Database Info

[Q] .Thumbdata3 file

Whenever I try and upload a file to Google Drive or add a picture from my gallery to instagram, my phone creates a file called .thumbdata3 in the thumbnails directory on my SD card. The problem with this is not the creation of the file, it's that the file is exactly the size of all the free space on the memory card... When plugged into the computer it displays "0 Bytes Free" on the SD card...
So when I choose a file from the gallery to upload to google drive or instagram, it will hang on a black screen until this file has been created (filling up the SD card), and then upload... Then i check the free space, and it is 0Bytes.
Anyone else had this and fixed it?
PS Sorry for being a noob here

Bumping this...
Anyone had this? Or have a solution?

Same thing here, unfortunately no solution. Apparently it is safe to delete the file, but it will be recreated at some point, taking up all the space on the SD card again.
For me, it grew up to 400 MB and even beyond (IIRC), which seems a bit excessive, even taking into account that there are > 2000 pictures in the DCIM folder of my SD-card at the moment. Still, 400 MB is more than a quarter of the 1.4 GB that the pictures take up, which surely does not make much sense if that is supposed to speed up the process of reading/displaying the thumbnails!?
Does anybody know a fix? Is it ICS related? I'm on Stock 4.0.3 ICS BTW, and I never noticed this behaviour before the update...

Same here, with a SE Xperia Mini Pro (4.0.4). It happened with me when the phone tried syncing Evernote notes (with pictures attached).
Maybe this topic should be moved to a more generic sub-forum; apparently it's an ICS problem...

thumbdata3
I am also currently having this problem, specially when trying to upload/import photos from gallery to instagram. the ".thumdata3...." file can go as large as 2.5 gig for me, depenending on how much space I have on my SD card before importing pics from gallery to instagram

Same happenned to me - a siolutions that worked for me
Same happened to me the .thumdata3 ate up all remaining space (1.2G) on my Samsung Galaxy S2, android 4.0.3. Any time I deleted it, it was recreated any time I opened the camera app. Then the camera app was unable to take any pic due to sd full. If I deleted this file it was re-created any time I started camera again.
Installing and running the SDrescan app (from play store) helped. Though SDrescan made stock ringtones disappear. However reboot helped that, and the large file did not came back even after restarting camera.
This worked for me, though I am not sure in the reason. Might work for you as well, or not. I must say that android 4.0 is much worse than I expected. Not the first annoying error I have found.
My guess for the reason of the error happening: I once inserted an sd card with LOTS of media content. Then all this was cached somehow in gallery.
My guess for the reason this solution works: the app erases cached SD data thus helps reducing the thumbnail cache.

rasnadas said:
Same happened to me the .thumdata3 ate up all remaining space (1.2G) on my Samsung Galaxy S2, android 4.0.3. Any time I deleted it, it was recreated any time I opened the camera app. Then the camera app was unable to take any pic due to sd full. If I deleted this file it was re-created any time I started camera again.
Installing and running the SDrescan app (from play store) helped. Though SDrescan made stock ringtones disappear. However reboot helped that, and the large file did not came back even after restarting camera.
This worked for me, though I am not sure in the reason. Might work for you as well, or not. I must say that android 4.0 is much worse than I expected. Not the first annoying error I have found.
My guess for the reason of the error happening: I once inserted an sd card with LOTS of media content. Then all this was cached somehow in gallery.
My guess for the reason this solution works: the app erases cached SD data thus helps reducing the thumbnail cache.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue, but unfortunately your solution didn't help me. Initially I thought it did, but after a reboot and launching Camera app, it hanged and created the .thumbdata3 file once again.
I also tried messing up with databases using SQLite Editor, as described here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28466334&postcount=9, but that didn't help either.
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.

I have an issue with the size of the thumbdata3 file in DCIM/.thumbnails on internal memory (camera is set to store to ext SD) at the moment it is 314MB on internal memory but the thumbdata3 file in the DCIM/.thumbnail folder on ext SD is less than 1MB (I only have around 100 photos and pictures on my phone) - but camera still works (other than in the scenario described below)
If I delete the large thumbdata3 file from internal memory and then attempt to use the camera, the photo is taken without any problem but when I try to view it in either gallery or QuickPic by clicking through from the 'last image taken thumbnail' in the camera and then click back to carry on taking another picture the camera FC's. It usually does this twice and is then absolutely fine - apart from the fact that the large thumbdata3 file has been recreated on internal storage.
I've tried it numerous times and every time the same results - delete thumbdata3 from internal memory, couple of camera FC's, large thumbdata3 file recreated, no more problems (bar the loss of 314MB of storage)
I've tried replacing the thumbdata3 file on internal memory with a copy of the smaller one from Ext SD, creating a blank thumbdata3 file and setting it as read only/no write permission and neither have helped.
Its a bit weird and annoying but I won't let it take the shine off my fun with CM9, however it would be nice to recover that large chunk of storage space to be put to better use.
All the same, many thanks Arco - Beta 1 is my first CM9 install and its great :good:[/QUOTE]
Hi - haven't full troubleshooted this issue yet, but see my notes here. I have the same issue (GNEX JB 4.1.1 stock) and for me it is caused by the app KeepSafe which hides/unhides pics/videos on your phone. Note I believe this is an interaction issue between this app and the media scanning functionality in JB (and I suspect ICS), and so there are likely other apps that have the same issue. For me it creates 1 or 2 .thumbdata3 db files each around 1.3GB.
Certainly, irrespective of app causing it, you can follow the steps to purge Gallery and Media Storage, resync your gmail account and they should disappear on their own. Opening the camera and taking a photo causes the db to come back at around 400MB with a single thumbnail - one of the test files I was hiding and unhiding with KeepSafe but has since been deleted. Can't really explain this behaviour!
Any way, I made some notes on what I tested, the results and some ponderings in case this helps someone work it out:
Thumbdata3
Hiding in keep safe seems to create both the thumbnails and thumbdata file.
Clearing data/cache for gallery and media storage removes all these files? So far doesn't seem to be the case. File and db still there after. Rerunning the media scanner now. Perhaps they caused it? Also forced resync of all items in gmail account. Thumbs and db now gone. Not clear if it was the media scanning completing or the re-sync, but steps to resolve issue now appear deterministic.
Tested with single pic. Restored. No thumbs. Re-hid, thumbnail appeared for this pic and a 435MB db file.
All thumbs were for pics hidden in keep safe. However previously there were far more thumbs. Speculate - cumulative issue thru successive hide/restore cycles, possibly due to file name collision avoidance.
Deleting pic in file explorer also causes the problem? Does not appear to be the case. Gallery/Media Scanner/Media Storage handles this manual intervention far better under ICS/JB. Previously, manually removing a picture rather than deleting it thru Gallery tended to mean the tile/thumb remained. Scanner didn't or didn't very effectively detect this. Probable algorithm change in ICS. Now it sees the deletion immediately. Possibly implicated in keep safe not correctly interacting with the gallery/media scanner properly under ICS/JB.

