Database Info

Data2ext get more room for apps.

Ive been looking for something since I got this phone. Today with just system apps and 20 user apps on the internal partition I ran out of space yet again. So off to search google and I found this.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1342387
What this will do is create a link from /data/app to a created partition on your sd card. It can move dalvik and a few other things to the /sd-ext partition.
I created a 1 gig partition and I have over 300 megs left for apps. I dont forsee a problem in the near future.

Good find. I'll need to check this out.

I just glanced at this briefly, but isn't this the same as app2sd which our phones already have? Or do o need to look at it closer? Lol
Sent from my SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

Look closer!
Appps2SD isn't compatible with all apps, and it doesn't move the whole app.
Data2ext moves the whole thing to sd partition as well as all dalvik cache.

Good find eollie I yesterday saw this script that let's user fix the "low storage" this script works for our with cm9, aokp and nexus beam(haven't test the other roms)
So if you guys test with data2ext here's the link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=26375859
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

Huh, I have 100+ apps, and lots of free space!
And all of them are 2mb +
I go to settings and manually move unmoved apps to sd card. For some reason CM isn't doing it automatically

thomas.raines said:
I just glanced at this briefly, but isn't this the same as app2sd which our phones already have? Or do o need to look at it closer? Lol
Sent from my SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like airflip said read closer. This does more than just move the app to the sdcard. It fools your phone into thinking it has a larger /data partition and also moves a lot of stuff to the /sd-ext partition and sym links it back to the /data partition.
Im going to try this for a couple days and make sure it doesnt give me some wild errors.
Airflip I had a lot more apps installed when I was on stock roms. But cm based roms seem to fill the data cache up super fast. Atleast that is what I can figure out. The "app" I linked to has a option to fix the cm based data issues. I havent enabled it yet want to read up on it more.

Are your apps on SD? On CM9 I have a lot more storage than kj6.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium

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Woops posted the wrong picture initially. See how much free space it says I have?
Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

Hi eollie
This looks amazing.
I hate it when I restore with TB and have to push apps one by one to sd card, to spare space and not all apps like it (dropbox) ..
I will definately test it on my next ROM flash.
sent from me

I dont suggest turning on the cmdalvik option or swap. Both of those made me extremely laggy. So far no issues.

Hey eollie,
This brings up an interesting discussion.
I've been thinking about moving to the SGS/Aries partitioning scheme.
MTD:
0 = boot (kernel)
1 = recovery (not usable... Maybe steal this space for system)
2 = /system
3 = /cache
4 = /efs
5 = /radio
6 = /datadata (mounts to /datadata which is symlinked to /data/data)
7 = reservoir
SD:
1 = /sdcard
2 = /data
This would of course mean that those with bigger sd cards will have more room for data.
Let me know what you think.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium

Basically it would work kinda like this zip does then right?
For this zip to work you have to have a ext2/3/4 partition.
Would adding data to sdcard work on the native partition?
The reason for needing the ext partition is it is much faster than the fat partitions.
Im all for giving people more rom for apps without having to flash apps and zips.

bhundven said:
Let me know what you think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes please. I would really like to see this.

This phone's lack of internal memory drove me to buy a 32GB SD Card (Sandisk, ebay, fastest, claimed to be 'special for Android apps & games', for only 32$).
Looking forward towards this implementation.
sent from me

That scheme is confuzzling me.
So, /datadata is the same as our current data, but only important stuff like dalvik and etc will be there.
/mnt/sdcard/data is real data that the system will think is an internal data partition right?
/mnt/sdcard/SD is SD card right?
If I am right, boot will be faster, you will rarely run out of sd space unless you depleat sd card, if you pull out your sd card, then you will have no data partition, but sd mount from SystemUI will just mount /mnt/sdcard/SD right?
And in a perfect world, only apps will be there and not settings data which should remain in /datadata because if you boot without sd card, then phone will reset every time and ask to sign in, but then again, it'd look for a non-existant symlink and phone would still reset.
But won't widgets and other downloaded home replacements take forever to load? Or is there a way to move an app to /datadata?
In a way it's good cause you won't need apps2sd to auto move without the fear of low internal space.
Bad: Just like apps on Sd card that take 2-3 minutes to populate on app drawer, this would be consistent for all downloaded apps. Unless it mounts sd during boot proccess.
---------- Post added at 02:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:08 PM ----------
This reminds me of my G1.
Swap partition wouldn't allow me to boot w/o sd card.

