Strange Internal Storage Problem - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III

Please take a look at the attached screen shot where it shows that the information I have on my phone only takes up about half of the internal storage, yet I only have 511MB available. Can someone please help me find out where my internal storage went?
I am running CyanogenMod 10 on my SG3. Before this I ran all of the Experimental M builds and before that I ran several different nightlies.
Update:
I can't tell if my screenshot is working. I will type out what I see when I go to settings, storage:
Internal Storage:
Total Space
12.05GB
- Apps 3.03GB
- Pictures, videos 635MB
- Audio 22KB
- Downloads 97.64MB
- Available 510MB
Thre is also a graph of which more than half is dark gray representing Available.

Do you have a lot of backups? My backups don't show up in that chart either, but I've got 2.5 GB worth. Use something like storage analyzer from the play store.
Sent from my SCH-I535

kintwofan said:
Do you have a lot of backups? My backups don't show up in that chart either, but I've got 2.5 GB worth. Use something like storage analyzer from the play store.
Sent from my SCH-I535
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Storage Analyser was great and showed me that it was my backups. How can they be 5GB? Anyway, thanks.

erikcave said:
Storage Analyser was great and showed me that it was my backups. How can they be 5GB? Anyway, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They backup your ROM, apps, and all data. Make sure you delete them through recovery.
Sent from my SCH-I535

Similar issue
kintwofan said:
They backup your ROM, apps, and all data. Make sure you delete them through recovery.
Sent from my SCH-I535
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Accidentally saved some CWM backups to internal SD. Deleted them through CWM, but still shows 4.4GB in CWM folder. Also have several weird folders, USBDriveA-F, dated the same as CWM backups. Running Jelly Beans build 6. noob, so any help is very much appreciated.

Shouldn't your Total Space list 16 GB though?
I have the 32 GB model, and I just checked mine, and it says I have exactly 32 GB of Total Space.

pdykstra said:
Shouldn't your Total Space list 16 GB though?
I have the 32 GB model, and I just checked mine, and it says I have exactly 32 GB of Total Space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 16 GB model and I get 12.05 top work with. The system takes there other 4. I'm kind of jealous that your system doesn't take from your already bigger drive.
Sent from my SCH-I535
---------- Post added at 02:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:44 PM ----------
DutchDuke said:
Accidentally saved some CWM backups to internal SD. Deleted them through CWM, but still shows 4.4GB in CWM folder. Also have several weird folders, USBDriveA-F, dated the same as CWM backups. Running Jelly Beans build 6. noob, so any help is very much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go back into cwm and clear unused backup data in the backup menu, should clear up a little room. They do take up a lot of space though, they will take roughly 1.2 gb per backup. Also, i have those folders too. Not sure why, but they don't take y space, do they yours?
Sent from my SCH-I535

kintwofan said:
I have the 16 GB model and I get 12.05 top work with. The system takes there other 4. I'm kind of jealous that your system doesn't take from your already bigger drive.
Sent from my SCH-I535
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That perfect sense, and actually that is what I would expect. I was surprised when I saw mine reading "32.00 GB" Total Space. I thought it was going to read 27 or 28 GB or something like that.
Attached a screenshot. Maybe my phone is just including the system partition files in the Miscellaneous category or something?

I tried deleting backups from CWM, but the blobs folder was still 4GB. Is there a way to delete blobs folder contents through CWM? After flashing TOB 4.5, knew I wasn't going back so I deleted the contents of the blobs folder from file manager :good: My usbdrive folders are empty too, just wondering if that was normal.