I´ve the same problem.
After restarting the phone, the camera freezes for a while and regenerates the file, no matter how many media files are in the phone or sd card, it always growth to 431mg after restarting.
(I also find many lost files in the LOST.DIR (almost 2.300gb...many are dissapeared files that I forget about them!)

The .thumbdata files on my SGSIII take up ~4 GB worth of space. Already a quarter of my phones internal memory is being wasted. I wonder if this is a bug or "working as intended"? It makes me wonder how google can still justify the lack of an external microsd card slot on their nexus phones when there is so much space being mismanaged by the OS.

It's works
strom87 said:
I had the same issue, but unfortunately your solution didn't help me. Initially I thought it did, but after a reboot and launching Camera app, it hanged and created the .thumbdata3 file once again.
I also tried messing up with databases using SQLite Editor, as described here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28466334&postcount=9, but that didn't help either.
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's works with me!

that works
That works for me:
1. copy name of thumbdataX--x file
2. delete that file
3. create folder named the same as deleted file; reboot your device
4. look in folders named LOST.DIR (you can find it in the root directory of your internal memory and your SDcard) - huge temporary files may be left in these folders, so delete these files
New thumbdata file can't replace the folder and doesn't appears :victory:

until now the folder solution works :laugh:

Kyonex said:
That works for me:
1. copy name of thumbdataX--x file
2. delete that file
3. create folder named the same as deleted file; reboot your device
4. look in folders named LOST.DIR (you can find it in the root directory of your internal memory and your SDcard) - huge temporary files may be left in these folders, so delete these files
New thumbdata file can't replace the folder and doesn't appears :victory:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't work, camera still overwrites the .thumbdataX--x folder. And as /mnt/sdacard is using FAT32, I also can't set file permission to 000 or use /dev/null symlink.

[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.

Wasted space on Shield K1

My shield has 11.95GB of space, not including the system Partition of 4.05GB. Using ES File Explorer, I have determined that I have 6.36GB of files on the tablet. However the system reports that I have used 11.94GB, so cannot download any apps or files. What is using up that remaining 5.59GB and is there any way to recover it?

try to check out with ES Explorer what's using the space or any other "sdcard" analyzer. Hope it helps. I used to use System Tuner Pro, from Developer 3c. Maybe the freeversion includes it.

ninjagospace said:
My shield has 11.95GB of space, not including the system Partition of 4.05GB. Using ES File Explorer, I have determined that I have 6.36GB of files on the tablet. However the system reports that I have used 11.94GB, so cannot download any apps or files. What is using up that remaining 5.59GB and is there any way to recover it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this issue factory reset this will free up the missing gb[emoji106]

Had the same issue on multiple Android devices, it's just Android being Android.
Meaning crap :|
What I do is format the internal storage again (or factory reset but that seems like more of a PITA to me).
Before you format thought select and copy everything from the root directory of your *internal* storage to your *external storage* sd card (or onto your PC).
After you format select all the files you copied and copy back and bingo, storage recovered.
There might be a better way to do this, I'm not an expert.

Have you tried analysing your storage with an app like DiskUsage?:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.diskusage
Sent from my SHIELD Tablet using XDA Free mobile app

Kids, calm down, here's a pro tip:
Since 2.3> Most OEMs started having one partition for Data (App storage) and Internal Storage (<insert your files here>, i.e what pops up when connected to a PC). So what you are seeing are two things sharing one partition. System partition is separate and is usually filled up since it isn't supposed to be touched by the average joe, hence why most OEMs tend to fill it with whatever.
So what 12GB of storage you have free is filled up by downloaded apps and used user space, which is why you see the "internal storage" getting smaller and smaller for each app install. Before all this, Data partition used to be a separate partition being about 1-3 GB. Now this caused a lot of problems when it was quickly filled up, hence why Android/Google(?) decided to merge these two which solved this quite bothersome issue. Moving apps was of course possible around this time but usually only a small portion of the app data was moved into the "internal storage"
tldr: Data and "Internal storage" used to be two separate partitions, and now they're unified and people are confused even if it's been a standard for a few years now.