Internal memory issue: It's full...But there's no way!!! - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III

I just recently tried to upgrade my SynergyROM from r73 to r118 (current). I did the usualy TiBu and CWM backups. Upon attempting to restore apps with TiBu I was having issues, and realized my internal memory is full. There's no way I filled up 16GB.... It's all under "Misc. files" When I click on it, "System memory" sits at 4.05GB and "clockworkmod" sits at 5.70G.
What in the heck is causing CWM to fill up so much??? And what's "system Memory" consist of? Quite vague.
I'd appreciate some help on this. I really don't have THAT much installed, lol. Unless CWM recovery images (Which I have like 7 of) take up 500MB each...Then let me know so I can *facepalm*

Nandroid backups ALWAYS take up a lot of space. I have just one backup (via TWRP) and its sitting pretty at 1.7 GB. Your 5.6 GB looks about right since CWM uses the blobs folder to cut down on total Nandroid space by only backing up files that have changed. 5 CWM backups take up a great deal of space.
Also, check to make sure you completely uninstalled games. I learned the hard way that if you don't uninstall those 1+ gb games, they still take up hard disk space even when you wipe and flash roms. I went searching through I think "/Android/data" to find leftover files from uninstalled games. The second data downloaded once you initially installed the game stays until you actively uninstall.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Thanks for this, you confirmed my suspicion of the Nandroid backups taking up so much space. I really had no idea they were so large. I deleted most of the old ones I wasn't using and kept a few critical backups. Still having some issues with TiBu skipping 7 items that it coulnd't restore, and system apps erroring out on me. I might need to just go back to what I had.

Weioo said:
Thanks for this, you confirmed my suspicion of the Nandroid backups taking up so much space. I really had no idea they were so large. I deleted most of the old ones I wasn't using and kept a few critical backups. Still having some issues with TiBu skipping 7 items that it coulnd't restore, and system apps erroring out on me. I might need to just go back to what I had.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, I'm posting here again in extreme frustration.
I deleted most of my Nandroid backups and I'm up to almost 3GB of internal space. I had about 7-8 of them, now down to just 3. However, when I check my "storage" under settings, misc. files take up a total of 8.5GB. When I go inside, TiBu takes up 600mb, while "System memory" takes up a whopping 5GB+.
What in the hell is in the "System Memory" files that takes up 5GB? After ictures, videos, music, it brings me down to 2.8GB internal memory. Though I need to start using my sd-ext for some storage, this is NOT correct!!!
Anybody ever deal with this? I did some Googling and somebody had a similar issue with the Note 2.
Thanks in advance!

Weioo said:
Okay, I'm posting here again in extreme frustration.
I deleted most of my Nandroid backups and I'm up to almost 3GB of internal space. I had about 7-8 of them, now down to just 3. However, when I check my "storage" under settings, misc. files take up a total of 8.5GB. When I go inside, TiBu takes up 600mb, while "System memory" takes up a whopping 5GB+.
What in the hell is in the "System Memory" files that takes up 5GB? After ictures, videos, music, it brings me down to 2.8GB internal memory. Though I need to start using my sd-ext for some storage, this is NOT correct!!!
Anybody ever deal with this? I did some Googling and somebody had a similar issue with the Note 2.
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you go into cwm under the backup section and pick to clear needed data(something like that)
Sent from my SCH-I535

Some quick background... I was running Synergy ROM for GS3 r73 for the last couple months. I wanted to update to Synergy r118 when I came across this. I didn't notice until after I loaded r118 that my memory was so full, and TiBu had issues restoring files due to lack of memory.
kintwofan said:
Did you go into cwm under the backup section and pick to clear needed data(something like that)
Sent from my SCH-I535
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just "cleared nandroid space" after backing up all my backups to my PC (hmmm, ironic). No dice, still sitting at 3.95GB "System Memory" under settings/storage/Miscellaneous.
If you check your phone, do you get the same? A LARGE amount of data under misc., "system memory?" Mine is 3.95GB + 3.24GB CWM +700MB TiBU + 100MB various other items. This is what the 8.XX GB under miscellaneous storage consists of. I was starting to wonder if "system memory" consisted of all items below it added together, but I do not believe this to be true. If I add up the size of all files under misc., it comes to just over 8GB.
Any suggestions? I really want to know what is in system memory that beefs it up to almost 4 gigs!!! Arg, this is insanely frustrating!!!!!

