Heya guys,
this is mostly a copy of a thread I created in a device-specific forum (original thread), but since nobody was able to answer the question there and considering it doesn't seem to be device-specific after all, I figured I'd go ahead and ask here as well. The copy & paste part begins here, with slight modifications:
A few days ago, I found that I was in dire need of some more free space on my Samsung Galaxy S4 / GT-I9505's internal storage and found that only the contents of /sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails were taking up space. After a while of trying to get rid of those files that kept creating themselves again, I followed some advice I read on an Android forum: I deleted the contents of the .thumbnail folder, went to Settings -> Apps and cleared the data of the Gallery and Media Storage apps, respectively, before rebooting the phone.
The contents did disappear for good, but neither Total Commander nor the list of installed apps in the settings nor the Storage summary in the settings showed any different amount of free space than before. To make matters worse, the number didn't even change after I found and deleted about 1 GB of files left by an already uninstalled app, i.e. it seems to be stuck on that value. At the same time, SD Maid tells me that I should have a good 5 GB of free space more than the system is showing. Neither restarting nor wiping the cache and dalvik cache helped.
My rooted GT-I9505 is running this unofficial port of AOKP 4.3, Milestone 1, and version 6.15.6 of PhilZ/CWM Advanced. I'm not sure whether there's more information I might need to provide, other than that the size of the thumbnails files apparently exploded (about 4 GB) when I moved quite a lot of data and obb folders to my external storage using FolderMount.
I didn't find any information about this kind of problem anywhere and am afraid I messed up so badly that I might need to reflash...or worse. Do you have an idea how I can try to fix it?
You could try installing Disable Service and forcing the media indexing service to never run.
gordon1986 said:
You could try installing Disable Service and forcing the media indexing service to never run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the input! That sounds like a plan, but I'm not really sure whether I'm doing it right. I got the app, figured the media indexing service had to be found in the Media Storage app's entry, but I only found "MediaScannerService" and "MtpService" there. Since I try to be more careful now, I'd rather not deactivate any of those without being sure that it is what I am aiming for.
So, long story short: Is either of those the media indexing service or do I have to look somewhere else?
Best thing to do is delete the .thumbnails folder in DCIM folder. After this create a new file with the name .thumbnails in the DCIM folder.
Note: You have too delete .thumbnails FOLDER and create .thumbnails FILE. You can use es file explorer to do this.
It is based on the simple principle that in Linux ext file system a file and folder cannot have the same name.
Sent from my LT28at using xda app-developers app
Hit Thanks if this helped you.
osamaanjum said:
Best thing to do is delete the .thumbnails folder in DCIM folder. After this create a new file with the name .thumbnails in the DCIM folder.
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While I wasn't sure it would help, I tried what you suggested. Alas, it didn't work; the .thumbnails folder is empty without freeing the space taken by its former contents since I did what I described in my original post, after all. However, should I manage to fix this problem with a reflash, I suppose I'll do just that, replacing the folder with an empty file of the same name. Thanks.
It works for me.
I 've uploaded the image of DCIM directory (folder). In place of .thumbnails folder you can notice .thumbnails file.
Related
Hi everybody!
I just got my 1st Android Devide (DHD) and already root, clockwork, changed rom, etc. However, my problem is related to the directories structures inside my SDCARD.
I have 2 questions:
1- I moved some apps that I have in my main memory to my SDCARD via App Settings. However, when I go to my sdcard in windows explorer, I don't find these files. I'm not sure then if is really moving to my sdcard. I just realized some new folders, but they are empty. Does anyone knows what I'm doing wrong?
2- The second question it's linked with the first. I would like to organize in my SDCARD a nice folder structure. Something like:
/
/Songs/
/Photos/
/Documents/
/Backups/
/Games/
/Apps/
And then if you go inside the Apps folder, you have another folder with the name of the application. Pretty much like Program Files folder in Windows.
Is this possible? For Songs, Photos, Documents, I created a folder and it worked. But what about for apps and games that I got on the market?
My SDCARD has also a lot of folder/files that were copied when I put the sdcard on the device. I don't know if I can delete that. Any idea?
Thanks for the help in advance!
Moved to Q&A, not dev related.
Anyone?
Any tip?
i seem to have over 1 GB of wasted space in that folder .android_secure
any 1 got a clue if those are safe to delete?
I've never found that deleting anything on my SD card caused major problems for the phone, including .android_secure. Of course, that folder has never been 1 GB in size for me, either, so I suppose your results may vary. Really, though, all the system stuff is in the protected internal storage, so I doubt you'll do much worse than delete media files or whatever apps you've moved to the SD card, if that. I say give it a shot and see what happens. Of course, I take no responsibility for anything that does go wrong if you do. >.>
apparently those are Apps settings or something along the lines
i flashed SuperAOS and during the wiping process it showed it was deleting .android_secure
App2sd
This is where the operating system stores a portion of the apps. Anytime you install a new app and choose to install it to the SD card, it puts a large portion of the app into this folder. Deleting the contents would delete your apps.
If you move an app to the SD card via the official (2.2+) method, this is where (most of it) goes.
Hi,
I recently flashed a new ROM and had to do a full wipe including factory reset. I copied some apps to SD, and indeed I see that the .android_secure folder has a lot in it, taking up space. I installed all apps again from market on the new ROM install, and they all say they can be copied to SD again, so they don't take information from the previously installed bits on the SD card. Is it safe to delete everything in this folder?
EDIT: I have an HTC Hero, but only noticed when I posted this that this is a Samsung Nexus S thread. I'm guessing that this is not that big a deal?
mikebel3 said:
This is where the operating system stores a portion of the apps. Anytime you install a new app and choose to install it to the SD card, it puts a large portion of the app into this folder. Deleting the contents would delete your apps.
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Click to collapse
sorry to revive this thread after so long, but does this folder also store the app data? In other words, for games like plants vs zombies or angry birds etc, if I copy the corresponding files over to my new phone (after installing PVZ/AB on the new phone of course), does it also copy over my progress?
(recently swapped my EVO 4G to EVO 3D and trying to figure out how to copy the game progress over - esp for PVZ)
jj14 said:
(recently swapped my EVO 4G to EVO 3D and trying to figure out how to copy the game progress over - esp for PVZ)
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Click to collapse
Titanium Backup?
suksit said:
Titanium Backup?
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Click to collapse
Isn't that only for rooted phones?
I was moving some files to free up some space on my sd card. I use root explorer to cut and paste a group of files. When I pasted the files I got an error saying" file too large". I thought that the files didn't get transferred but I noticed that the storage had gone down. I've searched everywhere in root explorer to try to locate files but could not. I use the app undelete to try to find the files but could not. Where did the files go?
If you were moving a large file, like movies, it's a big chance that during the file move it couldn't go from ext to fat32 and it corrupted and that's why it got whipped out.
It shouldn't happen but it's a great possibility. Word to the wise always copy the files then delete the source and careful with the large files, it's easy to forget when changing file systems.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
So there's no way to recover them? I am going to start backing up more often.
OK, so I'm using wiped in quotes because according to my available free space, it appears my data is still there somewhere. It's just that it's really not and I don't understand why (or where it may be hiding). I've done this many times and never had this problem, so I don't think I did anything wrong, but here are the steps I took: I made a TWRP backup. I wiped my cache, then my Dalvik cache, and then did a factory reset. I installed the new AOKP ROM (aokp_d2vzw_jb-mr1_build-3), installed Gapps, and installed the flashable zip for Titanium Backup. I then booted into Android with no problem, went through the setup process, and rebooted into TWRP. At that point, I was going to install the flashable update.zip I created from Titanium Backup, but I couldn't find it or any of my normal files or folders. I booted back into Android and checked again with a file explorer and sure enough – it's only showing the basic folders you start with and none of my content is there. Like I said, it appears my data is still there somewhere according to my available free space, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. When I was in TWRP, I hit the button to restore and it showed me my two Nandroid backups, so I feel like the files have to be hiding somewhere.
I'm not really sure what caused it, but I know the files were still there after the wiping and the factory reset, or else I wouldn't have had the zip files to then flash. Therefore, I feel like it had to be during the AOKP or the Gapps install where my sdcard got erased (I forgot to mention my Titanium Backup somehow never got installed). Oh, and just to be clear, I'm talking about the internal (emulated) sdcard, so I can't simply pull it out and put it in my PC to search the contents.
Does anyone have any idea how this happened or where my files are? I'm tempted to do a restore to see if get everything back so I can then make more backups and store them somewhere else.
On your internal SD, do you have a /0 folder? methinks all your stuff's in there....
It's an artifact of flashing 4.2.1 and it's "multiple user accounts" feature
letinsh said:
On your internal SD, do you have a /0 folder? methinks all your stuff's in there....
It's an artifact of flashing 4.2.1 and it's "multiple user accounts" feature
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Click to collapse
No, I don't have a /0 folder on my sdcard. I did find a /0 folder somewhere in my root, but it only mirrored what's currently on the sdcard.
I found it! It's not on my card, but in the root, under data/media. There is a /0 folder in there as well and it links to the sdcard folder. To be safe, I'm going to first copy everything to my real external sdcard before trying to put it back.
/data/media is the real path for your internal sd card. All the other paths (/mnt/sdcard0, /sdcard, /storage/sdcard0, etc) are just pointers that look at the /data/media location. If you were looking in any of those other locations, the 0 folder should have been seen...
Either way, I'm glad you found your data!
letinsh said:
/data/media is the real path for your internal sd card. All the other paths (/mnt/sdcard0, /sdcard, /storage/sdcard0, etc) are just pointers that look at the /data/media location. If you were looking in any of those other locations, the 0 folder should have been seen...
Either way, I'm glad you found your data!
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Well, that makes sense, but I assure you it isn't showing. The only thing that's showing is the contents of the /0 folder which is inside the data/media folder.
In other words, it appears the system created a /0 folder in my internal sdcard and decided that new folder would now be my internal sdcard. So if I'm trying to browse the internal sdcard, I have no way of going up a level and getting to my old content; the system considers that part of the root. Luckily, I can use FX File Explorer to get in there and access the files.
JerseyMike4 said:
Well, that makes sense, but I assure you it isn't showing. The only thing that's showing is the contents of the /0 folder which is inside the data/media folder.
In other words, it appears the system created a /0 folder in my internal sdcard and decided that new folder would now be my internal sdcard. So if I'm trying to browse the internal sdcard, I have no way of going up a level and getting to my old content; the system considers that part of the root. Luckily, I can use FX File Explorer to get in there and access the files.
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Click to collapse
It's like that because of Android profiles you can create now on 4.2, so basically I'd you were to make another profile it'd be /1 and so on.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
GoonAssJuan said:
It's like that because of Android profiles you can create now on 4.2, so basically I'd you were to make another profile it'd be /1 and so on.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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That makes sense. But it would have been nice if the system "moved" my data automatically when I upgraded.
Guyz this is my first post on xda developer and I am neewbie in this tech stuff
But I found our on this website that deleting .thumbnails in DCIM will give additional space
I also found out that its a temporary fix and android will again recreate it
I have a YU yureka
Both my internal and external sd has .thumbnails folder with sizes of both over 1 GB
I deleted them n made an empty folder with same name but I didn't gave any space I was expecting and now .thumbnails is empty as I created
Plss help I really need to make space...
dakah0123 said:
Guyz this is my first post on xda developer and I am neewbie in this tech stuff
But I found our on this website that deleting .thumbnails in DCIM will give additional space
I also found out that its a temporary fix and android will again recreate it
I have a YU yureka
Both my internal and external sd has .thumbnails folder with sizes of both over 1 GB
I deleted them n made an empty folder with same name but I didn't gave any space I was expecting and now .thumbnails is empty as I created
Plss help I really need to make space...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use a pic backup app like picasa, then, after backed up, you can delete all your pics and thumbnails and gain whatever space they were taking.
you will still be able to view your pics in the app, but they wont be taking up phone space unless you download them again.