That is why a ext 2/3/4 partition is used because android read them faster. They are native to the os. I have only noticed problems with things when the sdcard used is a cheap four dollar one you find on ebay.
Basically what he is looking to do is build this .zip into the rom natively. Right now the only problem with this is a permissions issue. But other than that is has worked on other devices just fine without problems. Hopefully the permissions will not be a issue once we can move to mtp insteadof mass storage like bhundven is hoping for.

What is mtp?
Also, this will change the phones mounts completely, not just inbuilt zip. Resulting a new recovery.fstab, and new twrp requirement.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium

airfluip1 said:
What is mtp?
Also, this will change the phones mounts completely, not just inbuilt zip. Resulting a new recovery.fstab, and new twrp requirement.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MTP
Ill defer the rest of those questions to bhundven.

SO... I assume that the under MTP, /mnt/sdcard/SD will be mounted, but we will still be able to use it as a normal transfer method for roms and such not just media, correct?
Also, thanks for not sending me to LMGTFY despite my laziness in not googling it for myself.

need urgent help with partition

Dear Friends!!!
I have puchased a memory stick micro sd 32 gb for my LWW.
I've tried several times to partition it with two primary partition. One Fat32 primary partition about 30 gb, and the other primary partition about 1 gb. I've tried to use for the second partition Ext. 2, 3 and 4, but when I play "Aply" , the mini partition wizard creats it with non free space on the second partition.
I can´t understand what is going on with it. I formatted the microsd several times and the result is always the same, no free space on the ssecond partition.
I've tried to use Easus too, the result is the same. I've tried to make 3 partition, the 3rd. one Linux swap, about 32mb. Same result, non free space on second partition.
I need your help, I am worried about buying another and having the same problems. Please, please, help me please.: Llorando:

eli_porto said:
Dear Friends!!!
I have puchased a memory stick micro sd 32 gb for my LWW.
I've tried several times to partition it with two primary partition. One Fat32 primary partition about 30 gb, and the other primary partition about 1 gb. I've tried to use for the second partition Ext. 2, 3 and 4, but when I play "Aply" , the mini partition wizard creats it with non free space on the second partition.
I can´t understand what is going on with it. I formatted the microsd several times and the result is always the same, no free space on the ssecond partition.
I've tried to use Easus too, the result is the same. I've tried to make 3 partition, the 3rd. one Linux swap, about 32mb. Same result, non free space on second partition.
I need your help, I am worried about buying another and having the same problems. Please, please, help me please.: Llorando:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With which partition manager did you format the card and have you tried to partition the card with a computer?

eli_porto said:
Dear Friends!!!
I have puchased a memory stick micro sd 32 gb for my LWW.
I've tried several times to partition it with two primary partition. One Fat32 primary partition about 30 gb, and the other primary partition about 1 gb. I've tried to use for the second partition Ext. 2, 3 and 4, but when I play "Aply" , the mini partition wizard creats it with non free space on the second partition.
I can´t understand what is going on with it. I formatted the microsd several times and the result is always the same, no free space on the ssecond partition.
I've tried to use Easus too, the result is the same. I've tried to make 3 partition, the 3rd. one Linux swap, about 32mb. Same result, non free space on second partition.
I need your help, I am worried about buying another and having the same problems. Please, please, help me please.: Llorando:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you're willing to use a computer I would recommend Paragon Partition Manager (for Windows), or gparted (for mac).
Although I haven't created or used more than one partition on an sd card, I would recommend changing to see if the partition is mounted. It could be that it has 0MB because it is not mounted.
Hope this helps.

I always use MiniTool® Partition Wizard Home Edition (http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html) to do partitioning, and have had no problems with it. Creating ext2/3 partiotions on windows can be tricky however. There is a possibility that it is created alright, but that your partition manager just says that the space is not free.
Did you check if it works on your phone and if you can see if the partition has free space on your phone (check for example with rootexplorer)? You can also just try a script and see if it works. I recommend the d2ext+ script from here.

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this is what I'm trying to do
this is what I get

Man it has been a long time since I used that program but IIRC you can only have 1 Primary partition. I think the others need to be set to Logic.
When I get home tonight, I'll boot it up and see if I can find anything that you might be missing. Seems like it should be a small little drop down or tick. From your screenies, it looks like it is set up correctly but I'll look at it when I get home from work and post some thoughts.

eli_porto said:
View attachment 1260726
this is what I'm trying to do
View attachment 1260728
this is what I get
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could it be that you are not setting the partition type correctly? If you set up a new partition it should look like this:
So, file system ext3/4, primary partition.
Woodrube said:
Man it has been a long time since I used that program but IIRC you can only have 1 Primary partition. I think the others need to be set to Logic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is incorrect, you can have 4 primary partitions, so there's no need to set them up as logical.

eli_porto said:
View attachment 1260726
this is what I'm trying to do
View attachment 1260728
this is what I get
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can your Windows version read ext4 partitions? That could be a clue as to why it can't read/mount the new partition.
I would also like to suggest to make one partition primary and the other one logical just to be one the safe side.

[Q] How is the storage space on the N5 divided?

I've owned a Galaxy S2, and a Galaxy S1 (Captivate), both of which had external SD card slots. On these devices, there are various system partitions that share the internal 16GB of storage, used for the operating system, caches, user data, app installation, etc. Part of this is user-accessible as /sdcard, which (I think?) had a fixed size. There was also a fixed amount set aside for application installation. Apps could be moved from the application space to /sdcard, or to /sdcard/external, which was the mount point for the MicroSD slot.
That all made sense to me, though of course it would be nice to be able to designate more or less space for the application partition, or the user partition, or caches, etc, as needed.
On the N5, I don't think it works like that. I saw some posts suggesting that the N5 has multiple mounted filesystems for various tasks as above (system data, app data, installed APKs, caches, user files, etc) but that they are dynamically resized somehow. How does this work? Is it documented somewhere? Do I really need to care, or can I just start installing 1GB+ APKs with abandon? Why do they do this instead of mounting one partition on / and just having sub-directories for /system, /data, etc?

Ghengis042 said:
I've owned a Galaxy S2, and a Galaxy S1 (Captivate), both of which had external SD card slots. On these devices, there are various system partitions that share the internal 16GB of storage, used for the operating system, caches, user data, app installation, etc. Part of this is user-accessible as /sdcard, which (I think?) had a fixed size. There was also a fixed amount set aside for application installation. Apps could be moved from the application space to /sdcard, or to /sdcard/external, which was the mount point for the MicroSD slot.
That all made sense to me, though of course it would be nice to be able to designate more or less space for the application partition, or the user partition, or caches, etc, as needed.
On the N5, I don't think it works like that. I saw some posts suggesting that the N5 has multiple mounted filesystems for various tasks as above (system data, app data, installed APKs, caches, user files, etc) but that they are dynamically resized somehow. How does this work? Is it documented somewhere? Do I really need to care, or can I just start installing 1GB+ APKs with abandon? Why do they do this instead of mounting one partition on / and just having sub-directories for /system, /data, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2534010

rootSU said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2534010
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I asked "why don't they just make one partition with sub-directories", and it sounds like to a certain extent that's exactly what happens. It sounds like /data is one physical partition. When you say that /sdcard "points to" /data/media/0, does that mean that it's just a subfolder that's treated specially, and softlinked to /sdcard? Maybe a loopback device that's mounted at /sdcard? If it's the latter, then does some system process quietly resize the virtual filesystem if /sdcard starts to get full? That's the thing I'd like to be able to read more about....

Ghengis042 said:
So, I asked "why don't they just make one partition with sub-directories", and it sounds like to a certain extent that's exactly what happens. It sounds like /data is one physical partition. When you say that /sdcard "points to" /data/media/0, does that mean that it's just a subfolder that's treated specially, and softlinked to /sdcard? Maybe a loopback device that's mounted at /sdcard? If it's the latter, then does some system process quietly resize the virtual filesystem if /sdcard starts to get full? That's the thing I'd like to be able to read more about....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So to elaborate a little,
/data is a physical partition.
/data/data
/data/app
/data/media
Are all just directories within /data
/data is 11.35 GB on a 16 GB Version so the maximum any directory in /data can be is 11.35 GB. All /data directories combine to make up this total, just like any other /partition/directory structure
The fact that within /data/media is a FUSE file system isn't too relevant to space usage really. Nothing needs resizing. /data/media's free space is the same as /data/app's free space because they're all pulling from the same location as a shared resource. If you put 2 GB in /data/app, that's 2 GB less that can be used in /data/media
Hope that helps
Edit... and yes, /data/media/0 is the mount point for the universally used /sdcard
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rootSU said:
So to elaborate a little,
/data is a physical partition.
/data/data
/data/app
/data/media
Are all just directories within /data
/data is 11.35 GB on a 16 GB Version so the maximum any directory in /data can be is 11.35 GB. All /data directories combine to make up this total, just like any other /partition/directory structure
The fact that within /data/media is a FUSE file system isn't too relevant to space usage really. Nothing needs resizing. /data/media's free space is the same as /data/app's free space because they're all pulling from the same location as a shared resource. If you put 2 GB in /data/app, that's 2 GB less that can be used in /data/media
Hope that helps
Edit... and yes, /data/media/0 is the mount point for the universally used /sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I think I get it. I'd still be interested in seeing what "ls -l /data/media" looks like -- is "0" a *file* or a *directory* or some kind of block-device? I'm just experienced enough at Linux to be intrigued but inexperienced enough not to have dealt with this kind of thing (on a computer) before...

Here you go...
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Welp, sure looks like a normal directory to me. I'm guessing that /sdcard is just a plain softlink then? Seems like the right way to do it...

Yeah its a "mount -o bind"
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[q][mod][cm11]pit gt-s7270

Sir or madame...
System partition size total 1.3GB, installing CM11 then :
- 461 MB used
- 846 MB free
Data partition size is 2GB. Installing app, storing pic or document then :
- 1.6 GB used, and
- 481 MB free
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I dump pit file on Terminal Emulator use this command from this forum
Code:
su
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/sdcard1/out.pit bs=8 count=580 skip=2176
-----------------------------------------------------------------
My questions is :
1. Can I modified PIT file for system partition?
2. My goal is, reduce system partition size form 1.3GB to 500MB. So, I have 800 MB unused, right? now I want this merge to Data. How to do this?

jbliz said:
Sir or madame...
System partition size total 1.3GB, installing CM11 then :
- 461 MB used
- 846 MB free
Data partition size is 2GB. Installing app, storing pic or document then :
- 1.6 GB used, and
- 481 MB free
I dump pit file on Terminal Emulator use this command from this forum
Code:
su
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/storage/sdcard1/out.pit bs=8 count=580 skip=2176
-----------------------------------------------------------------
My questions is :
1. Can I modified PIT file for system partition?
2. My goal is, reduce system partition size form 1.3GB to 500MB. So, I have 800 MB unused, right? now I want this merge to Data. How to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't need we already have cm11 on ace 3 gt-s7270/7272 :good:

BlackAndroid007 said:
Don't need we already have cm11 on ace 3 gt-s7270/7272 :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I used CM11 too. But, on /system left 800 MB unusable space. I think, if I can resize /system to 500 MB so we could have extra space for /Data.

jbliz said:
Yes, I used CM11 too. But, on /system left 800 MB unusable space. I think, if I can resize /system to 500 MB so we could have extra space for /Data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even you will increase it it's little space we can use folder mount and we can transfer big app data to sdcard

so, there's way out to do that?
as you say folder mount, this is same like Move to SD?
as long as I try, I can't use Move to SD on CM11 but work on Stock Firmware. Just Link to SD work on CM11. So I make 2nd partition on SD Card then link big apps to 2nd partition

jbliz said:
so, there's way out to do that?
as you say folder mount, this is same like Move to SD?
as long as I try, I can't use Move to SD on CM11 but work on Stock Firmware. Just Link to SD work on CM11. So I make 2nd partition on SD Card then link big apps to 2nd partition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think Link to SD is also better with cm11 and it's a little space comparing with SD card capacity

Why is the OS (System) size different for different storage variants of the same device model?

I have seen that the space occupied by 'System' is different for different storage sizes of the same device.
My Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra shows space occupied by system as over 50 GB. Mine is the 512 GB variant (Snapdragon). While I don't remember how much it was out of the box, but it has been somewhere in that region throughout.
But the space occupied by S22U 256 GB variant is much lower, at around 30 GB for the same region.
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Can someone explain why this is different?
In this context, Samsung's OneUI is probably the most bloated version of Android. Even though there is some explanation (about 7% conversion loss) as to why System on Samsung devices shows a very high use of storage space (it apparently includes the 7% conversion loss), it still doesn't explain why the System size is substantially different between different storage variants of the same device.
References:
Not True- 60 GB OS Occupy on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
You may already know about 60 GB OS Occupy on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra from popular News Sites. But that is not accurately correct. The claim that
www.androidinfotech.com
One UI 5.1 bloatware does NOT take up 60GB storage on the Galaxy S23 series
It turns out One UI 5.1 bloatware does not take up 60GB system storage on the Galaxy S23 phones. Here's an explanation.
www.androidauthority.com

download the ROM from samfw or samloader, extract it and see what is inside. I bet even when converted into raw partition images the system is around 4 GB only. therefore what you mean with System is actually userdata or something different.

aIecxs said:
download the ROM from samfw or samloader, extract it and see what is inside. I bet even when converted into raw partition images the system is around 4 GB only. therefore what you mean with System is actually userdata or something different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
User files, app data, etc. are shown separately.

check the output of df what is the total size of system partition. check space occupied on userdata partition.
Code:
df -h /
df -h /data

aIecxs said:
check the output of df what is the total size of system partition. check space occupied on userdata partition.
Code:
df -h /
df -h /data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My device isn't rooted. Not sure if these terminal commands would work.
Doing a bit of math, here are the numbers:
The 7% computational difference means:
For 512 GB variant, about 36 GB is included in the System classification, which means the OS itself is only about 14 GB, which is along expected lines.
For 256 GB variant, 7% is about 18 GB, so if Storage Analysis shows System as occupying about 32 GB, this will confirm the OS itself is only about 14 GB, which is same as above. Someone with a 256 GB variant would be able to confirm this.
Likewise, the 128 GB variant should show System as occupying 23 GB and 1 TB variant should show System as occupying 86 GB.
Hopefully people with these storage variants can confirm this.
Samsung should ideally provide more details (breakdown) on what makes up the space shown against System as OS Files and Others.

the df cmd doesn't need root. you could easily figured out from any terminal emulator.

I checked this ROM and the super partition is 12G only.
https://samfw.com/firmware/SM-S908U/TMB/S908USQU2CWAI
Doing a bit of math, here are the numbers:
12G - 9.3G = 2.6G reserved
the system partition is only 6.1G (haven't checked f2fs file system, it's less). so obviously what you see as System is actually stored on userdata partition. I assume the ROM is the same for all variants of storage 128/256/512G, so the system partition is therefore also the same size.
Code:
[email protected]:/mnt/c/Android/Backup/SM-S908U/AP_S908USQU2CWAI_S908USQU2CWAI_MQB61793398_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT_meta_OS13/super$ ls -lh
total 9.3G
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 21M Feb 13 21:21 odm.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 1.1G Feb 13 21:21 product.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 6.1G Feb 13 21:13 system.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 236M Feb 13 21:21 system_ext.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 1.8G Feb 13 21:18 vendor.img
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ubuntu ubuntu 53M Feb 13 20:58 vendor_dlkm.img
btw the 7 % "loss" isn't about occupied space at all, it's simply the "difference" between GB <=> GiB (but it's the same size only different unit)
1000^3 (GB) Gigabyte != 1024^3 (GiB) Gibibyte
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigabyte
In other words your phone comes with 512 GB = 476.8 GiB storage. and that marketing naming is same for each and every storage we buy, be it pendrive, MicroSD card or HDD disk drive, not a Samsung thing...

aIecxs said:
I assume the ROM is the same for all variants of storage 128/256/512G, so the system partition is therefore also the same size.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true. This question arose because the built-in storage analyzer shows different values for different storage variants of the same device (same region).
aIecxs said:
btw the 7 % "loss" isn't about occupied space at all, it's simply the "difference" between GB <=> GiB (but it's the same size only different unit)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's just a question of units.
The value shown against System is basically the unaccounted difference, which is a mathematical computation of the total storage size minus the sum of all other allocations (classifications).