Weioo said:
Some quick background... I was running Synergy ROM for GS3 r73 for the last couple months. I wanted to update to Synergy r118 when I came across this. I didn't notice until after I loaded r118 that my memory was so full, and TiBu had issues restoring files due to lack of memory.
I just "clearned nandroid space" after backing up all my backups to my PC (hmmm, ironic). No dice, still sitting at 5GB+ "System Memory" under settings/storage/Miscellaneous.
If you check your phone, do you get the same? A LARGE amount of data under misc., "system memory?"
Also, now most of the time I look in this location, "system memory" doesn't even show up, nor does CWM. So it looks like I have a handful of apps installed that vary between a couple KB and 700mb (TiBU).
Any suggestions? Arg, this is insanely frustrating!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking at this and I'm not sure if you realize but that 4-5 gb taken up by System Memory is TW. System Memory = TouchWiz, CPU. This space is always taken up on any device using flash memory.
Quick breakdown using your numbers, since you started with 16 GB internal storage:
*16GB = 11 GB usable, 4-5 (let's say 5GB) GB are dedicated to the System for the OS. You're not getting any of this back unless you're on an AOSP rom.
*so, 11 GB is the "new" starting point.
CWM nandroid = 3 GB
Pics/Vids = 2.8 GB
5GB is roughly the most you should have if you have 0 apps. I'm just using the numbers that you posted previously. If you have a few dozen apps and one or two games, I imagine you should now have probably 3 GB's at most to use of internal storage.
How close am I to what you have as free space? Is my estimation of apps/games taking 3 GB of data correct?

SlimSnoopOS said:
I'm looking at this and I'm not sure if you realize but that 4-5 gb taken up by System Memory is TW. System Memory = TouchWiz, CPU. This space is always taken up on any device using flash memory.
Quick breakdown using your numbers, since you started with 16 GB internal storage:
*16GB = 11 GB usable, 4-5 (let's say 5GB) GB are dedicated to the System for the OS. You're not getting any of this back unless you're on an AOSP rom.
*so, 11 GB is the "new" starting point.
CWM nandroid = 3 GB
Pics/Vids = 2.8 GB
5GB is roughly the most you should have if you have 0 apps. I'm just using the numbers that you posted previously. If you have a few dozen apps and one or two games, I imagine you should now have probably 3 GB's at most to use of internal storage.
How close am I to what you have as free space? Is my estimation of apps/games taking 3 GB of data correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, wow. I really never figured I'd run out of memory so quick with 16GB. I also didn't realize TW takes up so much space. Thank you for explaining this. Time to move my backups, pics, vids, and apps to the EXT-SD, stat!
Edit: You'll noticed I edited the above right as you were responding to it. I reread it and it seems garbled, lol.

Weioo said:
Ok, wow. I really never figured I'd run out of memory so quick with 16GB. I also didn't realize TW takes up so much space. Thank you for explaining this. Time to move my backups, pics, vids, and apps to the EXT-SD, stat!
Edit: You'll noticed I edited the above right as you were responding to it. I reread it and it seems garbled, lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh, I see the edits now haha it's all good. So is everything squared away now? Out of curiosity, how much free space do you have left on the internal storage?
When you first turn on the 16 GB GSIII, you only have at most 12 GB to use, 4 GB are immediately lost to the system/OS. It's not really JUST TouchWiz taking up space, it's the entire OS and various components that fuel that. The GSIII is marketed at 16 GB but that's never the case with flash memory. Mine shipped with 12 GB readily usable however I caught a good deal on a 32 GB microsd card several months ago and have been fine since.

