Hey guys,
Been searching on this for a whle and haven't found the info I'm looking for.
How does the custom APPS2D actually work? By that I mean, what is it really doing? I know it's copying the app(s) to the partitioned ext2/3/4 area of the sdcard, but how does it know *what* part of the app to move as it seems something is always left on the phone.
I'm currently running AdamG's OpenDesire 3.0.5 (nice) and thanks to the script provided by msdl28712 in this thread here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=748529, I can see that APPS2SD is saving me "188MB". Pretty nice.
But my internal memory is still going down. I started out at about 148MB I think. I'm currently at about 115MB free. Of course, that's fantastic - but it sort of suggests that, even though I've downloaded loads of apps to the sd card, they will always leave some footprint/config/data on the internal memory of various sizes (as I can see it on my info page).
So really, I am still quite limited in the number of apps I can store. Even though I gave myself a nice big 4gb ext4 partition, I'll still hit a limit because of the footprint data left behind on the phone's int memory even after "copying to SD".
Is this right or am I way off?
Although I have no Actual knowledge of what you ask I will say this. The phone needs to be able to function if there is a SD card installed or not and therefore it must have info about the apps installed in the phone memory. I would imagine its very similar to windows and the windows registry. The registry will always be stored on the windows (Phone) storage and the program resources can be anywhere. Therefore when you install an app there will always be a small amount of phone storage required to link to and handle the operations of that program.
All in my opinion.
Some apps, not all, I've found in multiple places on my Eris.
I found it strange that the market wasn't consistently placing them in both places ( actually, that's a good thing, cause it would eat double the space ), but that led me to believe that the developer who wrote whichever particular app that was being stored in 2 location, wrote it to store to additional "backup" location ...
For example, say you download an item from the Android market, and it puts it in the "data\app" folder location. Well, I'd also find another copy in the root of the "cache\" folder ....
The way I found this, was I wondering where the heck all my memory was going, especially since I'd recently installed/uninstalled some various music player apps, but the space wasn't being freed up. I went digging through various folders looking for items, and low and behold, started finding the duplicately stored APK files. I started removing them, and I've monitored that files contents on a regular basis since, which has helped.
- JB
What A2SD? A2SD+, A2SD Froyo?
Found a nice explanation on CM Wiki... can't find it now though...
but there's always short explanation by MIUI Au..if you wanna give it a tryy
http://www.miui-au.com/faq/a2sd/
johnrbrown1968 said:
Some apps, not all, I've found in multiple places on my Eris.
I found it strange that the market wasn't consistently placing them in both places ( actually, that's a good thing, cause it would eat double the space ), but that led me to believe that the developer who wrote whichever particular app that was being stored in 2 location, wrote it to store to additional "backup" location ...
For example, say you download an item from the Android market, and it puts it in the "data\app" folder location. Well, I'd also find another copy in the root of the "cache\" folder ....
The way I found this, was I wondering where the heck all my memory was going, especially since I'd recently installed/uninstalled some various music player apps, but the space wasn't being freed up. I went digging through various folders looking for items, and low and behold, started finding the duplicately stored APK files. I started removing them, and I've monitored that files contents on a regular basis since, which has helped.
- JB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all you are answering a quite old thread(hint: 8th august)
Second to clarify no, the app is not installed to several locations.. The apk file in the cache is just the one, that the market downloads in order to install it(hint: cache) upon installation the file is placed in the /data/app folder or in case you are using a2sd/a2sd+ it will be placed in /sd-ext/app(the phone still think it is in /data/app, but it wont take up space on the /data partition)
After the installation the downloaded .apk file is sometimes left behind, but as the /cache partition have a fixed size, this won't take up any space for app installs(/data) when the space is needed on the cache partition for another download or something else, the file is eventually deleted.
edit: for people, who want to know the answer to OP, please search I and many others have wrote it over and over again in this very forum.
Related
Is there any way to Remove some Stock WinMo 6.1 ROM Files ? There are a few Pictures that I don't need in the Windows Folder (Album Sample) and they range between 412k ~ 842k each so there is a couple Megs of Storage Space that could be gained by Removing them any Info is appreciated.
Thanks
LGK1 said:
Is there any way to Remove some Stock WinMo 6.1 ROM Files ? There are a few Pictures that I don't need in the Windows Folder (Album Sample) and they range between 412k ~ 842k each so there is a couple Megs of Storage Space that could be gained by Removing them any Info is appreciated.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those pictures are save to remove or relocate (backup/save on your PC or whatever)...when you're looking at them in file explorer in the phone, just press+hold on any of the file names, and a menu will pop up with the option to delete.
sirphunkee said:
Those pictures are save to remove or relocate (backup/save on your PC or whatever)...when you're looking at them in file explorer in the phone, just press+hold on any of the file names, and a menu will pop up with the option to delete.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But that's where I run into the Problem I have Resco Explorer installed and get a Message that says:
File '\Windows\Album Sample_01.jpg'
is in ROM memory!
You cannot delete it.
I tried thru regular File Explorer and the Delete Option is grayed out......
Yeah you know what, I had deleted all those pics right when I first got the phone, via the album view I think...but obviously (now) it retains a copy of them in that odd protected status you discovered. Looking at the pics in the /windows folder now, there's even some of those "album sample" ones that I've never seen before.
Sorry, I thought I'd already removed them from my phone cuz I didn't see them anywhere I'd expect to Some of the chefs around here will probably know if there's a way to trim that fat out of the windows folder, that's the kind of thing they're good at when assembling ROMs.
It's very simple people.
ROM stands for Read ONLY Memory. Think about what that means.
The only way to change what is on your ROM is by flashing, or I suppose you could use a hammer.
That's it.
dik23 said:
It's very simple people.
ROM stands for Read ONLY Memory. Think about what that means.
The only way to change what is on your ROM is by flashing, or I suppose you could use a hammer.
That's it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And besides, removing these files from ROM would not free up space in RAM! Short answer, they're not taking up space that would be useful to you otherwise.
Ok then, I understand if the files in there are just unable to be deleted, but...
-If it's truly "ROM" (read-ONLY memory) on the phone, then how can it be flashed to a different one? In other words...the ROM image may indeed be read-only, but the physical memory it sits on isn't, correct?
-Doesn't the ROM image occupy a set amount of the on-board storage memory, that would otherwise be free for local storage? Therefore, some cooked ROM's eat up more/less space than others, affecting how much room is left for the user to store files etc, n'est pas? I think the OP's purpose was to try to free up storage space if possible, not just RAM overhead.
Again, I get it if the files baked into a ROM image can't be deleted once it's cooked...I'm just thinking that a ROM without unneccessary files in it WILL save usable space on the phone.
Read Only Memory
ROM is "usually" only ever read. In the day to day use of the device you are reading data from it. Kind of like a printed page from a laser printer
When you flash the ROM, you are actually writing to it, like when the laser printer prints the page. To get a new page, you need a laser printer. To get a new rom, you have to have a program to flash it.
After it is done printing, nothing changes on the page and it can only be read.
Same thing with a ROM, the amount of space will not change until it is flashed.
"-If it's truly "ROM" (read-ONLY memory) on the phone, then how can it be flashed to a different one? In other words...the ROM image may indeed be read-only, but the physical memory it sits on isn't, correct?"
Yes and no
A more accurate term would be Read Only Memory That Can Still Be Written To, But Isn't Very Often.
ROM has a better feng shui
"-Doesn't the ROM image occupy a set amount of the on-board storage memory, that would otherwise be free for local storage? Therefore, some cooked ROM's eat up more/less space than others, affecting how much room is left for the user to store files etc, n'est pas? I think the OP's purpose was to try to free up storage space if possible, not just RAM overhead."
No, there is RAM and ROM, these are separate, and have different functions.
"Again, I get it if the files baked into a ROM image can't be deleted once it's cooked...I'm just thinking that a ROM without unneccessary files in it WILL save usable space on the phone."
No, a ROM without unneccessary files in it WILL save usable ROM storage space.
I hate to say it, but hit the wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read-only_memory
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory
Once you understand the types of ram, and how and more importantly WHY they are used, this will make sense.
Cingularly Twisted said:
A more accurate term would be Read Only Memory That Can Still Be Written To, But Isn't Very Often.
ROM has a better feng shui
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL great analogy, thanks
That's what I suspected, but just wanted to be sure!
I've a strange question that might or might belong in the development thread, but figured since it's a question, I'll try here first.
I'm using a Stock DeOxed Rooted Rom on my EVO.
I recently installed a few more apps and saw this pesky little warning about low on space.
When I went into my "SystemPanel" app to see how much space was left exactly and noticed that my /data folder only had around 30megs out of it's 428M available.
Ok.. time to delete some apps I thought, but then I noticed that my /system folder (Where I presume pre-installed apps live) had almost 1/3 of it's space still available (115 out of 350megs available).
So I'm wondering.....
Is there some method that I can use to install Apps directly to this folder instead of the standard /data that apps appear to go to when installed?
Is it as simple as moving the APK file with Root Explorer, or are there some under the hood items in apps that prevent this sort of thing?
I've a few rather large apps that I cannot move to the SD card due to widget problems and the like but would be perfect for the system folder if I can find a way to move them there easily.
Thoughts?
DroidGnome said:
I've a strange question that might or might belong in the development thread, but figured since it's a question, I'll try here first.
I'm using a Stock DeOxed Rooted Rom on my EVO.
I recently installed a few more apps and saw this pesky little warning about low on space.
When I went into my "SystemPanel" app to see how much space was left exactly and noticed that my /data folder only had around 30megs out of it's 428M available.
Ok.. time to delete some apps I thought, but then I noticed that my /system folder (Where I presume pre-installed apps live) had almost 1/3 of it's space still available (115 out of 350megs available).
So I'm wondering.....
Is there some method that I can use to install Apps directly to this folder instead of the standard /data that apps appear to go to when installed?
Is it as simple as moving the APK file with Root Explorer, or are there some under the hood items in apps that prevent this sort of thing?
I've a few rather large apps that I cannot move to the SD card due to widget problems and the like but would be perfect for the system folder if I can find a way to move them there easily.
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/system/app is where system apps are kept. If I remember correctly, any app can be installed into there, but you have to do through flashing an update.zip if I'm remembering properly. You may be able to take the apk that's in /data/app for the app you want to move and move it to /system/app, but I'm not sure if that will work properly or not. Someone who cooks ROMs might know more.
Also, you can partition your sd card and use true apps2sd with most ROMs. Its a little bit of work and will shorten the life of your card, but that gives you a lot more room if you need it.
I don't know that there's a way to move user apps to system. It's very possible there is a way, I've just never seen any posts about it. Apps 2 SD is usually the way to go.
ps. 30 megs?!?! Geez, how many apps do you have?
Sent from my SUPERSONIC
Easy peasy
First, use a true apk backup tool to backup e apk files you want to move. Titanium backup will NOT work because it compresses and distorts, and we need true apk files. I recommend file manager by adao team. Just go to applications, check what you want, and hit backup. Next, get the apk files on your computer by mounting sd and copying files from backups folder. You will lose all app data, but what can you do? Next, adb push the files to system app folder while in recovery mode (just say so if you don't know how to do this and i will tell you) and reboot. Done. Tell me if it works well.
By the way, 30 megs???
Doesn't froyo install to the sdcard if you tell it to?
I thought a2sd was obsolete
You can put apps there after changing the folder's permissions but I wouldn't recommend it. Just not a good idea to put regular apps there.
Just install them to your SD card instead
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
go into the android app manager and go through all your programs and click on move to sd card...
they will all still occupy some space on your nand, but not nearly as much.
Thanks for the advice, I thought it might not be as easy as moving them, oh well, just seems a shame for there to be over 100 megs I cannot do anything with.
I already had moved all I could to the SD card prior to posting this, but thanks for that advice as well, I'm sure others forget they can do that with Froyo.
As for the 30 megs I had left.. we'll it's back up to about 70 free which should be plenty for a while. (Remember we only have about 420 to start with).
Some of the big ones which could not be moved to the SD card are:
Swype (Deleted, took over 17megs)
TouchDown (12 megs.. must keep for tasks sync sadly)
Google Maps update (7.6 megs)
Documents to go (8megs)
A few various games that cannot yet be moved to the SD card at around 5megs each..
The rest are just lots of little apps.. I'm sort of an app junkie You should have seen my old Palm Centro... it was amazing!
According to Titanium, I currently have 194 'User apps', though I think a few are simply widgets, icon packs and the like.
From what I've read Android pretty much looks after itself but just wondering if there's any system maintainance that should be done from time to time? (i.e is defraging the SD card OK? Any other things worth doing?)
I've stuck with the stock 2.21 ROM but after installing JIT/Deodexed, debloating, overclocking, and scaleing the phone is running along sweetly. Thing is, about 2 1/2gigs of my 16G card is taken up with various System Recovery backups and I've got .apk files in various places. Can the .apks all be put into the same directory and if so where? I've backed the goaprev folder up to my PC and was going to delete all but the last backup from the phone. Basically, I don't want to do anything stupid now the phones nicely sorted out! Thanks in advance.
Since the seeking time on flash memory is so close to instant that fragmentation does not cause any noticable delays, I see no reason to defragment internal memory or my microSD card.
Furthermore, defragmenting a flash disk/drive, a device with a limited amount of writes, may actually shorten its life-span. In that sense, it may actually be a bad idea.
Backing up is always a good recommendation, when working with any electronic system
Thanks. Any idea if it's ok to move the .apk files? (Could be my OCD but I like things tidy!!) Also, wondering what the situation with ota system updates now I've hacked the phone?...leave well alone or okay? Cheers.
Move apk files - from where to where? Out of /system/app? You could move apks you are certain of you will never need, but the only thing you will gain is - at most - a few megabytes of free space. There's no real performance gain to be had, that I've experienced, just the possibility of losing hair if you remove/rename something you need.
As for OTA updates, you can rename FOTA.apk - that's the package that takes care of those updates.
Got several .apks in the root of my sd card- quite happy to leave them there, I guess and I should avoid ota updates...also is it worth clearing out caches once in a while? Just looking to keep my phone as streamlined and snappy as pos without screwing anything up! I'm new to android so still learning the ropes ! Thanks again
Ah yes, apk files are just installation files. You can move them where-ever you wish, though I would not move them to internal storage.
I do not clear out cache, as I prefer features I use regularly, to be cached already, instead of having to load them from scratch. I have not noticed any performance degradation because of it.
And since I do not share my phone with others, there is no privacy issue to speak of. I do not mind sharing my browsing/twitter/market/auto-complete behaviour with myself.
Ok, I have a 16gig card, and had about 250 MB free, went to check, and over the space of a few days, not having taken many photos or videos, or downloading much, I was down to like 35MB, looking through my SD Card, I have loads of files and folders which I don't know what they are, some of them very small (CDAInfo on Root of SD Card, MEMSTICK.IND on Root of SD Card, etc. etc.) but some of them are quite large.
Also, looking through my Xperia Play games launcher, I have many apps that are doubled, and clicking on both opens it, so it's not just an empty container. Looking at my folders on the SD Card (.android_secure), I have things like flashplayer-1.asec and flashplayer-2.asec, each one is 16MB, and I have many of these duplicates for different apps and games. Now, I think that the .android_secure folder is used for when you move your apps to the SD Card, and I'm assuming that this occured when I flashed a new rom and reinstalled the apps (the data was created on the phone memory and then when I went to move it over, it created the 2nd version) but what I want to know is, how to AVOID this happening when I flash a new Rom, or basically, how do I avoid things like this happening.
Thanks,
Niall
Just went through the .android_secure deleting one of the multiples then checking if it still ran, it did, so I decided to delete one of all of them, and bam, all apps still run, and I'm up to 1GB of free space. The .asec files are what the phone moves to the memory card when you select move to SD in the settings. Obviously, if you are flashing a new rom it doesn't delete them, and then just creates a duplicate. Some old games that I don't play (have completed them) were still in there, some of them ridiculous sizes (Battle Bears - 47MB). Removed about 20 or so off the .asec files, most of them duplicates, some of them were unused apps, and am back up to 1Gig free.
Chuffed
Anyways, anyone know a way to avoid this happening, and also, as a word of warning to everyone...keep an eye out for things like this
Niall
Nhialor said:
Just went through the .android_secure deleting one of the multiples then checking if it still ran, it did, so I decided to delete one of all of them, and bam, all apps still run, and I'm up to 1GB of free space. The .asec files are what the phone moves to the memory card when you select move to SD in the settings. Obviously, if you are flashing a new rom it doesn't delete them, and then just creates a duplicate. Some old games that I don't play (have completed them) were still in there, some of them ridiculous sizes (Battle Bears - 47MB). Removed about 20 or so off the .asec files, most of them duplicates, some of them were unused apps, and am back up to 1Gig free.
Chuffed
Anyways, anyone know a way to avoid this happening, and also, as a word of warning to everyone...keep an eye out for things like this
Niall
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you been flashing roms and not deleting your old .android.secure folder? That will happen, you should delete it before you reflash
AndroHero said:
Have you been flashing roms and not deleting your old .android.secure folder? That will happen, you should delete it before you reflash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, yeah, i'm new enough to Android, but learning as I go along
I have E4GT with Caulkins 2.9.1.
I have the following storage available on my device:
SD Card 24.25GB
USB Storage 3.25 GB
Device Memory 1.23 GB
I get the following error when trying to update apps, or install new apps:
"There is insufficient space on this device"
I have gone into settings>apps>google play> clear cache. -> no change
I have downloaded App Cache Cleaner app and cleared all cached files. -> no change
The error message is a lie written by a lazy programmer. What's actually happening is that the installation is trying to copy or move a file and can't. To circumvent this problem I have to enter root explorer and look for files related to the program I'm trying to upgrade and delete them. Sometimes I just find dangling files which aren't really needed; other times I have to delete the whole shebang and reinstall the program from scratch. One process that I've noticed can sometimes cause this problem is the auto-Odex routine that is available in the Development folder.
Bottom line though is that this problem has NOTHING to do with your available memory space.
Henri Blanche said:
The error message is a lie written by a lazy programmer. What's actually happening is that the installation is trying to copy or move a file and can't. To circumvent this problem I have to enter root explorer and look for files related to the program I'm trying to upgrade and delete them. Sometimes I just find dangling files which aren't really needed; other times I have to delete the whole shebang and reinstall the program from scratch. One process that I've noticed can sometimes cause this problem is the auto-Odex routine that is available in the Development folder.
Bottom line though is that this problem has NOTHING to do with your available memory space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I find dangling files in explorer. Is there a was for me to determine which ones are wasted files?
before i read your reply i went into recovery and wiped cached and dalvik cache, thought it worked, because i was finally able to install or update about 3 apps, but then got the same error on the 4th app.
so those steps that have been suggested by others on different devices but with similar errors, did not resolve this issue on E4GT.
thanks for any additional help.
This may help http://bit.ly/GNQOZh take a read. I fought this a while ago and went nuts till I did what I describe.
It's usually, but not always, as simple as looking for files with the name of the program imbedded. The most recent program for me was AudioGalaxy.... so I just searched for and deleted any reference to the program that didn't look essential.
If you're REALLY stumped, then download a program from the Market like Log Viewer, which shows you the real-time system log of your Android operating system. That's how I discovered that a failed file copy was being misinterpreted as a full disc in the first place. It also will show you the name of the file being copied or moved and into which directory. Helpful hint: cut and paste the log into something like Notepad for easier reading.
By all means empty out your caches... but only to remove a potential file that's causing you a problem. Like I said, you haven't run out of free space.
Good luck!
A common source for this error is also that there are partitions on your phone that are not visible in the system settings, but which can fill up too.
If you open a console on your device, i.e. with terminal emulator, and type "df" you should see every partition and how much space is free on it.
leaderbuilder said:
This may help take a read. I fought this a while ago and went nuts till I did what I describe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this earlier, and then downloaded App Cache Cleaner app and cleared all cached files which did not result in a solution...
im working on other suggestions from this thread
CandyIsYum said:
I did this earlier, and then downloaded App Cache Cleaner app and cleared all cached files which did not result in a solution...
im working on other suggestions from this thread
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
App Cache Cleaner isn't really that thorough.
Try SD Maid.
CandyIsYum said:
I did this earlier, and then downloaded App Cache Cleaner app and cleared all cached files which did not result in a solution...
im working on other suggestions from this thread
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You 'cleared data' on the media and still had this issue? http://mikemartinezonline.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/03.png I've had this issue a few times with a few people- again it just happed to me yesterday! Seems that the media storage, media hub, oovoodo, and some others were taking up huge amounst of space. In fact my media storage was at 800MB until I cleared it. Especially noticed this for me after adding and removing media and swapping different sd cards.
leaderbuilder said:
You 'cleared data' on the media and still had this issue? ] I've had this issue a few times with a few people- again it just happed to me yesterday! Seems that the media storage, media hub, oovoodo, and some others were taking up huge amounst of space. In fact my media storage was at 800MB until I cleared it. Especially noticed this for me after adding and removing media and swapping different sd cards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cleared the app cache there, and still had the issue. I also went into recovery and cleared cache, dalvik cache.
I didn't try the SDMaid method, so if someone else has this same problem, that may be a place to try.
I ended up starting with scratch with my device, and just upgraded to calkulin 2.9.2.
now my device is functioning as expected, and i can finally install angry birds space...
Well same problem shows up again.
updated to Calkulin 3.0, in hopes to resolve the problem, but still no go.
insufficient space when trying to install or update app from google play.
SD Card: 3.25GB Free / 29.7 GB
USB Storage: 7.29 Free / 11.50 GB
Device: 1.29 GB Free.
It's kind of annoying, is this something that would be resolved by going back to stock. This is getting a bit annoying.
thanks again.
Which app?
Edit: Have you tried clearing data for google play in settings/applications/all yet?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA