Database Info

Internal storage issues

'ello, gents. I just got my first Android phone and I seem to not be able to access 4GB of the internal memory. Under application storage, it has my available space as 4GB+, but won't let me install applications to it. I downloaded the disk usage app and it shows only 561MB total instead of approx 4561MB that should be there. I now have 62MB of internal space left and as I was typing this I got yet another warning that I am out of space. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
imgur dot com /3GJmA.jpg
imgur dot com /GMnxv.jpg
imgur dot com /57jBC.jpg
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium

I think when I turned on my phone i had roughly 4.5 GB available for usage. I so far have only used up aroun 500 mb. Everything else goes on my 16gb SD card. What all do you have installed on your internal to eat that much space up?
You could always try to wipe the device clean and start brand new.

Well, I have a few apps installed, but my point is that the space isn't being used--it won't let me use it. The phone thinks that there is only 550MB total internal space, and, for some reason, ignores the other 4GB (see the screenshot I posted). I have been throwing everything on the sd card and even ordered a big sd card for this purpose, but I still want to fix this issue. When I try to click on application space under application storage to get some options our something, nothing happens. It looks like I might need to just reinstall from scratch to see if that fixes it. I mostly wanted to see if others were having this issue our if it was a known bug. Thanks again for any insights.
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium

thelegume said:
'ello, gents. I just got my first Android phone and I seem to not be able to access 4GB of the internal memory. Under application storage, it has my available space as 4GB+, but won't let me install applications to it. I downloaded the disk usage app and it shows only 561MB total instead of approx 4561MB that should be there. I now have 62MB of internal space left and as I was typing this I got yet another warning that I am out of space. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
imgur dot com /3GJmA.jpg
imgur dot com /GMnxv.jpg
imgur dot com /57jBC.jpg
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That 4gb of space is specifically for your apps, if ur phone isnt recognizing or accessing it then u need to return it cause its faulty.
sent from my Motorola Atrix 2 via Tapatalk

same issue here... 500MB out of 4GB used internal. All the rest of my apps are going on the SD card.

I'm going to see if I can make it over to the at&t store and see what they have to say about it, but if anyone figures out what's going on, let me know. I plan on flashing MIUI as soon as its out, so I don't know if that will resolve the issue, but its probably better to not wait and see.
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium

I appologize in advance if this is a bit rambling.
I spent some time troubleshooting the issue and it does seem like the Atrix 2 has some difficulty using internal app storage.
Using the default App storage viewer (settings > Applications > storage use) it shows the correct size of 4gig, but using DiskUsage I was only seeing a size of 561MB.
I started to test this by installing apps till i hit the 561MB limit and sure enough at ~560 it started complaining that there was no more room available for some apps and for others it started to install them on the SD card.
So i decided to try and force an app to internal storage. DiskUsage showed 9MB free and I had a 25MB app installed on the SD card. Using the default app manager I moved the app back to the phone and it installed, thus taking up all the free space shown by DiskUsage, but at the same time increasing the size of the disk to accomidate for the overage. All subsequent app installs have gone to the internal storage, increasing the disk size in DiskUsage.
More to come..

How did u move or force install on internal storage?

thelegume said:
I'm going to see if I can make it over to the at&t store and see what they have to say about it, but if anyone figures out what's going on, let me know. I plan on flashing MIUI as soon as its out, so I don't know if that will resolve the issue, but its probably better to not wait and see.
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the legume - did you make it to AT&T and did they have anything to say?

I haven't yet, but using azangerle's idea, I seem to have resolved the issue. It looks like you need to force the phone past the approx 500MB barrier by moving an app to the sd card, filing up the 500MB internal storage and then once the phone says that its out of internal storage, move the app from the sd card back into internal. It will allow it to be copied, and you should be able to use the rest of the 4GB of storage afterwards (I'm almost to 2GB used with apps and haven't had any problems).
I'm still going to ask at&t about it when I can make it over there, but its not as high a priority new that we've found a workaround.
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium

cloudedhopes said:
How did u move or force install on internal storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you go to applications > manage applications > and then select an application, you can choose to have the app moved to the sd card (or back to internal)
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium

Ah OK. Thnx. I see a few tabs there... downloaded, all, on SD card... what does the 'on SD card' mean? I definitely have not moved any to SD and if I go on an application I am still getting the option to move to SD :/

They are only on the SD card if they have the green checkmark, even if they are on the SD card tab. Its very confusing.

azangerle said:
They are only on the SD card if they have the green checkmark, even if they are on the SD card tab. Its very confusing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for clearing that up, I wondered about that cause I know I hadn't moved any apps to my sdcard yet it told me I have a few on there. Maybe because they were installed off of it???

916x10 said:
Thanks for clearing that up, I wondered about that cause I know I hadn't moved any apps to my sdcard yet it told me I have a few on there. Maybe because they were installed off of it???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope I installed it from market. I think these are the ones that can be moved to SD?

cloudedhopes said:
Nope I installed it from market. I think these are the ones that can be moved to SD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was questioning why it showed like that on my phone. I have found some good info though
If you go into manage apps and click on the "on sdcard tab" unless there is a green checkmark next to the app it is not actually on your sdcard. Weird, but that's how it is.

I can live with that. Just wondering what on SD card means...

Has anyone known how to have access to internal storage?
I'd like to copy some movies to it but get "Access Denied"
Is internal storage available for an user???

djyuran said:
Has anyone known how to have access to internal storage?
I'd like to copy some movies to it but get "Access Denied"
Is internal storage available for an user???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, it is inaccessible, even after rooting.
Sent from my MB865 using XDA App

916x10 said:
Nope, it is inaccessible, even after rooting.
Sent from my MB865 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for information!
What's the purpose of internal storage?
Is it default place for installation of the new applications?

Clean up SD Card?

I would like to clean up my sd card and free up as much space as possible.
Right now i find it pretty annoying that while using a file explorer seeing all the useless folders I don't use, that apps make or android makes.
is there going to be an issue if i rename all of the folders with a "." in front of the name so that they're hidden?
I would also like to free up as much space on the sd card as possible.
right now 1.5Gb is being used by a folder called Android/Data.
I would like to free up as much of the 16Gb as possible.

Which version is urs international or att because if u buy att then you will have only 10gb available on sd card
Regarding keeping a dot to hide the folders. Ya you can use that to hide the folders but I am sure it won't help you in reducing the space on sd card .
Wait for someone with more knowledge on changing or deleting names of android and app folders because I am not sure if they cause any problems ( usually app create those folders while installation to store app data )
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

abhipati said:
What is the storage capacity of ur phone I mean 16gb or 32gb
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
16Gb, the att/rogers version only have 16Gb versions I thought?

Ya att version has only 16 gb in which only 10 gb is available
Refer to this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1715582
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

i have 7.8Gb free, then I have some music and pictures.
still trying to figure out if i make all of the folders hidden, while the phone still be able to find them?
and i have a folder called "android" on my sd card thats taking up 1.5Gb.
cant tell if its safe or not to delete/move.

The android folder contains data for apps you installed from the play store.

If you hide folder associated with an app, the app will likely not work properly. For most folders that have been generated by the OS or apps, I'd leave them alone. Messing with them will either break an app, or the OS will just assume the folder is gone, and make a new folder.
Couple exceptions, if there are any files in LOST.DIR, you can delete them. As long as you are confidant that none of your SD card files (photos, etc.) have been corrupted (that you may want to recover), since this is where they end up, if they do. You are probably also safe deleting any folder called "temp" or something similar. But that folder doesn't always show up.

Im running out of disc space

My note is only the 16gb version and im running out of space . How can i transfer my apps to the sd card, if i go to settings apps , there is no option to trasfer to the sd card ?
Lol suppose to be running out internal storage and not disc space.

Root and use titanium backup, I believe that will work.
Or get rid of apps you really don't need...
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly
---------- Post added at 10:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 PM ----------
How can u fill 16gb of apps only
Sent from a Baked Black Jelly Belly

>Delete your pr0n.
>????
>profit
Sent from my UNLOCKED GSIII.

Games will fill up space fast..nova3 2gb by itself

mywingtophone said:
My note is only the 16gb version and im running out of space . How can i transfer my apps to the sd card, if i go to settings apps , there is no option to trasfer to the sd card ?
Lol suppose to be running out internal storage and not disc space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Return it and get a 32 gb version. Dont be cheap.
Also transfer all your non app data files to your sdcard. Music, movies, backups, photos all can live on sdcard.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2

mywingtophone said:
My note is only the 16gb version and im running out of space . How can i transfer my apps to the sd card, if i go to settings apps , there is no option to trasfer to the sd card ?
Lol suppose to be running out internal storage and not disc space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use the apps:
App 2 SD
GL to SD
The first one moves apps that can be stored on your sd to be moved. The second one takes the massive downloads needed by the gigantic games and puts those downloads on your external sd instead of using up your system memory. Those apps saved me several gigs of space!
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2

What's the point of deciding on the 16GB then complaining about running out of space?

mywingtophone said:
My note is only the 16gb version and im running out of space . How can i transfer my apps to the sd card, if i go to settings apps , there is no option to trasfer to the sd card ?
Lol suppose to be running out internal storage and not disc space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use Root Explorer, works well

Open Settings-->Applications-->Choose All tab--> Select any large application --> Move to SD Card
But you have to do one by one though...

use this tool DirectoryBind. move all ur unmovable games data to ur sd card. if will take some time to learn how to use but once u learn it u will find it easy and love this tool!
link http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1410262

mi7chy said:
What's the point of deciding on the 16GB then complaining about running out of space?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do find it a mystery why just for a short term fix owners are purchasing the 16GB model when shortly after the same will then be complaining of not enough space.
Percentage wise apps are getting bigger quicker than the hardware is increasing.
It's the sole reason why I never went for the Nexus 7.

htainlin said:
Open Settings-->Applications-->Choose All tab--> Select any large application --> Move to SD Card
But you have to do one by one though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That doesn't work with ICS...

If you go into apps then open my files i have found that you can point/hold and drag from internal sd to extsd.
I am also looking for a way to change the designation of installed apps and where items are automatically saved to.
I havent attempted to root yet.
Hope this helps

confus-ed said:
If you go into apps then open my files i have found that you can point/hold and drag from internal sd to extsd.
I am also looking for a way to change the designation of installed apps and where items are automatically saved to.
I havent attempted to root yet.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you be a little more specific? When you say go into apps what do you mean? Also how do you open my files?

Beards said:
I do find it a mystery why just for a short term fix owners are purchasing the 16GB model when shortly after the same will then be complaining of not enough space.
Percentage wise apps are getting bigger quicker than the hardware is increasing.
It's the sole reason why I never went for the Nexus 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because the 32gb version isn't available here in Oz yet... If they released the 32gb version with the 16gb version they would have no or minimal sale of the 16gb version. REALLY bites...:crying:

donec said:
Could you be a little more specific? When you say go into apps what do you mean? Also how do you open my files?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Located at the top right of the screen is an icon that resembles a rubix cube, touch that and it will take you to the applications part of the Note. Different than the home screens.
Located in the apps pages is a folder labled my files, touch that and it will open in a file tree manner. At this point you can touch and drag into the extsd folder.
You can also connet to your puter and launch kies and check the box to make the extsd card the default save.

confus-ed said:
Located at the top right of the screen is an icon that resembles a rubix cube, touch that and it will take you to the applications part of the Note. Different than the home screens.
Located in the apps pages is a folder labled my files, touch that and it will open in a file tree manner. At this point you can touch and drag into the extsd folder.
You can also connet to your puter and launch kies and check the box to make the extsd card the default save.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I was doing that with pictures and music, never occurred to try apps, i thought ics didn't allow it. There were some apps i couldn't move but did move some, seems too easy but it worked

Using Kies to copy data files (not the apps) to the Note will also make them smaller and save space. I remember copying some using the windows browser and they were converted (made smaller) IF you copy first to the Note then move them to the Extsd. There may be even more ways to save space with transferring. Photos for example that don't need to be 2-5 mb each could be shrunk with a photo editor on your desktop, then transferred to the Note.

jaydubbbbs said:
Thanks! I was doing that with pictures and music, never occurred to try apps, i thought ics didn't allow it. There were some apps i couldn't move but did move some, seems too easy but it worked
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, if you discover anything that allows you to use the extsd as more of a partition rather than storage only keep us posted.:good:
Edit: I read in the note forums that someone had written a kernel to swap the priority of the storage, making the extsd64gb act as the internal storage and vice versa. I dont have the link for it

Thumbnail file taking too much space

Hey guys I am facing an issue regarding space in my phone's internal SD CARD. I checked in root explorer n found that 2 files of thumbnail in DCIM folder taking 600mb of space. though all my photos n videos are in external SD CARD. But I don't know how its still being created in the internal SD CARD and I wanna tell that I use quickpic galary app to browse all the photos n videos and never used phones original galary app....
So plz help me guys n provide a solution. M using Sony Xperia go phone!!
Sent from my ST27i using xda premium

Maybe You Can find solution in one of those threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1318827
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=28447099#post28447099
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35259164&postcount=7

It seems a problem with android 4+ I made a goo.gle link but haven't posted much here yet oQSfA is the extension of the url. If I am erroneously posting this, I am sorry. I have the same issue. If anyone can post a clickable link it might get stars quicker. It might be fixed in jelly bean, but I don't know.
Issue 39546:Files under DCIM/.thumbnails are eating away at SD card storage
I have since done factory restore with formatting the stock SD. File is there, much smaller though 197 KB. No pictures to thumbnail, so it isn't necessarily solved. I did switch out cards (old 16GB to stock 4GB) before format and delete the .thumbnail file but that was recreated even with no pictures. I figured it may be my picasa account, but have since opened gallery. After letting more (from Picasa) picture and folder thumbnails appear than ever before my file is still small
.:banghead:
it still (6+ hours) has not grown giant. In fact its not really there. I didn't disable any of TMobile bloat like I did initially, and have the blank SD. In the process of reinstalling apps reopening gallery and checking space with storage analyzer.
I still don't like not being able to choose internal USB or external storage SD. Most apps "moved to SD card" just move to USB storage. Interestingly tapatalk appeared to move to the real external SD card as did a few others.
I doubt this will be fixed on ICS. I can hope though. It seems like the app itself needs to use the external SD directory, but the stock gallery might never be updated.
Samsung galaxy blaze 4G with stock ICS 4.0.4. All the extra TMobile apps are a pre-installed, but not updated.
I don't claim to be knowledgeable enough to know what I don't know. I always reserve the right to be wrong.
Taking pictures didn't make thumbnail file huge, but one relatively small video of 29 seconds with a 5MP camera created a 47mb file and two 3mb files in the thumbnail folder. Not huge but bigger than 10%.

EvilHobbit said:
Maybe You Can find solution in one of those threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1318827
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=28447099#post28447099
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35259164&postcount=7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks bro.. u really helped me.. just tried some solutions from the links u gave me.
will post feedback again if its working or not. i hope those thumbnail files wont come back now.

Glad i could help a bit .
Sent from my LT18i using xda app-developers app

EvilHobbit said:
Glad i could help a bit .
Sent from my LT18i using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
finally it worked... thanks a lot bro...
for all others dealing with same issue, here is what i did... just replaced the thumbnail file with another file created with root explorer named it same as the thumbnail file n removed the write permissions of the new file created... so it wont let system write any data in it. therefore it stays empty.

Will App2SD work on an stock Galaxy Note 3

hi,
is it now possible to move apps from the internal storage to the SD-Card. Which of theese Apps will work, with an Note 3 (no root - just stock)?
With the Note 2 it wasn´t possible.

Note3 already have move to sd function on stock firmware right? Go to application manager and check it.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

No from all applications! Right?
Sent from my SM-N9005 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

This is stock lol
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

It actually installs half the apps to the external SD by default....
Annoyingly. I've yet to find a way to turn it off. I have 22GB free internally, and 18MB on my 64GB MicroSD. I do not want the apps on my Media card! How the bloody hell do I turn it off?!

ShadowLea said:
It actually installs half the apps to the external SD by default....
Annoyingly. I've yet to find a way to turn it off. I have 22GB free internally, and 18MB on my 64GB MicroSD. I do not want the apps on my Media card! How the bloody hell do I turn it off?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahaha I just don't understand how you manage to curse in a specific way in every thread but you always make me laugh. Anyway my N900 doesn't do that but just download "AppMgr (either normal or pro) III (App 2 SD)" and manage them to select the ones you don't want in your precious sd (A part of me dies everytime I end with the space of another sd so I understand)
Sent from my SM-N900 using xda app-developers app

*GalaxyDev* said:
Hahaha I just don't understand how you manage to curse in a specific way in every thread but you always make me laugh. Anyway my N900 doesn't do that but just download "AppMgr (either normal or pro) III (App 2 SD)" and manage them to select the ones you don't want in your precious sd (A part of me dies everytime I end with the space of another sd so I understand)
Sent from my SM-N900 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Practice, practice, practice...
Well, The phone does tell me what app is on my SD (under apps/sd it has a green checkmark) and I can move it through there, but thank you for the reminder, I somehow completely forgot you could also use App2SD the other way around... :laugh:
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk

ShadowLea said:
Practice, practice, practice...
Well, The phone does tell me what app is on my SD (under apps/sd it has a green checkmark) and I can move it through there, but thank you for the reminder, I somehow completely forgot you could also use App2SD the other way around... :laugh:
Send From My Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005 Using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
strangely it DOES NOT movie any SD data to extSD although press move to SD option. so my 64 gb external micro sd cannot be used for apps right? only the internal sd (32 gb) can be used to move the app data into not the micro sd??? I m on n9005 btw

onours said:
strangely it DOES NOT movie any SD data to extSD although press move to SD option. so my 64 gb external micro sd cannot be used for apps right? only the internal sd (32 gb) can be used to move the app data into not the micro sd??? I m on n9005 btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It(Samsung's) will allow you to move any app that doesn't impact on the system... Games should be fine as well as as any app not related to the system....
For instance, I have my Note 3 rooted by de la Vega method with xposed framework installed. Can't move any of the framework modules onto external sd card but games like Plants vs Zombies 2 are no problem...

onours said:
strangely it DOES NOT movie any SD data to extSD although press move to SD option. so my 64 gb external micro sd cannot be used for apps right? only the internal sd (32 gb) can be used to move the app data into not the micro sd??? I m on n9005 btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't move system-essential files. Wallpapers also tend to make a fuss if you move them. Games and such work fine. No, you can't move Twitter, Youtube and the likes, for some unfathomable reason it sees that as essential. I call it Bloatware, but alas.
Anything else you can move. They end up in the .android_secure folder on your SD. (you can see that one even without root. Just enable hidden files.) I accidentally deleted that folder a while ago. The apps remained installed, but they could no longer be found on the device for launching. (even using S Finder.)
Anyway I was working in the opposite direction. As I said, My ExtSD is full, but my internal memory still has 13GB free. (I've moved things.)
I prefer to keep internal for apps alone. Less clutter means less slowdowns. And that way if my phone dies for whatever reason and I need to factory reset or RMA, I can just pull the MicroSD and all my data will be fine. Which in turn means one less panicked member on XDA begging the others how to recover the data, and a lot less people needing to say 'you should've backed up!'.
I have always used the same principle on my pc and laptop. C:\ for programs alone, the other drives (or if I only have one, partition) for data. it'll always be safe if I need to wipe Windows. Always keep your data separate from the system!
32GB is more than enough for apps. I have 430 apps installed, amongst which several 1GB+ games, and still have 13GB free. The only thing I keep on my MicroSD in terms of apps are navigational data. (So I don't have to redownload all 5.8GB of that when my phone rolls over and dies, or I switch.)

ShadowLea said:
You can't move system-essential files. Wallpapers also tend to make a fuss if you move them. Games and such work fine. No, you can't move Twitter, Youtube and the likes, for some unfathomable reason it sees that as essential. I call it Bloatware, but alas.
Anything else you can move. They end up in the .android_secure folder on your SD. (you can see that one even without root. Just enable hidden files.) I accidentally deleted that folder a while ago. The apps remained installed, but they could no longer be found on the device for launching. (even using S Finder.)
Anyway I was working in the opposite direction. As I said, My ExtSD is full, but my internal memory still has 13GB free. (I've moved things.)
I prefer to keep internal for apps alone. Less clutter means less slowdowns. And that way if my phone dies for whatever reason and I need to factory reset or RMA, I can just pull the MicroSD and all my data will be fine. Which in turn means one less panicked member on XDA begging the others how to recover the data, and a lot less people needing to say 'you should've backed up!'.
I have always used the same principle on my pc and laptop. C:\ for programs alone, the other drives (or if I only have one, partition) for data. it'll always be safe if I need to wipe Windows. Always keep your data separate from the system!
32GB is more than enough for apps. I have 430 apps installed, amongst which several 1GB+ games, and still have 13GB free. The only thing I keep on my MicroSD in terms of apps are navigational data. (So I don't have to redownload all 5.8GB of that when my phone rolls over and dies, or I switch.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
guys C'MON.. offcourse I know that system app and or data cannot be moved to external "micro sd" unless you use a directory binder kinda app.
what I mean is altahough the app manager shows that app data is in SD (green tick) card my external "micro" sd cards .android_secure folder is empty and the only storage occupied is internal sd (32gb) on which the data is stored at android/obb
what the heck is wrong with my note 3

so is it just me?

Use FolderMount
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

ShadowLea said:
I prefer to keep internal for apps alone. Less clutter means less slowdowns. And that way if my phone dies for whatever reason and I need to factory reset or RMA, I can just pull the MicroSD and all my data will be fine. Which in turn means one less panicked member on XDA begging the others how to recover the data, and a lot less people needing to say 'you should've backed up!'.
I have always used the same principle on my pc and laptop. C:\ for programs alone, the other drives (or if I only have one, partition) for data. it'll always be safe if I need to wipe Windows. Always keep your data separate from the system!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly my philosophy on storage, though it started with a separate drive for /home on Debian rather than with Windows, but has expanded to the point where I even have a specific hard drive for game installs on my WIN7 gaming rig.
Funny that before Google started going on about orphan files and the mess apps make on SD cards there wasn't one. My SD card was set up exactly how I wanted and data was shared nicely between apps.
Now there seems to be no option to stop putting junk files on there, an issue I haven't seen since 2.3, and even when I move them back the phantom folders for the apps that I've taken off the SD keep showing back up where I deleted them.