Related

[Q] Default intall location as internal memory

I am on Zeus ROM (actually, I don't think what ROM I am on matters here). After installing a few apps, I noticed that some apps go into internal memory, and some to external. I can't seem to get the logic of how it is decided where to direct which app. I never cared for install location, that is, until this morning.
I rebooted my phone in a routine once-a-week-reboot. When it booted up, it gave me a message that external sd got corrupt and needs to be reformatted. I overlooked it for the time being. Then when I reached work, I noticed about half my apps missing. Then it flashed to me that I noticed some apps in internal and some in external memory in TiBu.
I had to download TiBu too from market since it was missing, and then restored my apps. Now all are in internal memory since external card is corrupted.
Now, after all this history, my question would be to know if there is a way to force the default location of apps to internal memory. Infuse has loads of internal memory, and I see no harm in filling it up (well, that is, if I can really install that many apps).
diablo009 said:
I am on Zeus ROM (actually, I don't think what ROM I am on matters here). After installing a few apps, I noticed that some apps go into internal memory, and some to external. I can't seem to get the logic of how it is decided where to direct which app. I never cared for install location, that is, until this morning.
I rebooted my phone in a routine once-a-week-reboot. When it booted up, it gave me a message that external sd got corrupt and needs to be reformatted. I overlooked it for the time being. Then when I reached work, I noticed about half my apps missing. Then it flashed to me that I noticed some apps in internal and some in external memory in TiBu.
I had to download TiBu too from market since it was missing, and then restored my apps. Now all are in internal memory since external card is corrupted.
Now, after all this history, my question would be to know if there is a way to force the default location of apps to internal memory. Infuse has loads of internal memory, and I see no harm in filling it up (well, that is, if I can really install that many apps).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exciting. I get to help diablo.
Could be a trick..maybe not as easy as it looks.
There is a setting in manage applications that allows you to Move the app from sd to phone. Is this what you mean?
Settings.manage application. Click on app. Move to phone?
There are some market app s that will let you choose where to install an app as well....folio? Something..
I routinely do this for app i deem important...ie not games etc..
Did i pass?
qkster said:
This is exciting. I get to help diablo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks qkster, that's so cute
qkster said:
Could be a trick..maybe not as easy as it looks.
There is a setting in manage applications that allows you to Move the app from sd to phone. Is this what you mean?
Settings.manage application. Click on app. Move to phone?
There are some market app s that will let you choose where to install an app as well....folio? Something..
I routinely do this for app i deem important...ie not games etc..
Did i pass?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not moving from phone to SD manually; I have to do this routinely on my touch pad cos of its low internal memory.
I was looking for a means of forcing an app to install to internal memory as a default. Even as we speak, with about 62 apps installed, I still have about 1.4 GB internal memory free (as per TiBu). I would prefer an app to go there, than to external SD.
By the way, it helps to have TiBu auto backup apps every day. I have two set up, one for newly installed apps, and one for all modified data everyday around 3 am. That saved my life with all apps with up to date data when I restored them.
diablo009 said:
Thanks qkster, that's so cute
Not moving from phone to SD manually; I have to do this routinely on my touch pad cos of its low internal memory.
I was looking for a means of forcing an app to install to internal memory as a default. Even as we speak, with about 62 apps installed, I still have about 1.4 GB internal memory free (as per TiBu). I would prefer an app to go there, than to external SD.
By the way, it helps to have TiBu auto backup apps every day. I have two set up, one for newly installed apps, and one for all modified data everyday around 3 am. That saved my life with all apps with up to date data when I restored them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I knew there was a catch.
Did you look at es task manager on market?
qkster said:
I knew there was a catch.
Did you look at es task manager on market?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking at it now
My interesting observation over the last few days:
Since moving all my apps to internal memory, for some reason, even with a lot of apps in memory, I still have about 150 MB free 90% of the time.
Earlier it used to fall to 80 too.
Phone is snappy, so not sure how this is happening. And since Infuse has loads of internal memory (mine has atleast 1.3 GB free), I think it might be better off moving apps to internal memory.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App

[Q] Where Is My Internal Storage?

