Related
So we've got root access. Awesome. Everyone has been looking forward to installing apps to their SD card as well as other neat tricks.
Well, I haven't.
I hate to be the buzz killer but there is a fundamental flaw with the way apps are installed and uninstalled that means even moving them to a spacious SD card is not solving the problem.
Before I go rooting the phone and hacking as a way to eliminate some of the more annoying problems with Android, we need to first distinguish between bugs, technical limitations and poor implementation. Not allowing installs to the SD card out of the box is a technical limitation...Apps2sd creates a Linux partition on your SD but it's not ideal.
But that's neither here nor there. I'm not here to discuss the reletive merits of rooting or using apps2sd. What I want is the underlying code to work properly before I go hacking. It doesn't matter if we only have 100mb of space or 2GB for apps. If I install a 2mb app and them remove it I want the WHOLE 2mb back.
This morning news of the pre release alpha of Fennec (mobile Firefox) was announced. I attempted to install it but there was only 25mb of space on my phone. Apparently this is a BIG install and needed about 39mb. Anyway long story short, it didn't work. No matter how much space I cleared (up to 40.89mb at one point) it still told me I didn't have enough space.
So now I have a phone with 40mb of space and I had to clear out some unused apps to get there...I also cleared out my IM app, Nimbuzz, which I DO use. So I figure I'd install it again...but I'm thinking, it was big! Over 4mb installed. I figure I'll look for a smaller lighter app. I try Meego. Nice, small, but no Skype chat. So I uninstall and try Fring. Nice, has Skype...but no Facebook. The only one with the features I want is Nimbuzz. So I uninstall Fring. Two apps installed. Two apps removed. I look at my space. 35mb.
5mb has seemingly vanished into nothing!!! Meego was only about 500kb. Fring about 1.5mb. Where did all that space go?!?
I reset and there's no difference.
So to my experiment. I needed to verify the space suck bug.
Reset phone. I'm starting with 39.89mb.
Install Robo Defence Free. It's advertised as 1.25mb.
Reset phone. 38.02mb. I've used up 1.87mb with that install. According to App Manager Robo Defence is using up 1.41mb.
Uninstall Robo Defence. 38.18mb. Restart. final = 39.42mb.
In just one app install and removal, I've lost 0.47mb
Why? What has used that space?
Despite having 40mb of space this morning when attempting to install Fennec, I have since removed Nimbuzz, Shopper, Robo Defence, Poker, Layar, and Google Translate and I've not gotten back up to 40mb.
Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?
Yeah this is a major worry.
I hope someone can get to the bottom of it...
Try going to settings - applications - manage applications then hit menu and choose sort by size. This should show you the biggest space hog. My guess is that the browser and/or market caches are getting big as you're browsing for these apps. You can press on market and there will be a button to clear the cache, same for internet.
Hope this helps
Nope, that didn't even dent it. This is a real bother.
Have you tried to delete the cache and the data of the application before uninstalling it ?
Under settings/applications/manage applications when you choose an app you can see the size of the application but also the size of the data and the size of the cache. Maybe uninstalling an app don't remove at least the data and/or cache...
Guy's, honestly... You are looking far to deep into this and the word "control freak" comes to mind..
Enjoy your phone and dont quibble over 0.47MB when you have 32gb to play with. A massive thanks to Paul for getting us this root in the first place, we now have options to do anything we want with the phone.
Worry if your phone cannot be used, yes
But worring over small, irrelivant problems will just lower your enjoyment of this beast! Take a chill pill and enjoy that wee can now install apps on the sd card and are not limited to space
Cheers Paul))))
JD
JupiterDroid said:
dont quibble over 0.47MB when you have 32gb to play with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about those of us who don't plan to root? I think the OP's point here was that this is an issue and rooting isn't really a solution for a lot of people.
Why would you not root? I dont see why you would not open your phone up to obvious advantages and extra app's, especially when these apps have the potential to extend battery life and volume levels, two of which we know with the Desire are pretty dire.
JD
Perfect volume and 2 days battery here mate
I'd only root for A2SD, but might see if Google sort it themselves first as I don't use a lot of apps anyway - it's just a phone after all
JupiterDroid said:
Guy's, honestly... You are looking far to deep into this and the word "control freak" comes to mind..
Enjoy your phone and dont quibble over 0.47MB when you have 32gb to play with. A massive thanks to Paul for getting us this root in the first place, we now have options to do anything we want with the phone.
Worry if your phone cannot be used, yes
But worring over small, irrelivant problems will just lower your enjoyment of this beast! Take a chill pill and enjoy that wee can now install apps on the sd card and are not limited to space
Cheers Paul))))
JD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First installing to SD slows down your apps noticeably. It's not ideal. It's the best solution we have RIGHT NOW, but don't mistake that for being a good thing.
I'm not quibbling over 0.45mb. If you reread I LOST 5mb! That's enough space for a few apps, no?
My point being that up until now this clear bug (losing data that doesn't seem to be associated with an app so is therefore not counted in it's cache and is not cleared) has been ignored by throwing SD space at it. That's foolish.
Well i get just over 1.5 days battery life and volume is not too bad for me, but i would like the music volume to be louder Also the main thin gthe root would mean for me is that i could get the Nexus rom on to my Desire and hopefully get a quick update to Froyo Because lets face it, how long are we going to wait for HTC to update sense???
JD
Don't like stock Android - I'm happy with Sense!
But enough thread hijacking!!
So you will be happy to wait 6 months for HTC to update Sense to intergrate with Froyo? (based on past updates, eg.. Hero, which is still on 1.6)?? I can understand your point, but sense for me is just a waste of screen space
The only reason i bought the desire was because of the slightly more RAM and actual buttons instead of touchscreen buttons Sense isnt a real big must for me
JD
Well, yeah! The Desire as it is does exactly what I want it to out the box. I had to cook my own ROM for my HD2 to get it working as I want but this just works!!
I prefer the eye candy of Sense, stock Android is boring and I hate using garish themes...if I feel the need to root it I will but as it is I have no need to
Very true mate Well i hope they have a frozen youghut ready for you apon release
JD
Guys, take it somewhere else eh.
Aitese said:
So we've got root access. Awesome. Everyone has been looking forward to installing apps to their SD card as well as other neat tricks.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here. I've two Desire, installed exactly the same apps and had a difference of 12 mb afterwards. I tried to delete every cache a.s.o, still a difference of 5 mb.. reboot .. nothing changed. Next day -> reboot again -> 2 mb difference? No clue what's exactly going on with the rom.
@sense: I bought the desire cause i thought it can't be worse than the nexus one cause if i don't like sense, just install launcher2 and deactivate it. What i did not know: HTC just removed some stock android applications and integrated their crappy apps, and in addition they implement some features i want to REMOVE, i do not want to see them anymore (f.e. flickr.. why flickr? this is android/google, i want a picasa button!, tweet, stocks a.s.o... no uninstall option).
I need root to get rid of the things i don´t like.
I did say sorry for it - he's the one coming back at me!!
I'll leave it now mate, my 2p though, I personally don't care about the memory - if it gets to a point when I do I'll hard reset and start again. Probably just needs the Android equivalent of a defrag!!
Have done two hard resets (not for this reason) and my memory was lower after each - something to do with the re-installing of the apps I surmise?
al89nut said:
Have done two hard resets (not for this reason) and my memory was lower after each - something to do with the re-installing of the apps I surmise?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange. After a hard reset it should have exactly the same memory each time. After all, that's the whole point of a hard reset.
And I must say that the issue raised by OP is very worrying. Installing and then uninstalling applications should give you back the exact same memory as you had before. I can accept residual files on the SD card, but the precious space on the internal flash should definately be fully reclaimed after an uninstall.
If not, there is a fundamental flaw somewhere. If anyone can shed more light on this issue, please do so!
It seems like there's literally no internal storage. Does anyone know exactly how much it is? I have about 10 mb of email, 15 mb of Facebook data, 20 mb of contact storage, and about 5-6 applications installed that are over 1 mb, and somehow the little "Low Space" notification keeps popping up. I already uninstalled so many apps and right now I'm down to the essentials plus 2 games. It's annoying and I don't understand why the internal storage is so low that you can't even install more than 2 apps without it going crazy. My Hero never had this problem and I have 20-30 apps installed on there plus 3 email accounts and I never once saw the "Low Space" notification.
App2SD? Clear cache?
So, youre complaining about an issue that everyone on any Android has if they havent rooted?
Upgrade to Froyo
Move Apllication´s to SD
be happy
It's the biggest problem on all android phones. It's being fixed (if you have group 2.2 youll notice an improvement). But the best solution so far seems to be root. Read into it, and Google things like apps2sd.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Problem is, at least in my case, most of the apps just don't support installing in SD, like Google maps, Adobe reader, Gmail or even YouTube apps. No use of being in Froyo then.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
pramitroy said:
Problem is, at least in my case, most of the apps just don't support installing in SD, like Google maps, Adobe reader, Gmail or even YouTube apps. No use of being in Froyo then.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then Root your phone and use apps2sd!
Make a 1 gig ext3 partition and you have lots of space!
Lets be honest, though. You shouldn't have to root to make your phone do something that should be standard on Android. Not everyone will want to invalidate their warranty
EddyOS said:
Lets be honest, though. You shouldn't have to root to make your phone do something that should be standard on Android. Not everyone will want to invalidate their warranty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh please, quit *****ing. Root process is reversible.
rpimps > bottom line : use the tools available.
phentex said:
Oh please, quit *****ing. Root process is reversible.
rpimps > bottom line : use the tools available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mate, stfu - I've rooted and know full well it's reversible. Was just stating that we shouldn't HAVE to do it, it should be standard. Apple managed to do it with the iPhone so why can't anyone else...you telling me that someone who's not that computer literate** should have to root their phone just to install some more apps??
**NOT saying the OP isn't computer literate, btw
EddyOS said:
Mate, stfu - I've rooted and know full well it's reversible. Was just stating that we shouldn't HAVE to do it, it should be standard. Apple managed to do it with the iPhone so why can't anyone else...you telling me that someone who's not that computer literate** should have to root their phone just to install some more apps??
**NOT saying the OP isn't computer literate, btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No no, please don't give Apple credit, Iphone have loads more internal memory than any android device which relies on "external" SD storage. If iphones worked the same way, this limitation would be advertised as a freaking "feature"
Ok so we shouldn't HAVE to do it, but I fully understand Google taking time to think things out. Just plainly installing on the SDcard (i.e. copying apk packages) with no piracy preventing measures is not viable. The froyo way is already a nice step forward. If you want full control, well at least you DO get the opportunity to take full control of your phone through rooting and apps2sd.
Please don't compare to iphone which still doesn't even know what file browsing is
That's what I meant about the iPhone doing it, Apple got it right by cramming the iPhone with internal memory!!! HTC could've easily done the same
Agree with the 'feature' pun, though
Hm, even in my unrooted, old 2.1 days i had more than a few apps installed. 20 MB of Contacts?? How many do you have... a million?
Sorry, even without app2sd i had 30+ apps installed.
Btw, rooting is so easy... Right now i have about 50 apps installed and 105 MB free space.
Hey dude,
I wouldn't advise just rooting your phone on the spur, research it first...
Also upgrade to Froyo, then you get to trnsfer your apps, if thats not enough then download App2sd and if thats not enough then clear cache and if thats not enough delete some apps that you never really use.
Finally IF thats not enough, sell your phone and buy something else...
Sibbi said:
Hm, even in my unrooted, old 2.1 days i had more than a few apps installed. 20 MB of Contacts?? How many do you have... a million?
Sorry, even without app2sd i had 30+ apps installed.
Btw, rooting is so easy... Right now i have about 50 apps installed and 105 MB free space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC's Quietly Brilliant Contacts management downloads your friend's Google pictures, Facebook pictures and Twitter pictures. Ta-da, magically lost memory.
kalfou said:
Hey dude,
I wouldn't advise just rooting your phone on the spur, research it first...
Also upgrade to Froyo, then you get to trnsfer your apps, if thats not enough then download App2sd and if thats not enough then clear cache and if thats not enough delete some apps that you never really use.
Finally IF thats not enough, sell your phone and buy something else...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree that you shouldn't just root without understanding the whole process and what it means. I was troubleshooting two other users that nearly bricked their Desires by rooting improperly.
But back to the OP's comments, I was like him. I rooted because I was running out of space to install apps
same here i struggled with performance when my internal got full even with force 2 SD
i finally gave up and rooted my device, never looked back
a reminder: if you want to root and install a2sd make sure it's done with a full wipe
rpimps said:
It seems like there's literally no internal storage. Does anyone know exactly how much it is? I have about 10 mb of email, 15 mb of Facebook data, 20 mb of contact storage, and about 5-6 applications installed that are over 1 mb, and somehow the little "Low Space" notification keeps popping up. I already uninstalled so many apps and right now I'm down to the essentials plus 2 games. It's annoying and I don't understand why the internal storage is so low that you can't even install more than 2 apps without it going crazy. My Hero never had this problem and I have 20-30 apps installed on there plus 3 email accounts and I never once saw the "Low Space" notification.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still and always will be better than a iPhone so be happy
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
The Desire is way better than the iPhone. Only thing that keeps people going back to iPhone - is cause they used to it - they don't know what they are missing. iPhone can't take SD card......iPhone SUCKS !!!!!!
Dya know what gets to me? Idiots that spend hundreds of pounds on a device without even researching the device specification, only to end up creating pointless threads, not because there is anything wrong with the device just because they didnt educate themselves about what they were about to buy, any google search will show the desire has a total rom of 500mb, knowing that the system, cache, radio and recovery partitions were going to take a sizeable chunk of that, i fully expected about 150mb of internal storage so i wasnt disapointed
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Rizla-xda said:
The Desire is way better than the iPhone. Only thing that keeps people going back to iPhone - is cause they used to it - they don't know what they are missing. iPhone can't take SD card......iPhone SUCKS !!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that was a fail of a statement. It sucks because of no micro SD card...I'd rather have internal memory as it's quicker to access anyway. One reason why HD videos on the iPhone are so good. But in the end they are both phones nothing to argue over. Both have good and bad points it's all opinion.
In my stock rom that is rooted I have many of the original apps frozen.
Is there any advantage to removing these apps vs freezing them. There is plenty of space on the system partition and I don't think that having the extra files in the system partition slows the phone down.
king200 said:
In my stock rom that is rooted I have many of the original apps frozen.
Is there any advantage to removing these apps vs freezing them. There is plenty of space on the system partition and I don't think that having the extra files in the system partition slows the phone down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really, unless you need space.
Personally, I freeze apps I want to use later (like Maps) but uninstall everything else.
Uninstall apps you feel you would never use.. Examples are default live wallpapers cos I never use them.
Freeze you don't use normally but feel you may use once in a while... Examples here would be like maps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
I have a GS3 16 gb coming in the mail tomorrow. I heard we only really have 8-9gb free.
Can I delete all those useless apps to free up my space?
I know I would have to root just wondering if it will screw up my phone if I delete those useless apps.
Yes you can. But make sure you dont touch system files
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda premium
Deleting apps didn't help me gain much storage. The only benefit is that you can get rid of certain apps that run in the background and tax your resources. Other than that, there is little benefit in deleting apps. You can simply hide them in the drawer.
And yes, please, be cautious not to delete certain apps. Otherwise, you'll get force closes. There is a post in here that lists apps that are safe to remove.
But again, there is almost no benefit in deleting apps that don't run in the background by default.
Is it possible to free up more storage space on the Nexus 5X ?
10.6 GB is enough, I think it should at least be 12GB :crying:
Gemmik said:
Is it possible to free up more storage space on the Nexus 5X ?
10.6 GB is enough, I think it should at least be 12GB :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sort of, yes. But probably not 2 gigs worth. Its not exactly a noob friendly process though. Are you familiar with bootloaders, root access, and proper permissions? You should probably research those thing before getting involved with this.
Anyway, the process im suggesting is to remove (delete from /system/priv-app or /system/app) any system apps you dont use. Play Books, Sheets, Slides, Android Pay, whatever you dont use. Then you would move a few of your downloaded apps to /system/app thus freeing up space for newly downloaded apps. You could also nuke built in ringtones, notification tones, built in wallpapers, and re-purpose that space for downloaded apps again by moving them to /system/app.
I suppose you could delete those apps and useless media files and re-partition but you could really screw things up if you dont do it right.
I'll try to do it....
PiousInquisitor said:
Sort of, yes. But probably not 2 gigs worth. Its not exactly a noob friendly process though. Are you familiar with bootloaders, root access, and proper permissions? You should probably research those thing before getting involved with this.
Anyway, the process im suggesting is to remove (delete from /system/priv-app or /system/app) any system apps you dont use. Play Books, Sheets, Slides, Android Pay, whatever you dont use. Then you would move a few of your downloaded apps to /system/app thus freeing up space for newly downloaded apps. You could also nuke built in ringtones, notification tones, built in wallpapers, and re-purpose that space for downloaded apps again by moving them to /system/app.
I suppose you could delete those apps and useless media files and re-partition but you could really screw things up if you dont do it right.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I 'm also interested in freeing up some storage space 10 Gb out of 16 ..are you kidding Google?
temitis said:
I 'm also interested in freeing up some storage space 10 Gb out of 16 ..are you kidding Google?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not Google's fault you bought a device with only 10 GB of usable storage.
Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk