement thru ART.
If anyone has any insight on the technical reasons as to why this is then please post. It would be interesting.

razz1 said:
Well it looks like I may not get an answer but I did some real world testing along with some benchmarks on CM11 and can say without a doubt that ART converts odex better. Why? Not really sure. I don't have the knowledge or the time to really dig into this but an odexed system will still provide a performance improvement thru ART.
If anyone has any insight on the technical reasons as to why this is then please post. It would be interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ART works significantly better because it cuts out the middle man dalvik creates. I read this a while ago so I might not be exactly right, but dalvik uses the dalvik cache to store app information, which in turn opens a second file to initiate the app to open. Adds a delay.
ART is specifically written for Android, while dalvik was originally created for much less of a demanding app environment. ART basically just uses 1 file to control an app, which cuts loading time down and the way apps run. It's just much more efficient.
I wouldn't expect odexing or deodexing to make much of a difference in this scenario.

Well I will say this. After a nice look at a logcat today I found errors of ART trying to identify an odex file (ELF Magic). This pertains to all odex! Just thought I would throw this out there if anyone is interested.
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This is because ART is looking for compiled native ELF executable, not dalvik runtime. It's completly different format, bacause ELF is java bytecode compiled to native (similar as native .exe on Windows) and ODEX is not. ODEX is compiled as dalvik bytecode that still runs via dalvik VM, not natively.
You should not use .odex on ART.

Including SD Data as Internal space?

Hi
My phone keeps saying its full. Its not. Going through my installed apps it just doesn't amount to around 12GB.
Checking the properties of the Android folder including data and obb only amounts to 5GB.
It seems the phone thinks files in Pocket Casts on the SD and other SD based files like Here Maps data reside on the internal when they dont!
Anyone clarify this or figure out a fix?

Update: deleting app data of Pocket Casts and Here Maps didn't change anything..
There's still something not right as I went through and checked folder sizes of everything on internal and give or tale a MB here and there, there's nothing else other than the 5.1GB of data. Where is the other 5GB??

Do you happen to have Google Play Music downloaded locally and saved to SD?

Indeed I do...
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Clear that cache and stored music. Use Google MusicManager for PC to download your music, that way you will not reach your 2 download limit, as it does not count against that limit according to Google when using the manager.
That way you can copy that music to your SD card and it will be in MP3 format.

No, that's not the issue. It only had 40MB of data. I'm literally stumped as to where this hidden few gigs are!

Highlighting all files including hidden on Windows or with File Commander on the phone only shows 3.9GB, but the phone thinks 9GB is used!

One of my work mates had something similar, was told to factory reset and start again and it did actually fix the problem

Did you try the clear cache option in storage settings? It clears for all apps.

Yes. Cleared everything. No joy. Factory reset in the end and that sorted it as its now back as it was with 7GB free. Assume it may have been some oddity from flashing UK generic over O2 rom? Only thing I can think it was.

Ah I didn't see you replied to this. Anyway, I noticed that Google play music does a funny thing where if you have saved music (not cached music) stored on the external SD, the space counts against your internal SD as well. Again, this is not cached music, but music that you've indicated you want saved to device.

55GB space missing on SDCard after deleting file

I use Syncthing regularly to backup some things from the phone to my PC and it works rather nicely.
Syncthing - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
However, it often chokes on big files, eg I wanted to copy some kiwix files (aka precompiled wiki) to my SDCard (the other way around which works also very well for small files).
Kiwix - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Welcome to Kiwix Server
library.kiwix.org
Well, that full wiki has some 99GB and it got stuck. So I stopped Syncthing and deleted the remnant incomplete file... took forever, I got impatient and rebooted my fon.
Ouch, no empty space was recovered - I am missing about 55GiB "emptiness". Remembering vaguely that exfat is windows, I thought to just check it quickly in Win10... except it didn't work (check via properties):
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Can anyone explain this? What would be the proper way to enforce a check and free up my space?
PS: The card is a 512GB from Kingston with read/write above 70MB/s.

AFAIK modern SD-cards support CMD38 ( AKA TRIM ) command.
Check whether the SD-card in question supports CMD38 command and if, then apply it.
More info here:
Quickly Wipe an SD Card with ESP8266
In a previous story, I have written about connecting an SD Card to an ESP8266. During my adventures, I have discovered some interesting…
pawitp.medium.com

jwoegerbauer said:
modern SD-cards support CMD38 ( AKA TRIM ) command
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I would have expected a 512GB card is modern enough but no luck so far:
fstrim: /media/xxx/[email protected]: the discard operation is not supported
So I searched and found two apps:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...ol-of-your-device-nand-chip-trimming.3038240/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...tility-for-android-no-root-necessary.4258765/
Feature set was limited (basically just on and off, cannot select mounts/devices). Tried to set trim at reboot, no luck. Next step was busybox:
~ $ sudo busybox fstrim -v /storage/8549-8438
fstrim: ioctl 0xc0185879 failed: Function not implemented
Yeah, unless there is another idea... I think I just reformat it today (and won't reboot my fon next time so quickly if it occurs again).
PS: When moving all my files from sdcard to pc, something did get triggered and a lost-folder popped up. Unfortunately it was only half of it, instead of 55GB now "only" 34 were missing