Okay, think I got it. I had to read whole thread including links again twice...
so what they claim is basically
- Samsung is mixing up different units GB - GiB
- System is not even sum of existing files, but
- System is just calculated by subtracting all the non-system files (rest)
or in other words, the storage app is lying. whoever has coded this.
still I think 20 G is too much compared to 6 G system partition, maybe that is dalvik ART cache of extracted system apks (and their respective apps data) counted all together.
someone with rooted device should count all system files on userdata partition to clarify. the tool already comes with toybox du

@TheMystic Find attached the partition table of the S22U taken from the PIT file. All partitions except /userdata are summarized as "Android OS". The /userdata starts at block 3.574.272 and ends with the last free adress block. With a block size of 4K /userdata starts at 14.640.218.112 byte (13,6GiB, which is the occupied storage by Android OS)
TheMystic said:
References:
Not True- 60 GB OS Occupy on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
You may already know about 60 GB OS Occupy on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra from popular News Sites. But that is not accurately correct. The claim that
www.androidinfotech.com
One UI 5.1 bloatware does NOT take up 60GB storage on the Galaxy S23 series
It turns out One UI 5.1 bloatware does not take up 60GB system storage on the Galaxy S23 phones. Here's an explanation.
www.androidauthority.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Taken from 2nd URL:
You always lose about 7% of storage marketed by manufacturers due to conversion losses.
Samsung and some other OEMs choose to hide lost space under the system storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not correct. You can't loose storage due to conversion. If someone runs 1 mile and another one 1,609 km then nobody runs more than the other. Loss of storage would mean 512GB are converted into 476,84GiB and then turned into 476,86GB. That would be indeed a real loss but it's incorrect.
There's also no lost space. The first 256 and the last 34 blocks (512 byte) are reserved for the GPT. Then your bootloader begins at block 256 and the last partition has to end at (last block - 34). Only the single partitions have a rest of unused space at the end. But that's a few kb and quite normal.
The most informations inside the 1st link are nonsense...
Starting with this
1,073,741,824
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Sorry, that's not a number when using more than one comma.
In binary, 1GB equals 1,073,741,824 bytes, approximately 238.4GB in decimal units for a 256 GB
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Click to collapse
Awesome!! The official binary unit for GB is GiB. Then 256GB are 238,4GiB (<= and this is the binary and not the decimal unit!!).
From the mentioned arstechnica.com page:
Several users report the phone uses around 60GB for the system partition right out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From that point I refused to read any further.
How can a partition on a physical storage become bigger without changing the size of any other partition?
Or how does the stored data on a partition effects the entire amount of the available storage? When I create a 10GB partition on a 100GB physical storage I've a second one of 90GB. No matter what I stored on the 10GB the other is still 90GB. So, the size of /system is always the same!
Back to the 1st link:
The amount of storage space used by the Android system on the Galaxy S23 series is about 20 GB, not 60 GB, as previously reported. This is still a lot of storage, but not as much as reported in the system settings. The additional storage is mainly due to pre-installed apps, including core Google system apps replicated by Samsung. However, it is possible to uninstall most third-party pre-installed apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love this guy! Pre-installed apps are called system apps (mostly) because their APK is saved on a system partition. Since those partitions are r/o we can't uninstall them. But if we could, it won't turn any byte on your device into an usuable for you. It's still a system partition mounted r/o and already summarized as Android OS in your storage overview.
Next thing is that neither system apps nor any bloatware (however, who should say an app is bloatware? Should Android decide it on its own "Oh yeah, this app is definitely bloatware! Categorize it as "System" storage, please") could occupy storage as "System". On /data partition it's determinated that the paths ~/app, ~/data and ~/user_de are the OS' app directories. All entries are summarized as "Apps" and that's it.
Additionally, available storage space and updates to the Android operating system can also impact the size of the Android OS on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, they can't. If they are stored on your device, then it will be on /cache. Since Samsung is still using A-only partitioning scheme an OTA-update requires to be installed from recovery. But you can't access /data from your stock recovery and it wouldn't make any sense to store the update on it.
alecxs said:
maybe that is dalvik ART cache of extracted system apks
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Click to collapse
Those files are max. 1GB. Only system apps without any updates need /data/dalvik-cache/. The updated ones store their APKs and the odexed Java code in /data/app. Furthermore the libraries and some other storage occupying stuff from the APKs are not part of the dalvik-cache.

