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[Q] Storage available - where has it gone?

Hi
I've searched and can't find any threads on this but apologies if I've missed one.
I'm using Tillaz's Infusion 4.4.2 with an 8GB Moto G.
If I go to settings->storage it says that 5.5GB are available, this seems to be consistent with what people have reported.
However, in the breakdown below that it says there is about 600MB taken by apps, 800MB taken by everything else (mostly music) and 1.2GB available.
That's almost 3GB unaccounted for.
Has anyone any ideas how I've managed to loose it?
One thought is that CWM is hiding the backup (I think I've made one or two) somewhere I can't see them as I can't see them in the normal folder structure (i.e. I can see the clockworkmod folder but there's nothing more than a couple of kB in there). If that's the case, any thoughts how I can find the backups and delete one of them?
Any help very much appreciated!
Sam

Hi there,
5.5GB is the size of your /data partition, the rest is /system, /cache ...
The fact that system>storage doesn't add up to 5.5GB is quite strange. Can you please post a screenshot of it ? You might have a screenshot option in the power down menu.
Cheers

Total Space?
Is that the available space or the total space?
Because 5.5 + .6 + .8 + 1.2 = 8.1 GB

Hi
Thanks for the replies. I've found that CWM gives the option to delete recovery files which were adding up to almost 2GB so it's about right now.
Still kinda strange that the backup files were not showing up when looking in the clockworkmod folder using a file explorer. Hopefully this might help someone else if they're a bit low on space...
DigitalSnow - that's a good idea but no, it's the total space.
Xavier - thanks yes it looks just like DigitalSnow's but the "total" was 5.5GB, "available" was 1.2GB and then the sum of all the others was less than 1.5GB. As you say, a bit strange, but sorted now!
Cheers
Sam

Yes, CWM saves its backups to /sdcard/clockworkmod while the "available space" is /sdcard/0
This is why you can't see them from Android, and probably why the calculations when nuts.
I can't see an option to change the backup folder path, it might be a bug worth reporting to the CWM team.

Sd card Q&A

Never owned a phone that came with microsd and this new Sony phone intrigues me. Biggest bummer about this phone is that it only comes with 16 GB internal storage. I don't know how this work since the kit-kat upgrade came out but my question is that say I'm a heavy Whatsapp user and and have lots of photos and convos saved onto my phone so can that automatically transfer to my sdcard? With this little memory im scared I might run out of room with all my other apps as well. Btw i'm not a guy that roots my phone so that would be out of the question unless that was the only last option to make this work. Hope to get some detailed feedback from you guys. :fingers-crossed::laugh:

I don't think you would need to root the Z3 to do what you want. I haven't had an expandable memory slot since my old HD2. Nexus 4 for the last few years, working with limited memory is something I wish to finally again leave behind.

I don't know how it works on the Z3, but with KitKat this is the gist:
Apps can write to the sdcard, but only to their "approved" folders. E.g. After 4.3 or so we got an /Android/data/ folder inside the root of our sdcards. Inside that are app package names. So if a developer calls getExternalFilesDirs() it will list an array, one being the internal Android/data folder and the other being the SDcard Android/data folder. However, no change is needed on the app developer if they let you browse directories (you can just point the save location to the proper data folder package name). So, for example, I use FX File Explorer and move files to /extSdCard/Android/data/nextapp.fx/files from my internal memory on my S4.
Currently the only negative are games like Baldur's Gate. They only install to the internal memory and at 2.3GB can not be moved to the sdcard. If you root you might be able to swap the directories, but I haven't tried as I prefer to not root. But as it stands, that 2.3GB would go against the 16GB internal storage.

jonshipman said:
I don't know how it works on the Z3, but with KitKat this is the gist:
Apps can write to the sdcard, but only to their "approved" folders. E.g. After 4.3 or so we got an /Android/data/ folder inside the root of our sdcards. Inside that are app package names. So if a developer calls getExternalFilesDirs() it will list an array, one being the internal Android/data folder and the other being the SDcard Android/data folder. However, no change is needed on the app developer if they let you browse directories (you can just point the save location to the proper data folder package name). So, for example, I use FX File Explorer and move files to /extSdCard/Android/data/nextapp.fx/files from my internal memory on my S4.
Currently the only negative are games like Baldur's Gate. They only install to the internal memory and at 2.3GB can not be moved to the sdcard. If you root you might be able to swap the directories, but I haven't tried as I prefer to not root. But as it stands, that 2.3GB would go against the 16GB internal storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea Iike the what's app itself is only cpl MB and I don't mind that on my internal but within what's app I have 3GB worth of photos videos from my group chats that I like to keep so I need to know if that can automatically be saved to sdcard or I have to find a different phone.

ms54 said:
Yea Iike the what's app itself is only cpl MB and I don't mind that on my internal but within what's app I have 3GB worth of photos videos from my group chats that I like to keep so I need to know if that can automatically be saved to sdcard or I have to find a different phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is WhatsApp saving the pictures? To tell you the truth, no phone post 4.4.4 without rooting will do what you need. So you may need to look for something with larger internal storage.

[Q] Insufficient storage

My Nexus S (GT-I9020)keeps giving me an "insufficient storage" message. Particularly when updating "Google Newstand".
So I have cleared out lots of Photos and music and stuff. Cleared caches. Moved stuff to SD etc. Still keeps happening.
So while connected to my PC by USB, I ran "Treesize" on it, and it tells me that I have 9.87Gb free. What is the problem?
Of the few Gigabytes that are used, by far the biggest folder is called "DCIM", I know that this is where pictures are stored, but I have cleared out loads of photos. The largest file in there is called " thumbdata", at 966Mb by far the largest file on the entire phone. What is this waste of space? Can I delete it?
It seems that whenever I take a pic. with my phone, it is stored there, then a little while later a second copy appears thanks to Google upload or something, but the new copy is not as high res as the original. I do want Google to upload my photos back to my PC, but why does it have to send them back to the phone? How do I stop this? I spend too much time deleting copies of pics that are already on the phone in original. I think that the thumbnails folder is a result of all this.
The biggest memory hog after DCIM is Clockwork Mod, within it a folder called "blobs". What is it and can I delete it?
The Next biggest memory hog is called "TWRP". What is it? Can I delete it?
Is there a guide to what all these things mean and do, for us learners?

monkey shoulder said:
My Nexus S (GT-I9020)keeps giving me an "insufficient storage" message. Particularly when updating "Google Newstand".
So I have cleared out lots of Photos and music and stuff. Cleared caches. Moved stuff to SD etc. Still keeps happening.
So while connected to my PC by USB, I ran "Treesize" on it, and it tells me that I have 9.87Gb free. What is the problem?
Of the few Gigabytes that are used, by far the biggest folder is called "DCIM", I know that this is where pictures are stored, but I have cleared out loads of photos. The largest file in there is called " thumbdata", at 966Mb by far the largest file on the entire phone. What is this waste of space? Can I delete it?
It seems that whenever I take a pic. with my phone, it is stored there, then a little while later a second copy appears thanks to Google upload or something, but the new copy is not as high res as the original. I do want Google to upload my photos back to my PC, but why does it have to send them back to the phone? How do I stop this? I spend too much time deleting copies of pics that are already on the phone in original. I think that the thumbnails folder is a result of all this.
The biggest memory hog after DCIM is Clockwork Mod, within it a folder called "blobs". What is it and can I delete it?
The Next biggest memory hog is called "TWRP". What is it? Can I delete it?
Is there a guide to what all these things mean and do, for us learners?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how many apps in your device? u can check your remaining storage at setting>apps>downloaded...if the remaining is under 100mb...u need to delete some apps to update some apps...

Re:insufficient storage
cshnz said:
how many apps in your device? u can check your remaining storage at setting>apps>downloaded...if the remaining is under 100mb...u need to delete some apps to update some apps...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 51 countable icons for apps, 102 in the list of "All apps." which includes all sorts of android stuff.
Under "downloaded" (36 apps) internal storage shows 784Mb used, 224Mb free.
Under USB it shows 3.4Gb used, 9.9Gb free. Aha! so that's what Treesize is looking at.
I get it, my 1Gb of internal storage is being used up. I will try and move more apps to USB.
Is that it?

also check your system partition, google apps often go there, if you're not rooted you wont be able to free space on it, the system partition is about 500MB large so it gets easily filled up, it contains your android rom and system apps
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

monkey shoulder said:
I have 51 countable icons for apps, 102 in the list of "All apps." which includes all sorts of android stuff.
Under "downloaded" (36 apps) internal storage shows 784Mb used, 224Mb free.
Under USB it shows 3.4Gb used, 9.9Gb free. Aha! so that's what Treesize is looking at.
I get it, my 1Gb of internal storage is being used up. I will try and move more apps to USB.
Is that it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes i think you must move some apps to sd, or delete it.... hope it will work

[Q] I have some simple questions about the storage/emulated folder that need answers

The longer I have my Shield Tablet, the internal storage space seems to slowly vanish more and more. I have been constantly clearing cache, as well as uninstalling more and more apps. The entire internal storage folder (labeled storage/sdcard0), takes up a total of only 3.77 GB according to ES File Explorer, yet I have less than 2 GB free. I have noticed there is a folder labeled: storage/emulated. Within this folder are "0" and "legacy"... Both of these folders appear to be complete clones of the sdcard0 folder (each are exactly 3.77 GB as well). All three of these folders add up to equal the total storage used on the internal storage. So can I really only use a third of the internal storage since everything is duplicated 3 times? Is it safe to delete the contents of either of the 2 folders within storage/emulated? What is the purpose of these folders?

They are all the same directory - they're legacy ways of accessing the storage and are kept for backwards compatibility. Erasing any one of them will erase them all.
If you are on lollipop, the reason for shrinking space is usually the linking of apps to sdcard1 either using android, link2sd, Folder Mount, or the like. The lollipop system apparently reads the storage incorrectly, counting the linked files as still being on the sdcard.
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using Tapatalk

ailima said:
They are all the same directory - they're legacy ways of accessing the storage and are kept for backwards compatibility. Erasing any one of them will erase them all.
If you are on lollipop, the reason for shrinking space is usually the linking of apps to sdcard1 either using android, link2sd, Folder Mount, or the like. The lollipop system apparently reads the storage incorrectly, counting the linked files as still being on the sdcard.
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly right. I am using FolderMount for all of my big games, and my "storage" tab in settings shows that I am using 18GB (when we all know you only get about 12 usable), yet when I look in TitaniumBackup, SDMaid, or the like, it shows that I still have over 9GB free.
I'd use a different method of checking how much storage you're using, because (like the battery stats) the storage stats are totally broken in Lollipop.

ailima said:
They are all the same directory - they're legacy ways of accessing the storage and are kept for backwards compatibility. Erasing any one of them will erase them all.
If you are on lollipop, the reason for shrinking space is usually the linking of apps to sdcard1 either using android, link2sd, Folder Mount, or the like. The lollipop system apparently reads the storage incorrectly, counting the linked files as still being on the sdcard.
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My tablet is no longer rooted since I've been on Lollipop so I no longer use Folder Mount. I have moved as many apps as I can to the SD card through the stock app manager. I did use Folder Mount on KitKat, and noticed the weird storage usage, but I did a factory reset after updating to Lollipop. I have installed LOTS of apps, but I reached a point where I wasn't installing any new apps and my storage is slowly disappearing, and now I'm starting to have to uninstall apps... I've had this same issue on every android device I've owned, I eventually have to back up my data and do a factory reset, then reinstall all my apps again, then I suddenly have more free space then before with all the same apps installed...

Is it possible one of the apps you have installed is the culprit? (I.e. filling up your storage?)
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using XDA Free mobile app

Can you run Disk Usage and Storage Analyzer from the play store?

Apps like Google Plus tend to use a lot of cache and data. Have you checked up on them using something like a disk usage analyzer or 1Tap cleaner?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I noticed disk usage app even shows some game data that is not moved but just copied to SD.
Also this helps save me up to half a GB.
Its a hidden folder, in DCIM named thumbnails, it keeps a db on all your pictures an can get big quickly if you have a fair amount of pictures an wallpapers.
I found trick here on XDA, sorry can't remember who to credit but, delete that thumbnail folder an contents an make a new file not folder in the DCIM folder named,
.thumbnails an that is gone for good.
WR

ailima said:
Can you run Disk Usage and Storage Analyzer from the play store?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I used the app DiskUsage and a large chunk of used data is "System data"... It seems to fluctuate is size very much, but overall, it keeps increasing in size...

CaleTheKing said:
This is exactly right. I am using FolderMount for all of my big games, and my "storage" tab in settings shows that I am using 18GB (when we all know you only get about 12 usable), yet when I look in TitaniumBackup, SDMaid, or the like, it shows that I still have over 9GB free.
I'd use a different method of checking how much storage you're using, because (like the battery stats) the storage stats are totally broken in Lollipop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi guys, I'd loveto know that differentmethod of checking used storage
Also, if i keep installing games and moving to sd, won't it give me a "Not enough disk space" due to those wrong stats?
Thanks!

[Q] Shrinking memory?

Hello all, last night when I went to sleep I had about 1.5 GB free on my internal storage.
This morning I woke up and it was full (1MB free).
Wifi was off overnight.
What happened? Any ideas?
This is a wifi only shield with the most uptodate lollipop version.
Thank you all

You can analyze your SD card with ES File Explorer or check which apps are hogging the most internal storage from your settings. Both of those ideas come to mind right about now.
Sent from my Galaxy S5

primetechv2 said:
You can analyze your SD card with ES File Explorer or check which apps are hogging the most internal storage from your settings. Both of those ideas come to mind right about now.
Sent from my Galaxy S5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I tried ES File Explorer - and according to it - I have in fact only a tiny amount of free space - but all folders are small. So if I add them up (estimating manually) there is no way that the total of them fills up the whole internal memory card.
Is it possible that there is a large file or folder sitting somewhere, but it is not seen by ES File explorer?
Most of the large apps are moved (with folder mount) to the external SD card.
Now I removed a few apps that were on the internal sd card. I should have about 4GB free now - but have only about 1 GB free. No idea where the space is.
I am totally puzzled...

A question. I am using now the "Disk Usage" app.
It shows that I am using 3.7GB for apps - makes sense.
It also shows that my system data is over 6GB.
When I try to see what is inside system that takes up that space, the app crashes with the following message: java error: no more data
Can please someone tell me how big is your system folder when using the free Disk Usage app?
How can I check what is taking space in the system folder?

Which disk usage app is this? Disk Usage by AndUtil? DiskUsage? Neither of these have anywhere you can see where system space has been used.
ES File Explorer, like the other options, says I have 11.95GB disk space total, between what I've used and what's still left.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

primetechv2 said:
Which disk usage app is this? Disk Usage by AndUtil? Disk Usage? Neither of these have anywhere you can see where system space has been used.
ES File Explorer, like the other options, says I have 11.95GB disk space total, between what I've used and what's still left.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The app is called DiskUsage - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage&hl=en

With Folder Mount, even though you've moved files to the external SD, they're still linked to the internal storage and will report as used space unfortunately (even though they're not actually taking up space on the internal).
If you detach the pairs, you should see the free space revealed.
Also, the hidden (cache?) file in the thumbnails folder in the DCIM folder always seems to be excessively large (showing up as 3.5GB on my shield )
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using XDA Free mobile app

An Droid said:
With Folder Mount, even though you've moved files to the external SD, they're still linked to the internal storage and will report as used space unfortunately (even though they're not actually taking up space on the internal).
If you detach the pairs, you should see the free space revealed.
Also, the hidden (cache?) file in the thumbnails folder in the DCIM folder always seems to be excessively large (showing up as 3.5GB on my shield )
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I switched foldermount off to ensure that the data I get is accurate.
I also deleted the contents of the dcim folder but no real impact.
I will do a factory reset now . that should solve this I hope

Gadgetguy2005 said:
Thank you. I switched foldermount off to ensure that the data I get is accurate.
I also deleted the contents of the dcim folder but no real impact.
I will do a factory reset now . that should solve this I hope
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. After factory reset and reinstalling ALL apps I have 6GB free. (where before I had 1.5GB available)
Problem seems to be solved for now - but I still dont have the faintest idea what has happened.

Did you scan your storage with ES file explorer (see in Tools in ES, there is a free storage analyzer)? I was also thinking about DCIM thumbnails, a recursive storage eater on my devices, but it could be another app cache : pocket, Google play books, there are many... but you should see this in settings/applications (filter by app size).

Gadgetguy2005 said:
OK. After factory reset and reinstalling ALL apps I have 6GB free. (where before I had 1.5GB available)
Problem seems to be solved for now - but I still dont have the faintest idea what has happened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disk and Storage Analyzer Pro is the best tool I've found, though I'm sure there are others.

Thank you all for the suggestions.
I have used various tools (from ES File Explorer to various folder size apps) - and I was unable to find the culprit.
Some applications actually suggested I have 5GB free (based on adding up the storage used) - while my Shield told me I had only 1.5GB.
I think the problem was with a file in the system area (which many folder size apps do not diagnose well).
A factory reset solved this - and for now all is good.
If it ever happens again (I hope not!) I will do more digging.

Gadgetguy2005 said:
Thank you all for the suggestions.
I have used various tools (from ES File Explorer to various folder size apps) - and I was unable to find the culprit.
Some applications actually suggested I have 5GB free (based on adding up the storage used) - while my Shield told me I had only 1.5GB.
I think the problem was with a file in the system area (which many folder size apps do not diagnose well).
A factory reset solved this - and for now all is good.
If it ever happens again (I hope not!) I will do more digging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The app I was talking about can read the entire /data partition and sees everything. I'm sure other apps may have this functionality as well though I love this one's UI.