Related

[Q] internal SD card file viewer? DIscrepancies b/w programs

Hi all,
I am trying to figure out whats taking all the space on my internal sd card. I switched to twrp recovery and deleted all clockworkmod related things, but it still says theres only 1 gb of free space left. I know for sure I could not possibly have used that much space. I store no music, very little photos.
I have tried using pc programs to visualize the space usage but none of them have been able to read the sd card, only the drives on the computer (spacesniffer for example).
Multiple apps installed (SDcard manager, Slim file manager) state i have 1 gb free space left, while another app (Storage Analyser) says I have 9gb free space.
Anyone have a program that will allow me to see whats taking up my space?
Thank you very much!
How many CWM backups did you have? When using CWM, after deleting your CWM backups did also you select the option to free up the space? How many TWRP backups do you now have?
Do you have any games installed? Have you checked file sizes or tried deleting leftover files under /sdcard/android? A lot of app data resides in the following three file paths:
/sdcard/android
/sdcard/data
/sdcard/Download
SlimSnoopOS said:
How many CWM backups did you have? When using CWM, after deleting your CWM backups did also you select the option to free up the space? How many TWRP backups do you now have?
Do you have any games installed? Have you checked file sizes or tried deleting leftover files under /sdcard/android? A lot of app data resides in the following three file paths:
/sdcard/android
/sdcard/data
/sdcard/Download
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a few cwm backups. When using the "free up space" option in cwm about a week ago, it was such a small amount it said it would free up. I only have 1 twrp backup right now. I deleted all the CWM blob files and the file folder.
I'll take a look at the three file paths and come back. Thanks for your help
EDIT: nothing in /sdcard/data, sdcard/download is minimal, and sdcard/android is fairly minimal too
amotamatapia said:
I had a few cwm backups. When using the "free up space" option in cwm about a week ago, it was such a small amount it said it would free up. I only have 1 twrp backup right now. I deleted all the CWM blob files and the file folder.
I'll take a look at the three file paths and come back. Thanks for your help
EDIT: nothing in /sdcard/data, sdcard/download is minimal, and sdcard/android is fairly minimal too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. Roughly 5 GB of data are set aside for the system, so as a reference:
-the 16 Gb GSIII would have at most 11.5 GB of free data
-the 32 GB GSIII would have at most 27.5 GB of free data
SlimSnoopOS said:
No problem. Roughly 5 GB of data are set aside for the system, so as a reference:
-the 16 Gb GSIII would have at most 11.5 GB of free data
-the 32 GB GSIII would have at most 27.5 GB of free data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the weird thing though is that about a month ago i ran into the same issue of running out of space. and found that the CWM blob files were taking up about 5gb. And i had thought this was the same issue again, so I flashed TWRP and deleted the CWM files, but they arent the ones taking up the space this time
That's weird but like I said those are the main directories where app data resides on /sdcard. Which GSIII do you have 16GB or 32GB?
SlimSnoopOS said:
That's weird but like I said those are the main directories where app data resides on /sdcard. Which GSIII do you have 16GB or 32GB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 16gb version. I thought for sure I used "spacesniffer" last time to view the files on my sd card, which gave me a visual on whats taking up space. But I just cannot pinpoint it this time since no program ive downloaded views the internal sd card
Your best bet may be to copy over all your important files to a pc, nandroid to your external sd, then Wipe data or Factory reset in TWRP (the one that warns that it will format /sdcard. With those folders on your pc, you should be able to see their files sizes then do the math once it's back onto your phone. Maybe even do a screenshot of all the /sdcard folders first then do the above steps. You may be able to see which folder that is missing is the culprit once you put the folders back onto your phone.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

At max storage capacity after installing CM10

I was looking through the folders to try and see which one was taking up all of my space, found the Samsung folder was at about 11 gigs but the three sub folders are nearly empty. The sub folders are just images, videos and music so I'm assuming that it's OK to delete this folder but unwanted to make sure that I wasn't missing something first. (everything I load besides apps goes onto my external SD card)
Sent from my GT-P5110 using xda app-developers app
Dmoser2113 said:
I was looking through the folders to try and see which one was taking up all of my space, found the Samsung folder was at about 11 gigs but the three sub folders are nearly empty. The sub folders are just images, videos and music so I'm assuming that it's OK to delete this folder but unwanted to make sure that I wasn't missing something first. (everything I load besides apps goes onto my external SD card)
Sent from my GT-P5110 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just flashed cm 10.2 and I'm only showing 4gb internal memory with about .5gb avail. I don't know where my storage went either. Used SD analyst and it doesn't add up to 4gb. Wondering what happened to the other 4gb. Any ideas?
raybudd said:
I just flashed cm 10.2 and I'm only showing 4gb internal memory with about .5gb avail. I don't know where my storage went either. Used SD analyst and it doesn't add up to 4gb. Wondering what happened to the other 4gb. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That happened to me too... The problem was that cm10.2 rom saves data to /sdcard not /sdcard0, so the files in /sdcard0 just stays there.... You can't delete the files inside because you can't access them. You need to flash the previous rom, and delete all files in /sdcard0, and reflash cm 10.2.
So does that mean a previous version of cm or whatever rom I had installed before cm10?
Sent from my GT-P5110 using xda app-developers app
Dmoser2113 said:
So does that mean a previous version of cm or whatever rom I had installed before cm10?
Sent from my GT-P5110 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think they are the same thing. Create a folder in in sdcard and you will see it in Sdcard0. Your 8gb of storage is 2gb for ROM, 2g apps and apps/data and 4gb storage.
thats weird
emm try to stay away from CM 10.2 , android 4.3 is not stable yet !
try CM 10.1 or a stable rom.. i advice you : slimrom build.8-OFFICIAL :good:

[Q] Total 12GB - Available 478MB ?

I don't understand what happened. The total space is now 12.05GB and I only have 478MB available.
The 12.05 is right. That's what a 16 GB hard drive is after a format. As for the low Available space how many Nandroids do u have,?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
Sandman-007 said:
The 12.05 is right. That's what a 16 GB hard drive is after a format. As for the low Available space how many Nandroids do u have,?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have any on the internal storage. I'm so confused because I can't figure out where the space is coming from. I've moved all my pictures, backups, and downloads to the external SD card.
Time to nandroid, wipe, and clean install, then restore what you want from nandroid. (Any app that you don't need data for , don't restore it. imo
Check what it looks like after clean install and then again after restore. Apps like Play Store and others can have alot of stuff in cache folders, you might want to chech out something like all-in-one toolbox to clean you cache and see what it says. Good luck, I'm a flash-a-holic so I nand & wipe all the time. Last time I stayed on a rom for a week I cleaned cache and it was 3 or 4 gig.
Cruzin' tha Galaxy SIII via Obsessed Rom / "INAPPROPRIATE" Kernel
Download es file manager and do the SD card analyze. That will show you what folders/files are eating up your space. It could just be a bug in the setup menu.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
I ran the SD card analyzer and it came up with the same breakdown as the settings display. I wish I knew what was causing the problem but I never did find out. I had to do 2 more wipe/restores and the storage returned to normal.
Glad u finally got it right
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
faehsemc said:
Glad u finally got it right
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, me too

Internal Storage dropped from 11.26GB to 1.97GB

Originally on CM 10.2
Carelessly flashed the Lightning Zap Kernel for 4.4 on top of CM 10.2 (my mistake on not reading)
Full Wipe
Flashed vincom's Superlite CM 10.2
Realized that my internal storage dropped to 1.97GB
Assumed it was a ROM issue
Went back to CM 10.2
Internal Storage still at 1.97GB
I've read numerous posts on this topic and people claim that the 1.97GB is for reserved for apps which confuses me because before this issue, I was installing apps just fine on the 11.26GB internal.
Any help would be really appreciated!
running my slcm10.2 v6.0, this is mine with quite a few apps installed, some to the system partition but most to the data partition. internal is not your int. sdcard as seen in pic from titu as int sdcard is seen as media in titu, what do u get when running titu
vincom said:
running my slcm10.2 v6.0, this is mine with quite a few apps installed, some to the system partition but most to the data partition. internal is not your int. sdcard as seen in pic from titu as int sdcard is seen as media in titu, what do u get when running titu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is mine. Still on official cm 10.2
Is that a clean full wipe install and did u install any apps
Posted w/xda app w/ i727R
MY STICKIES
| ROMS | KERNELS | FIRMWARE | RADIOS | HOWTO'S | GUIDES | INFo |
NEWB GUIDES TO: RESTORE TO STOCK | USE ODIN | INSTALL CWM | ROOT |
vincom said:
Is that a clean full wipe install and did u install any apps
Posted w/xda app w/ i727R
MY STICKIES
| ROMS | KERNELS | FIRMWARE | RADIOS | HOWTO'S | GUIDES | INFo |
NEWB GUIDES TO: RESTORE TO STOCK | USE ODIN | INSTALL CWM | ROOT |
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, using twrp 2.6.3.0, here's what I did:
Wipe>>swiped to factory reset>>Advance wipe>>checked dalvik, data, system, cache>>swiped to wipe all those>>flashed ROM>>reboot to test your ROM>>reboot to recovery>>flash gapps>>reboot
I have less than 10 apps installed atm. Can't install any more or it'd tell me there was insufficient storage.
Here are some pictures.
Did my partitions get messed up or do cm 10.2 ROMs purposely limit users to 2GB internal?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
ckfmunoz said:
Here are some pictures.
Did my partitions get messed up or do cm 10.2 ROMs purposely limit users to 2GB internal?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mine shows 384mb used on my slrom with a bunch of apps installed, is the pic on a clean install or you dl'ed or let google restore your previous apps
vincom said:
mine shows 384mb used on my slrom with a bunch of apps installed, is the pic on a clean install or you dl'ed or let google restore your previous apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, so yours also shows a maximum internal storage of 2GB?
I honestly can't remember if I let Google restore my apps or not.
I will reflash Superlite cm 10.2 tonight and let you know ASAP.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
ckfmunoz said:
Wait, so yours also shows a maximum internal storage of 2GB?
I honestly can't remember if I let Google restore my apps or not.
I will reflash Superlite cm 10.2 tonight and let you know ASAP.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes its 2gig internal memory, its not the internal sdcard which is 8gig, 2gigs should be plenty enough as its where the apps get installed from play or from external sources, a factory reset wipes the internal 2gig memory.
i could be wrong on this, anyone be free to correct me, no time to check my theory
edit: factory reset doesnt totally wipe the int 2gig mem but will wipe apps(not system apps of course) and user info that are stored on the int mem
vincom said:
mine shows 384mb used on my slrom with a bunch of apps installed, is the pic on a clean install or you dl'ed or let google restore your previous apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the way, are you on the SL gapps or the full?
ckfmunoz said:
By the way, are you on the SL gapps or the full?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sl
vincom said:
sl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha.
I just finished reflashing superlite cm10.2. Flashed full gapps afterwards.
Upon rebooting and letting it settle, I made sure that Google would NOT restore any apps/data from previous backups.
I started off with <90mb used internal storage.
Then Google stuff started updating and installing by itself. This consisted of:
8.38mb Gmail
24.15mb Google Play Services
10.71mb Google Play Store
38.52mb Google Search
17.03mb Google Text-to-speech
42.81mb Google+
After that my total internal storage used was 202mb (still haven't downloaded any apps at all).
I'm guessing this extra stuff is all from flashing the full gapps instead of the sl.
Would it be a bad idea to restore apps from TiBu? I have a feeling I'd clutter my 2GB internal storage again if I did but correct me if I'm wrong.
UPDATE**
Clean installed ~25 of my most used apps from the Play Store, ended up with just under 600mb of internal being used.
I am okay with this.
Flashed these apps from your BYO list since I actually use these:
-Calculator
-Calendar
-Desk Alarm Clock
-Email&Exchange
Rebooted.
Checked Internal storage and it jumped from <600mb all the way to 1.3gb being used.
What just happened?
I have a hard time believing that those 4 tiny apps could have added an extra 700mb to my internal storage.
You're right it's like from your 25 app data builds up.
Edit: please note the app itself has a size and then the apps data.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
ckfmunoz said:
UPDATE**
Clean installed ~25 of my most used apps from the Play Store, ended up with just under 600mb of internal being used.
I am okay with this.
Flashed these apps from your BYO list since I actually use these:
-Calculator
-Calendar
-Desk Alarm Clock
-Email&Exchange
Rebooted.
Checked Internal storage and it jumped from <600mb all the way to 1.3gb being used.
What just happened?
I have a hard time believing that those 4 tiny apps could have added an extra 700mb to my internal storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
weird, i have about 45 apps in my drawer w/only 385mb used, try clearing the caches from recovery.
if using slgapps do the byo apps one at a time and see how much memory it consumes.
if thats normal then install your other 25 apps one at a time and check memory use after each install.
ts can be a pia but its the only way to pinpoint the problem
vincom said:
weird, i have about 45 apps in my drawer w/only 385mb used, try clearing the caches from recovery.
if using slgapps do the byo apps one at a time and see how much memory it consumes.
if thats normal then install your other 25 apps one at a time and check memory use after each install.
ts can be a pia but its the only way to pinpoint the problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright I'll give that a try. It'll be tedious but it's bugging me so much I have no choice.
I'll keep you updated.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
ckfmunoz said:
Alright I'll give that a try. It'll be tedious but it's bugging me so much I have no choice.
I'll keep you updated.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just wondering what is your progress.
I am running through the exact same problem and it pisses me off so much. I moved all moveable apps to external storage but this does not seem to help. Right now I have a message telling me you are running out space and I have no way to solve this problem.
How do you access the internal storage partition. I am able to access device's root but I can pinpoint to where exactly is the partition!
Does anyone have long time solution aside from wipe and re-flash ,,, as I have done that several times in the past few months and it did nothing to help.
Don't know if it will apply in your case but I found that my file explorer had a recycle bin that was taking up 4GB of my internal sd and took a bit of looking to find as I didn't use it for app removal and didn't realize it was on.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Internal Storage Filled With "System Data"

Hi all-
My GS3 internal storage is filling up. When I check with DiskUsage, it says there's 7230 MiB of "System data" and only 1250 MiB of free space. It won't let me click onto the system data to investigate.
Using Storage Analyser, it says I have used 2.2 GiBs and 9.84 GiB is free. But when I click on the little circle chart menu at the bottom it says I only have 1.2 GiBs free. What gives? Which one is right? Will wiping via CWM and reflashing CM 10.2 help? Anyone else have this problem? Thanks!
Do you have a lot of nandriod or Rom backups?
Sent from my d2lte using xda app-developers app
npro1464 said:
Hi all-
My GS3 internal storage is filling up. When I check with DiskUsage, it says there's 7230 MiB of "System data" and only 1250 MiB of free space. It won't let me click onto the system data to investigate.
Using Storage Analyser, it says I have used 2.2 GiBs and 9.84 GiB is free. But when I click on the little circle chart menu at the bottom it says I only have 1.2 GiBs free. What gives? Which one is right? Will wiping via CWM and reflashing CM 10.2 help? Anyone else have this problem? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only have this issue with the system/data folder filling up with duplicate apps. Seems like something just isn't quite right however. After I wipe everything and before I flash a rom I have 12gb available. Just checked and out of 16gb total I have 9.96gb still available. The backups shouldn't be on the internal but if by chance they are I would delete all if not most of them
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 PM ----------
DiSiD said:
Do you have a lot of nandriod or Rom backups?
Sent from my d2lte using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking he might have the same issue
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
You're simply having duplicate locations for media storage.
If you use a file Explorer, you'll notice the initial location of your files in data/media folder. Then if you click the 0 folder (data/media/0) you'll notice the exact same data is located there.
To get rid of it, you need to move everything you want to save off the phone, format the internal sd, reflash the rom, and move everything you backed up to the data/media/0 folder.
It switched when you moved from 4.1 to 4.3. It's actually reading the same data but twice. So you actually have a lot of space free, but your phone is reporting double the data.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Ok I'm having the same problem but im running astral and I was wondering will this work for me also. And how do . I go about formatting the internal sd? And why doesn't myn phone use my sd card at all to save files
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
I'm really sick of this problem. My phone is again alerting me that my internal storage is filling up, Disk Usage is showing system data of 7.266 GBs and 650 MB of free space. When going into the root folder "/system" it shows 10.36 GBs of free space. I figure its either getting read wrong of something.
Anyway, what would happen if I did "format /data" in CWM? Would I be able to boot back into my rom with a clean slate, or would I have to immediately flash a new ROM? Thanks.
npro1464 said:
I'm really sick of this problem. My phone is again alerting me that my internal storage is filling up, Disk Usage is showing system data of 7.266 GBs and 650 MB of free space. When going into the root folder "/system" it shows 10.36 GBs of free space. I figure its either getting read wrong of something.
Anyway, what would happen if I did "format /data" in CWM? Would I be able to boot back into my rom with a clean slate, or would I have to immediately flash a new ROM? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'd still be able to boot into the same rom. It might not clear it though, to do a full format you need to wipe /data/media.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

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