WoKoschekk said:
You can't loose storage due to conversion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true. The issue is they have used GB and GiB inconsistently.
Also, what is reported under 'System' is just a balancing figure, i.e. total storage minus sum of all other classifications.
The storage used by 'System' does vary for different storage variants of the same device model, but that difference is due to unit conversion. And where the system file manager isn't able to classify a particular file properly, it tends to include them under 'System', which causes more variation. I wonder why they even have a dedicated classification called 'Other files'.
Ideally, they should have a breakdown for 'System' to show the storage occupied by the OS (which should be identical for all storage variants of the same device model), and space occupied by System Files/ Data.
Anything else should go under 'Other files' and the Storage Analyser should list these files by size/ location. There is plenty of scope for improvement in how this tool displays information.

TheMystic said:
And where the system file manager isn't able to classify a particular file properly, it tends to include them under 'System', which causes more variation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, there are fixed rules for classification that are stated in the AOSP.
TheMystic said:
Ideally, they should have a breakdown for 'System' to show the storage occupied by the OS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See attached file, infos are taken from the firmware.

TheMystic said:
The storage used by 'System' does vary for different storage variants of the same device model, but that difference is due to unit conversion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no marketing issue or sth similar and there is no conversion issue. If you have 40GB in System then there is 40GB occupied by OS and system related files. No matter if GB or GiB. Occupied is occupied.
Edit: The attached pit file is valid for every model

WoKoschekk said:
No, there are fixed rules for classification that are stated in the AOSP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then Samsung doesn't seem to be following it properly.
WoKoschekk said:
See attached file, infos are taken from the firmware.
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Click to collapse
So the OS itself is 13.63 GB?
WoKoschekk said:
There is no marketing issue or sth similar and there is no conversion issue. If you have 40GB in System then there is 40GB occupied by OS and system related files. No matter if GB or GiB. Occupied is occupied.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check this out:
[SOLVED] Difference in System Storage in March update
The allocation of storage between System and 'Other files' has changed after the Mar'23 update. Before the update, System was occupying 50.40 GB data. It was always this number for almost a year now (since the phone launched). But after the...
forum.xda-developers.com

TheMystic said:
Check this out:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I checked this out. But where do I find the proof for loss of storage due to conversion? Where is the proof for different occupied storage by system on all the different variants? All I can see is a single statement refering to this thread:
TheMystic said:
Also, the value of System will be different for devices with different storage sizes, even if it they are identical in all other aspects and are running on the same build of the OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

TheMystic said:
So the OS itself is 13.63 GB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes

WoKoschekk said:
where do I find the proof for loss of storage due to conversion?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no loss as such, but just that the space occupied by 'System' as shown by the built-in tool is a lot more than the actual space used by the OS and System Files.
WoKoschekk said:
Where is the proof for different occupied storage by system on all the different variants?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have proof to show you now. You may find it on the internet. But it is a fact. The space occupied by 'System' as shown by the built-in tool is indeed significantly different for different storage variants of the exact same device. The reasons have been mentioned in the OP and the comments section.

TheMystic said:
There is no loss as such, but just that the space occupied by 'System' as shown by the built-in tool is a lot more than the actual space used by the OS and System Files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you know that?
TheMystic said:
But it is a fact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because you can find it online...? Mmh... A detailed listing of those files would be helpful. But only a comparison of devices that are running since weeks/months says nothing.

WoKoschekk said:
How do you know that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the details for my device (see attachments). As you would see, space occupied by 'System' has remained constant at 50.4 GB over the last 1 year of several updates. As you said, the OS is only about 14 GB. Which means the rest is basically difference in units used.
I have confirmed the different values reported between different storage variants of the exact same device. I don't have screenshots to show you now, but this is indeed true. The explanation for the difference is provided in comment #5.
WoKoschekk said:
A detailed listing of those files would be helpful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The built-in tool doesn't provide a breakup for this value. But as mentioned in comment #5, the excess is mostly due to conversion of units.

WoKoschekk said:
If you have 40GB in System then there is 40GB occupied by OS and system related files. No matter if GB or GiB. Occupied is occupied.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. That's why I wrote I had to read it twice