Hi all,
I am using a stock ROM on my Inspire 4G. For some time now, I have been getting this message: "Low on space: Phone storage space is getting low." I do have a lot of apps installed, but I have moved every movable app larger than 1MB onto my SD card, and I have continued to get the message. Today I reached the point where I cannot even upgrade an app. I am showing 70.34MB of available space.
I have searched Market for something that would tell me what's using all my storage, but everything I found is limited to external/SD card storage. Can anyone tell me what else I can do to most effectively recover some storage? What are the most likely culprits?
Thanks!
search the android market. Diskview.
not much else you can do without root access to that partition
I could be very wrong on this, but from what I understand the internal storage is partitioned in a way that most of it is not usable for general use. I have rooted my phone and switched rooms and I still only have a little over a gig of memory on my phone for apps and such
From the House of the Rising Sun using IceColdSandwich
Barkt said:
I could be very wrong on this, but from what I understand the internal storage is partitioned in a way that most of it is not usable for general use. I have rooted my phone and switched rooms and I still only have a little over a gig of memory on my phone for apps and such
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4gb internal storage on specs and around 1gb is 'usable'.
However, OP's issue is that he's out of internal storage space. I do know that there have been issues with other devices where moving apps to sdcard still left a copy on the internal storage.
OP: Might consider doing a bit of data cleaning rather than app moving.
Even when you move apps to the SD card, it still leaves a little bit of the app in internal. So if you really have a lot of apps, you're going to have to remove something. Unless there is something else wrong. I have around 150 apps installed, with everything that can be put on SD put there, and I have around 650MB still available.
Thanks, everyone, for your replies. I've been really slow getting back to this because I've had other issues I've had to deal with. I did move absolutely every movable app onto the SD card, but it didn't help.
Wolamok, I had assumed I would have to remove some data, but what? I had about 2300 contacts, many of which were duplicates. While I was cleaning them up in Outlook, I decided to delete them ALL from my phone to see what memory I could free up.. A few contacts were repopulated from social media, but only 60 or 70. However, I 'me still out of of memory and getting notifications, and I still can't so much as upgrade an app.
I feel really stupid, because on my Pocket PCs and Windows Mobile devices, I knew exactly where to look for data and what to remove, but I feel totally lost here.
I don't even know which apps to uninstall, because I don't know which ones have left pieces around in internal memory and how much.
Any more ideas, anyone?
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
I forgot to mention that while I appreciated the Diskview suggestion, I can't get it to run. I don't know if you my memory is too low to even do that, but it says it's analyzing the SD card and never finishes.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
MagicSpeller said:
I don't even know which apps to uninstall, because I don't know which ones have left pieces around in internal memory and how much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whenever you uninstall an app, be sure to clear cache and data for it first. And force stop it if that option isn't grayed out. Then there shouldn't be any remnants of it.
When you go into manage applications, you should be able to get an idea of where the most storage is being used. The amount that is listed for each app is only internal storage if you're on the "downloaded" or "all" tabs. So even if an app is on the SD card, what's listed is how much internal storage it is using.
Bottom line is, if you're hurting for storage, uninstall anything you don't really use. Even all those free Amazon games. You can always reinstall them in the future. Hope that helps to give you an idea of what's hogging storage.
pazzo02 said:
Whenever you uninstall an app, be sure to clear cache and data for it first. And force stop it if that option isn't grayed out. Then there shouldn't be any remnants of it.
When you go into manage applications, you should be able to get an idea of where the most storage is being used. The amount that is listed for each app is only internal storage if you're on the "downloaded" or "all" tabs. So even if an app is on the SD card, what's listed is how much internal storage it is using.
Bottom line is, if you're hurting for storage, uninstall anything you don't really use. Even all those free Amazon games. You can always reinstall them in the future. Hope that helps to give you an idea of what's hogging storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for the reply. By the time I saw it, I had already gotten so frustrated I had followed you advice in advance. I deleted all the apps I'd installed and was going to try out "some day"--and yes, that included all the free Amazon games I'd never played!
I was surprised to see how much space was being used by apps that supposedly were on the SD card.
I hadn't thought of clearing cache and data, and I guess I'm too late for that now, but I'll definitely keep that in mind for the future.
Thanks again!

This.... is so..... DUMB!!!!

I'm not a person that loads up my phone with frivolous apps. In life I try and keep a simple approach, less is more, less clutter, less baggage, use things how they were made instead of weighing them down with accessories and mods, you know? Not that I'm against a few choice mods, but by and large, I keep it simple.
So it is quite shocking to me when my Photon Q displays the following error messages and refuses to even let me down load a 200kb app due to lack of storage space on internal memory.
This happened after I did a CWM backup. But obviously there are other factors at play. First of all, someone dev'ing for this phone should seriously look into the internal/external memory issues and try to break the chains. It is ridiculous.
Second of all, why is CWM taking up so much room on my phone with backups? Can I delete all these "blobs"? What can I keep and what should I delete over time when doing CWM backups?
Notice the 2 different errror messages: Low on volume space (phone space is getting low) and Low on space (phone storage space is getting low)
What are you guys doing personally on a day to day basis to deal with this issue? What do you recommend?
TIA
I've been using TWRP rather than CWM, but backups do take up a lotta space... I have one here that is 804 MB- getting close to a whole GB just for 1 backup. I personally try to keep only one or two backups on my internal storage, i'm not sure if CWM can read backups from the actual sdcard, but you can transfer them there for storage at least. it is a pain tho. I also hate how your whole storage gets erased when you do a full stock restore with RSD Lite.... it was much easier when when all your pics and files were stored on an actual sdcard.
I backup to the external SD card.
And the whole external/internal thing has been addressed in quite a few threads.
arrrghhh said:
And the whole external/internal thing has been addressed in quite a few threads.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's debatable.
matt2k12 said:
That's debatable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1887631
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2008517
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1877031
And I know it's not in our section, but it was referenced in our section...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2231480
I believe I read somewhere not long after the Q was released and we got CWM ported to it that the latest versions now do incremental backups....the 'blobs' are the side effect of that if you will. If you delete them you effectively are deleting your backups. And yeah, you do need to make sure you're backing up to external storage rather than the phone storage given the limited space there unfortunately.
I personally use TWRP and backup to the external SD but i also noticed that the backups are big. I play with different mods and roms all the time so i keep several copies of backups on my computer. you can just copy/move them off the SD for archiving reasons and keep only what you need on the device. I think the same can be said for CWM backups but i havent used it in a while.
Mordannon said:
I personally use TWRP and backup to the external SD but i also noticed that the backups are big. I play with different mods and roms all the time so i keep several copies of backups on my computer. you can just copy/move them off the SD for archiving reasons and keep only what you need on the device. I think the same can be said for CWM backups but i havent used it in a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I moved my backups but still. Google must come up with a remedy for their "Internal Storage Only" deal. Some games are 2 gigs. Install 2 games and you dont even have room for other apps or back ups. Pretty ridiculous. Hopefully CM 10.1 devs can do something about it.

[Q] Storage? Storage!

OK, I am having storage/space issues with my Blaze that are making the cameras inoperable (I keep getting a message stating there's a lack of memory or space on the SD card). I am running CM10 Stable on Android 4.1.2 with the CM kernel.
When I go into Settings and look at the Storage, here's what it says (I tried taking Screenshots but they didn't work):
Total Space= 1.12GB
814MB of Apps
252MB Available
Internal Storage= 1.4GB
208MB Apps
553MB Pics/Videos
4.78MB Downloads
SD Card= 3.69MB Total Space
1.99GB Available
Here's the thing: I have NO pics/videos, yet somehow 553 MB are being used for this. So what's the deal? Can someone give me the quickie/noob explanation? Or at least explain what's the best way to control your storage on the Blaze (and yes, I've used Search but haven't really found what I was looking for)? I would really appreciate it, this is a very annoying and frustrating issue.
Thanks!
Vinotas said:
OK, I am having storage/space issues with my Blaze that are making the cameras inoperable (I keep getting a message stating there's a lack of memory or space on the SD card). I am running CM10 Stable on Android 4.1.2 with the CM kernel.
When I go into Settings and look at the Storage, here's what it says (I tried taking Screenshots but they didn't work):
Total Space= 1.12GB
814MB of Apps
252MB Available
Internal Storage= 1.4GB
208MB Apps
553MB Pics/Videos
4.78MB Downloads
SD Card= 3.69MB Total Space
1.99GB Available
Here's the thing: I have NO pics/videos, yet somehow 553 MB are being used for this. So what's the deal? Can someone give me the quickie/noob explanation? Or at least explain what's the best way to control your storage on the Blaze (and yes, I've used Search but haven't really found what I was looking for)? I would really appreciate it, this is a very annoying and frustrating issue.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think you never cleaned up ur cache and over time lots of crap got accumulated hogging up all your space...also u need to look into your thumbnails as they tend to stay over time even if you move the actual photo...all you need to do is to backup your apps and their data n then boot in recovery mode and do a factory reset and then boot and go to any file manager and move whatever pics and vids you have on internal storage(by change if u have any) to external storage and delete the DCIM folder then...if even that doesnot let you do anything i think you are in need to format your system, cache, data and dalvik and flash the rom u use fresh and start over...you will be good as new then for sure even if it takes lil more time to set up things as u want again but thats better than being frustated and not able to do anything...hope that helps you
Check the ".thumbnails" directory under DCIM (or camera, I forget). My daughter's blaze seems to like accumulating 100+MB files I'm there.
Definitely check app cache too. The Cheeseburger Network app was pulling 500MB of cache on my S2.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
I was traveling but I read your recommendations and deleted a ton of files under DCIM folder. That seems to have fixed the issue for now, thanks so much. But I do need to re-flash the ROM anyway due to another issue so that will help.
Thanks! :good:

[Q] FIXED....Too much used space

I've got 10.46 gigs used on this thing, and that's with only a couple of downloaded apps. It's the 8013 variant, and I've had it rooted since the day I bought it. I've installed and uninstalled a couple of ROMS on it since then as well. The problem I'm having is not having any free space for anything anymore. When I go into Root Explorer I've got all these directories pointing to the same files. Root/Sdcard, Root/storage/emulated/0, Root/storage/emulated/legacy, Root/storage/sdcard0.
If I go into settings it says I've got 6.51 gigs of miscellaneous files, but when I open it to see what is there it only shows a couple hundred megs worth.
Back to Root Explorer. ... If I delete a file in one directory. It's gone in all the rest. I think the 0, and legacy folders are for different users. As far as the rest. I'm not sure. So I guess my question is are these all just links to to the same place? And if so, what is taking up so much space on my SD? And Is there a way to re-partition the storage?
Never mind FIXED.
Sorry for wasting space on xda. I decided go into TWRP and format the data. I lost everything, but it wasn't much to begin with. I now have 514.51 megs used, and 11.23 gigs free. I guess there was just a bunch of cap left over from old apps and roms. Thank you.

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