Database Info

{Guide} It's not you, it's me. I need my space.

So since most are concerned with the allmighty "SAVING OF internal SPACE". Here is a sort of NOOb guide for just that and some the options that go with it. Some of these most of you may know but there are also some tidbits that I have found out about through trial and error, (No relation to forum member "Try-And-Error").
Obviously there is app2sd (2.1), app2ext, app2card, link2sd, native froyo app2sd and just plain not installing a bunch of garbage apps. There are plenty of threads about these and their uses, so I won't go into them
But did you know that you can also free up some internal memory space by just basic maintenance? You can install a Cache Cleaner from the market. I use Cache Cleaner NG (root) and CacheMate (root) which will clear your cache for you, Cache Cleaner NG will even clear your cache on your SDcard. Open Root Explorer and if you see a bunch of free floating cache files, those need to go. Wasted space. Small in the scheme of your SDcard, but still wasted.
So here we go (best part is at the bottom though):
Ok so you go into XDA on your phone, go to the themes page and look at what and how people are theming their phones or see some pix of someone's SetCPU profiles. All those develop a cache that takes up space on your phone and if you don't get rid of it, you'll run out (I have had mine up to 54mb before). Now lets say that you go to the market and look through some apps or update your apps (more on this later). This also generates cache, usually up to 2-4mb. Ever try to download something from the market and it says something like "not enough space". This not needed cache may be some of the reason.
Here are some tricks and apps that some of you may know and also some tricks that I have found that I am sure most don't know about.
SOME GOOD LOW MEMORY APPS:
Cache Cleaner NG and Cache Mate (both root and free-Cache Mate has a paid but the free one works just fine.)
Diskusage (free) ~ this one will show you a graphical version of your /data/apps and also you SD card to show you exactly what is taking up so much space. You can click on that thing and hit "Show" and it will take you to the app's page in Manager Applications. It also has a root function too that will allow you to see what is in /system, /cache, /data,…
Some sort of file manager to get to some things I'll mention below. (I use Root Explorer)
SOME MEMORY CLEARING TIPS AND TRICKS:
Home Launcher ~ If you have a 3rd party home launcher, see if it has the ability to long-press an icon to take you to its screen in the Manage Apps section. I use ADWex and if you long-press on say Market, it takes me to the same place as is I were to go to Settings->Applications->Manage Apps->Market. Instead of all that, just long-press on the icon and BAM! it takes you there. Here you can clear out your cache for the market or delete the data (if you need to do that). Or clear the cache of the XDA app b/c you looked at too many pix.
Browsers ~ These develop cache that takes up memory and space, especially the stock browser. If you use a 3rd party, you can get the settings to clear cache, cookies, passwords,…on exit. I use Dolphin, but I am pretty sure that most have something like this on them. (side note: most 3rd party browsers once exited will not run in the background unlike the stuck one)
Media ~ So you download a bunch of mp3's from the net or click on some pix and save it to your SD card. Or maybe you just felt like wiping your card and having a fresh start. Every time you reboot, you phone will scan media. No big deal, but the more you criss-cross things from PC to phone and back again, it can create a bunch of double files in your media cache on the phone. With the proper placement of .nomedia files (this prevents your media scanner from doing just that, scanning media- i.e. pix, jpegs,…Don’t place a .nomedia in your music, album art or DCIM files**bad), Every once in a while, I'll hit the Diskusage or go to Manage apps and clear the media cache. Then I got to my file manager and the DCIM->Thumbs and delete the .Thumbnails files (should be 2). Unmount the SD card and remount to start the media scan, pull up the Gallery and wait for the thumbs to come back (depending on how many you have, this could take awhile). By doing this you can get almost 5 mb back if you have a bunch of double scans in your media folder.
AND NOW FOR SOME TIPS THAT MOST COULD NOT KNOW:
Lets say that you have your phone plugged into your PC and for some reason you, in a fit of rage, jerk the plug out without unmounting it first. This creates a file that is put into your LOST DIR folder on your SD card. Anytime you don't safely unmount the SD card, it will create a file in that folder. In the scheme of the SD card, it isn't too much, but I don't like having useless items free floating about.
So you are downloading an update from the market and for some reason your phone freezes and the Force close-Retry-Wait doesn't work out for you. You have to do a battery pull. Frustrating I know and the memory takes a hit too. Every time you have to do a battery pull because of a freeze up or something of the like, it creates a TOMBSTONE file in /data. These are useless and can be deleted. If you are flashing ROMs and are constantly having to do battery pulls b/c market crashes or an app freezes, then you are creating a Tombstone file.
**Here is where your file manager (with root) will help. Go into /data and scroll all the way to the bottom and open /tombstone. There should be some files in there and depending on how many there are, I could be a nice chunk of wasted memory. Just select all and delete. They are not needed. Your internal memory should go up by doing this.
Same scenario, but now go into /data/ cache or /cache and you'll see Dalvik-Cache (don’t mess with this), Lost & Found and Recovery. If you tried to download an app and it got frozen for some reason and had to do a battery pull, the apk will be free floating in there, uninstalled. You can delete this. While it isn't in the Dalvik-Cahce folder, it is taking up space. Once you are able to download something completely and correctly from the market, it will populate into Dex correctly and won't be a free radical, as I like to say.
Obviously this is not all encompassing, but just some things that I have found along the way that some of the newer people may not know and just wondered about. And as usual, always make back ups and I am not responsible.
p.s ~ Didn’t mean for this to be a manifesto-sized, but some of the things above needed scenarios to make sure you understand.

Wow very detailed. Thumbs up for the effort to explain to us!
Sent from my Milestone using XDA App

Just bookmarked it, very useful!

Application Cache Cleaner

Hi guys I just wanted to share with you this useful app, especially when you are running low on space or if you have small internal memory. This comes handy when you are not using app2sd or s2e.
App Cache Cleaner cleans your application caches only, it doesn't touch your system caches. So it's safer to use than other apps to clean caches.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.infolife.cache&hl=en

[APP][2.2+] Easy Cache Cleaner - PRO (AUTO)

Hi my friends
I'm again here to present the PRO Version of Easy Cache Cleaner
This time is with Autoclean Function
Always ... Small, efficient, easy to use
Easy Cache Cleaner cleans totally the system cache from internal memory, created by the app or use of the Internet, freeing up space and speeding up your device.
All with just one click or with Autoclean
Thanks All Friends :good:
Mod edit: No paid apps without duplicate free version for xda members.

Cleaner apps are real ?

Hello there, how are you ppl ? Just reading xda forums found a lot of stuff that I was wrong about but people love to sell it to you so, I want to ask, any of all cleaning apps is real ? I mean, do a real better performance ? I am not talking about battery save or something like that, I mean some apps says "Clears unwanted cache on just one tap" "RAM cleaning" and so on.

RAM cleaning is exactly the same as opening your recents and swiping or clearing them all.
Cache is actually supposed to improve performance (app start times). When you start an app, it is loaded into the cache. After you exit, the system still keeps it cached and if you ever want to relaunch it, it will open faster.
Clearing the cache will make it start the whole caching process again and it will also take slightly longer to start.
In my opinion, those cleaner apps are unnecessary. The performance gains are negligible.

No, they are not. Specially on the latest Android OS builds.

Storage space crisis

Last week, my phone nearly ran out of storage, upon investigation, I found that the system size had grown to ~8.5 GB. I thought is wasn't all that bad, until I checked earlier that it had grown to ~9.2 GB. Is there any fix to this that doesn't involve a factory reset?

Are you rooted? Clear caches and remnants with SD Maid. Apps like Spotify e.g. and lots of other streaming services can build up huge amounts of cache in a short period of time.
You can also figure out what app is taking up all that space under settings-->apps select an app-->storage.

eavandijk83 said:
Are you rooted? Clear caches and remnants with SD Maid. Apps like Spotify e.g. and lots of other streaming services can build up huge amounts of cache in a short period of time.
You can also figure out what app is taking up all that space under settings-->apps select an app-->storage.
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No, I'm not rooted. I've tried about 5 different cache cleaners, SD Maid included, and none do anything about the system size, just app cache.

Are you sure it's the system partition? Cache is stored on data. Guess you'll have to go by your apps one by one without root. Just open each app in settings and you'll see the size they are and you have the option to wipe it's cache and/or data. Start with data hungry apps like Facebook, play music etc.

eavandijk83 said:
Are you sure it's the system partition? Cache is stored on data. Guess you'll have to go by your apps one by one without root. Just open each app in settings and you'll see the size they are and you have the option to wipe it's cache and/or data. Start with data hungry apps like Facebook, play music etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, screenshot attached

I'd suggest you install a free app manager from the play store. Doesn't have to be anything special as long as it reads app sizes. Once you know what apps are eating your free space you can delete their caches thru the system settings, or maybe even with the app manager. I don't think you need a factory reset.

eavandijk83 said:
I'd suggest you install a free app manager from the play store. Doesn't have to be anything special as long as it reads app sizes. Once you know what apps are eating your free space you can delete their caches thru the system settings, or maybe even with the app manager. I don't think you need a factory reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read the rest of the thread; I've tried that, 5 times. The only apps I can suspect would have to be system apps.

Looks like I'll have to reset after all

Alright, that was useless, this is a problem