Develop Bugs

Where does all the memory go

According to the specs the phone comes with 576mb of ram, yet when I got my new phone it only had 140mb available, which seems to me that you lose around 75% of the memory advertised before you actually get the phone.
Anyone know what is using up all this memory

walkerx said:
According to the specs the phone comes with 576mb of ram, yet when I got my new phone it only had 140mb available, which seems to me that you lose around 75% of the memory advertised before you actually get the phone.
Anyone know what is using up all this memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android is using it. It doesn't RUN from ROM, no modern OS does that. ROM is merely where it's stored, it run's in RAM.

thanks for the response, i understand it doesn't run from ROM but just couldn't believe that you lose 75% of the ram.

walkerx said:
thanks for the response, i understand it doesn't run from ROM but just couldn't believe that you lose 75% of the ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't lose 75% of anything, it's still there. You're using 75% of it!. A phone that uses 0% of it's RAM would be a real-fancy paper weight after all.
If you try to open an app and you don't have enough RAM to run it Android will close activities and apps until there is enough. Any half way decent modern OS acts this way.
75% usage is fine and normal, don't worry about.

Perhaps your phone is developing Alzheimer's?

Actually you guys are confusing a lot here!
The 140MB that are available are ROM memory. The rest of the 512MB is used by the system and Sense etc.
That's not much available, since apps can only be installed into those 140MB.
Of the 576MB RAM, the system also uses some of it. But there's more than 140MB available.

it is indeed the rom, however, being that a massive majority of android apps are less than 1.5 mb in size, and if programmed properly use the SD card for storage means, the likelyhood of most people ever having a problem is minute.
I've read people on these forums with 70 odd apps on their desire and they have no issues whatsoever.
it really is not an issue.

after upgrading from the G1 with only 70mb-80mb available for installing apps unless you used the sdcard for storage was just a shock to only see 140mb available on the desire.

Agreed, it definitely is a problem if you install an app like Google Earth (22meg) and a few large games you will soon run out. On my G1 with apps2sd I had over 200meg of apps installed.

Meh, and HTC put 8GB of internal memory in the Droid Incredible (basicly the US desire), really don't understand why they don't put some internal storage in all of these devices..

Guys is there a tool where I could see how many rom and ram memory is available to install apps.

rhedgehog said:
it is indeed the rom, however, being that a massive majority of android apps are less than 1.5 mb in size, and if programmed properly use the SD card for storage means, the likelyhood of most people ever having a problem is minute.
I've read people on these forums with 70 odd apps on their desire and they have no issues whatsoever.
it really is not an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd have to disagree with you I'm afraid - it really is an issue.
My Desire has about 80 apps installed, including Google Earth, Navigon satnav, and about 5 games. I have literally less than 10mb of ROM space left - not even enough for another game.
The space supplied on the ROM for apps is pathetic, and the sooner the Desire gets rooted (to enable apps2sd) the better.
EDIT: I've just realised I've repeated what other people said, and also may have come off like a douche - no offence intended!

Adding SD Storage does not help!
abats said:
Meh, and HTC put 8GB of internal memory in the Droid Incredible (basicly the US desire), really don't understand why they don't put some internal storage in all of these devices..
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Click to collapse
When you think about it, this will make the new HTC Incredible (coming this year) with 8GB on board a big seller for HTC, do feel a little bit let down by HTC on this
I have to admit up until today when I got an "out of space" message I assumed apps were going on the SD Card, I'm really gutted about this. But in my heart I knew at some point went rooting was possible I would do it anyway.

sdemmery said:
When you think about it, this will make the new HTC Incredible (coming this year) with 8GB on board a big seller for HTC, do feel a little bit let down by HTC on this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Afaik the 8GB onboard is as storage, not as ROM. So if android is still like today (only allowed application to be installed in ROM) those 8 GB can't be used as well. The main reason of this limitation is to prevent the piracy, but I read somewhere that there is a plan to add a function to store the encrypted application in the external storage. Hopefully that can be realized soon.

setspeed said:
EDIT: I've just realised I've repeated what other people said, and also may have come off like a douche - no offence intended!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries. I probably sound like a douche most of the time, but after doing my job for as long as i have, i no longer really care. but no offence intended from my end either. i may be a grumpy sod, but i'm not an a-hole.
anyhoo, most people will get nowhere near 80 apps.
I've been on android since the magic and got nowhere near that yet. most people won't. but yeah, lets hope either HTC start putting more memory in the phones, or google just add pss2sd capability as standard.
either would solve this for those few people that it does effect.

abats said:
Meh, and HTC put 8GB of internal memory in the Droid Incredible (basicly the US desire), really don't understand why they don't put some internal storage in all of these devices..
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Click to collapse
but u cant use them as system memory so its like a 8gb SD

Yeah, perhaps I'm spoilt from having apps2sd on my Dream - I've got used to installing whatever the hell I like, and leaving it there!
Let's hope Paul from MoDaCo finishes rooting/getting write access to the system partition soon. Or indeed, any other dev who can manage it

How do you guys get so many apps? I have installed around 20 apps and it's telling me I'm running low on space.......quite annoying. Having to remove apps to instal others.

boge said:
Afaik the 8GB onboard is as storage, not as ROM. So if android is still like today (only allowed application to be installed in ROM) those 8 GB can't be used as well. The main reason of this limitation is to prevent the piracy, but I read somewhere that there is a plan to add a function to store the encrypted application in the external storage. Hopefully that can be realized soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL that was pretty much what I wrote originally & thought I was talking nonsense so I edited the post, should have left it I guess
For me its not the number of apps its that some are large. Anyone have copilot installed, im thinking of getting it but im worried the maps are going to fill the memory up & leave me room for no other apps! The Desire is a cutting edge device & we just shouldn't have to contend with this issue, Heck I never had this with Windows Mobile. Then again I never had any apps for Windows Mobile

OnlinePredator said:
How do you guys get so many apps? I have installed around 20 apps and it's telling me I'm running low on space.......quite annoying. Having to remove apps to instal others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not only the issue with the number apps you can install. This issue is also limiting developers. There are a couple of reasons iPhone applications/games are usualy higher quality then the android counterparts. Storage problems is one of those issues sadly.

740 or 512MB ROM?

Can someone who actually HAS the phone verify this for me?
Over here it says 740
http://www.androidcentral.com/droid-incredible-vs-evo-4g-vs-nexus-one
AC claims to have gotten this info direct from HTC
http://www.androidcentral.com/about-rom-storage-droid-incredible
Verizon website says 512, and a couple others say 512 as well.
So what's going on here?

I can tell you what mine says:
Internal Phone Storage: 6.60 GB
Phone memory: 748 MB
HTH

Same here... my best guess is after the 512mb of RAM and 512mb of ROM this is what's left over for the user?

I have :
Internal Phone Storage: 6.60 GB
Phone memory: 748 MB

I have 748 Total, and 685 of that available.
Even 512 would have been plenty.

Interesting.. I wonder why they wouldn't capitalize on that by at least showing it on the main website or verizon..
http://www.htc.com/us/products/droid-incredible-verizon?view=1-1&sort=0#tech-specs
If it were true, i don't get it. Having 748 over 512 is a huge deal.
When I see 512 I cry a little inside wondering if it's gonna run out of app space
It's possibly a miscalculation or error in the software. Maybe it should be 512 after all, since both the verizon and HTC pages for the phone have no indication of any more than 512MB of ROM..
Also I hear we're not able to install apps to the 8GB onboard, sans root.
What will change with the arrival of Froyo?
Will we be able to send apps to the 8gb as well as the sdcard?
That would put me at ease..
EDIT: God HTC has done a really crappy job with reporting specs on this phone!!
http://shopamerica.htc.com/cell-phones/productdetail.htm?prId=37106
Over here it says the incredible has a 2.5mm headphone jack while on the tech spec page above (still on HTCs website) it says 3.5 (which I know to be true)
This, and the ROM crap is making me consider another phone, as this one appears to have been poorly executed.

I don't think this is a big deal...
topdnbass said:
Also I hear we're not able to install apps to the 8GB onboard, sans root.
What will change with the arrival of Froyo?
Will we be able to send apps to the 8gb as well as the sdcard?
That would put me at ease..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering that EVERY android up to this point has not been able to do this without root, it is kind of a mute point. Froyo is supposed to change that, but it hasn't made that much of a deal up until now.
No other Android device that I know of has Internal 8gb storage either, not even the EVO...

I don't mean it as a point against the phone.
Simply noting that theres 8gb memory that COULD be used for app storage.
So i hope with froyo they implement a nice way to send apps to the 8gb memory OR the sdcard. Rather than only the sdcard.
The 8GB onboard is great, and knowing that i can have upto 40GB space available on my phone is pretty wonderful.
I just want to be sure that I can use every bit the way I want.
I had the G1 and root was more of a necessity than "extra benefit".
So I just hope the incredible doesn't need third party intervention to be the phone we all want it to be.
I don't think thats too much asked.
On my g1 I had about 400+ apps, and I KNOW that if I only have the 512 rom for app storage I'll be running out at one point or another..

topdnbass said:
If it were true, i don't get it. Having 748 over 512 is a huge deal.
When I see 512 I cry a little inside wondering if it's gonna run out of app space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regardless of 512 or 748 I wouldn't worry about running out of app space. I don't know of anyone who has. Even on the smaller droid I didn't know anyone who.did.
Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

372mb RAM instead of 512?

I tried searching for this one and couldn't come up with any good answers on here, but it's something that I've been wondering since I got the G2. I've noticed that no matter what rom I use, the total memory in settings>about phone never shows up more than 400mb. I can't be sure of the exact amount for all the roms I've tried in the past, but I remember thinking it peculiar, although thinking about the internal memory and the fact that it was advertised as 4gb and only registers as 1.2gb, I was thinking maybe this is a similar thing?
Sent from my G2 running GingerMex Ghost Chili

Gwanatu said:
I tried searching for this one and couldn't come up with any good answers on here, but it's something that I've been wondering since I got the G2. I've noticed that no matter what rom I use, the total memory in settings>about phone never shows up more than 400mb. I can't be sure of the exact amount for all the roms I've tried in the past, but I remember thinking it peculiar, although thinking about the internal memory and the fact that it was advertised as 4gb and only registers as 1.2gb, I was thinking maybe this is a similar thing?
Sent from my G2 running GingerMex Ghost Chili
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get a better phone, this is normal.

Get a good one damnit
meXdroid Ghost Chilli

The rest is used up by the operating system.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

Normal. My mt4g never shows more than 500mb after a fresh reboot.
Sent from prison

tackleberry said:
Normal. My mt4g never shows more than 500mb after a fresh reboot.
Sent from prison
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's normal to..
Look at this example
You buy a computer for 400 and in order to play crysis you need to have 2000 total dollars.
The 400 is for the computer, 50 of that is for crysis and the remaining 1550 is used to increase your computers everything just to freaking play that graphic hog game..
Okay better example
You eat a twinkie, it looks good at first, the commercial urges you to buy it. Even the box makes it look good, but once you eat it you realize your stomach hurts and it was a waste of time buying something that is so fattening you wish you hadn't.. bloatware much?

Read the details here HTC Vision XDA wiki

melodicjunkie said:
That's normal to..
Look at this example
You buy a computer for 400 and in order to play crysis you need to have 2000 total dollars.
The 400 is for the computer, 50 of that is for crysis and the remaining 1550 is used to increase your computers everything just to freaking play that graphic hog game..
Okay better example
You eat a twinkie, it looks good at first, the commercial urges you to buy it. Even the box makes it look good, but once you eat it you realize your stomach hurts and it was a waste of time buying something that is so fattening you wish you hadn't.. bloatware much?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what? how does this at all help anyone understand this.

martonikaj said:
what? how does this at all help anyone understand this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think he's just saying that the OS is using up the other resources
compare it with a sony PSP.. since it doesn't run a lot of programs in the background, it can play graphics intensive games with such low clocked cpu and less ram compared to mobile phones
BTW i know you are talking about the physical memory but just wanted to bring it out there
you can check the link given by Innocent Devil and check the "The Missing 2GB" part. it explains it there

krizz07 said:
BTW i know you are talking about the physical memory but just wanted to bring it out there
you can check the link given by Innocent Devil and check the "The Missing 2GB" part. it explains it there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has *ABSOLUTELY NOTHING* to do with the "missing 2GB".
The question is about RAM, not storage.
Most relevant example;
You buy a new computer with an integrated video adapter. You go into the BIOS configuration program and it has an option to change the amount of RAM being allocated to the GPU -- 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, or 512 MB. You have 4 GB total and set the GPU to 512 MB. When you boot into your operating system, you only see 3.5 GB. Where is the missing 0.5 GB? Its allocated to the GPU.
In addition to allocating a whole bunch to the GPU, these phones are actually TWO COMPUTERS (with two separate CPUs) that run two different operating systems concurrently. The first one is the RADIO system, responsible for messing with the wireless. The second one is the APPLICATION system, which runs the user operating system and interface (Android). They share a common pool of RAM, so some of it is allocated to the RADIO, some is allocated to the GPU (and other media components), and only what remains is available to Android.

Thanks for those of you that gave me good answers! This clears things right up!
dhkr234 said:
This has *ABSOLUTELY NOTHING* to do with the "missing 2GB".
The question is about RAM, not storage.
Most relevant example;
You buy a new computer with an integrated video adapter. You go into the BIOS configuration program and it has an option to change the amount of RAM being allocated to the GPU -- 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, or 512 MB. You have 4 GB total and set the GPU to 512 MB. When you boot into your operating system, you only see 3.5 GB. Where is the missing 0.5 GB? Its allocated to the GPU.
In addition to allocating a whole bunch to the GPU, these phones are actually TWO COMPUTERS (with two separate CPUs) that run two different operating systems concurrently. The first one is the RADIO system, responsible for messing with the wireless. The second one is the APPLICATION system, which runs the user operating system and interface (Android). They share a common pool of RAM, so some of it is allocated to the RADIO, some is allocated to the GPU (and other media components), and only what remains is available to Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very interesting, didn't know about the dual OS thing. Makes sense though, and I figured that was the case but just wanted a sure fire answer. Thanks a lot!!

dhkr234 said:
This has *ABSOLUTELY NOTHING* to do with the "missing 2GB".
The question is about RAM, not storage.
oopsie you're right.. i guess the PSP comparison is the one applicable then haha
he's absolutely right, the other ram is for the OS itself and the rest is for your other apps. this makes the phone silky smooth when running tasks unlike my touch pro 2 before, which has a very low ram plus all the "memory leakage" but it still has the best keyboard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] How many GB are available in the Galaxy Nexus 16GB version?

I know the question title sounds self answering, but on my AT&T SGS2- it says 16gb on the box, but when I look at what is actually available for use, it says 11.36gb available.... total. But of course it has an SD slot. If the gNex only has 11gb available out of 16, that'd be a problem for me since it has no SD slot, which means I would wait. I'm debating on waiting for the 32gb or just ordering the 16gb version now depending on this info. Thanks for your accurate response

Total space available shows as 13.33GB

Mine also says 13.33 GB, but if you have apps synced/backed up to your google account it will install those as part of the "setting up" sequence, so your "available" storage will be less after set up.

also keep in mind if you have Google Music, then the cache will also eat up a lot

Ample space for a whopping 2 or 3 HD movies

Thanks! Question officially answered.
Thanks everybody! That's pushing it for me. On my SGS2 I'm using about 11gb right now and I don't even have movies on it. Shouldn't the sad face icon be blue too? Cause that's the colour I'm feelin now.
Release the (32gb) hounds!

How much of the 13.3 should be available on first boot? (Ie how much space does the os use?)

mr mystery said:
How much of the 13.3 should be available on first boot? (Ie how much space does the os use?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
13.3 is what's left of the 16GB after the OS.

mr mystery said:
How much of the 13.3 should be available on first boot? (Ie how much space does the os use?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
13.3 is what you get when you boot in fresh....

I have issues with mine, under storage it reports 1.3 gb for apps, 3gb for music/videos and 6gb free, I'm missing 3gb?? Windows reports 6gb free and 7.3 used?? The numbers don't match what happened to my 3gb?? Any help appreciated here.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Bumping, greatly appreciate any ideas.
Thanks
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

6.3 + 7 = 13.3 total. Exactly what the other guys told you they had. Zero problem. All storage works this way. You have 16gb of storage, but only 13.3 is usable (after format). Same with your computers hd. For example, if you have a 320 gb harddrive, once its formatted to usable space, you only see like 298gb. Same with your phone.
Edit: I Think you're asking two different questions. As long as both are reporting the same free space you are ok. Formatting "takes away" space, and the os takes up space. This looks about right to me.

When u buy a 1TB hard disk, and you connect it for the first time, you have c.a. 900/950 GB total space. free, even less.
It's normal, every device with 16/32/64 etc, has less total memory than stated.

This is why I asked what was available after a fresh install, replies I got were 13.3gb. My system settings under storage shows 1.39 for apps, 3.04 for pictures and videos, and 6.60 available for a total of 11gb roughly. So does the os take up 2.3gb?

That1dude said:
Thanks everybody! That's pushing it for me. On my SGS2 I'm using about 11gb right now and I don't even have movies on it. Shouldn't the sad face icon be blue too? Cause that's the colour I'm feelin now.
Release the (32gb) hounds!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung might added fatty TouchWiz. That custom themes and its framework take more than stock android.

This is one of the few benefits that bests the GSM Version.
On Verizon, you get 4G with 32GB.
And I could care less about OTA.
So in the end, Verizon variant wins.
Only I miss out on accessories, white housing, and a slightly weaker development team compared to the GSM.

Free memory?

How much of the 3gb memory will be available for use? Nexus 10 announced to have 2gb, but after buying it I realized actual available memory is 1.1gb. So, the question is, will same do the same thing?
Any ideas?
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

Are you talking about ram?
If yes, maybe 2.3-2.5...
For example, HTC One have 2 GB of ram, but you can use 1.5.
So, we have to see when the tablet is released

The purpose of having RAM in your phone/computer etc is to increase performance. You don't increase the performance by leaving the ram free. You use it.
Free RAM is wasted RAM

i think most people here should understand that if you're not using your ram then it's wasted. but i think he wants to know how much is available to apps after the gpu and system take their share.
someone posted a screenshot in one of the threads and i thought it was somewhere around 2.3GB.

madsquabbles said:
someone posted a screenshot in one of the threads and i thought it was somewhere around 2.3GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good, 2.3 GB
However, you're right.
People didn't understand that ram will be full..
Every one will kill all process ._.