My phone broke (HTC M8) so I'm using my wife's old phone (T-mo GS4). She had a fair amount of stuff on it, and as soon as I got my hands on it, I rooted it, factory reset it, and flashed a new ROM (from 4.4 to 5.1). Now I only have 6GB of free space on my storage. It says the total is 9GB, and I already know that the other 5 are devoted to non-accessible storage that make up the phone's operating system, but 5GB on an empty 16GB phone is just not right. I know for sure that I didn't wipe internal storage because I never click that option when I flash (otherwise my recovery zips would have to have been transferred a second time). How can I hunt down the old data?
Use an app to search what is taking up the most space in internal SD. I use es file Explorer for file managment and it has that option, but surely there are other apps
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Hi I have been dealing with this problem for awhile now and still haven't been able to find a fix (without rooting). After I updated JB from Kies when it came out my internal and memory card folders are completely different? Also it says I only have 11.95GB total in my internal memory. The internal memory folder says :sdcard0. And my memory card folder is: extSdCard? I'm not rooted. Does anyone know how to get the folders back to the regular names ext sd ect? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
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RPK925 said:
Hi I have been dealing with this problem for awhile now and still haven't been able to find a fix (without rooting). After I updated JB from Kies when it came out my internal and memory card folders are completely different? Also it says I only have 11.95GB total in my internal memory. The internal memory folder says :sdcard0. And my memory card folder is: extSdCard? I'm not rooted. Does anyone know how to get the folders back to the regular names ext sd ect? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
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That is how it they are formatted now. It's not a mistake or anything being messed up. I guess I'm just used the internal being sdcard0 and ex sd card being extsdcard. I don't use myfiles much. I use root explorer and it can displays it as storage and then inside that folder is extsdcard and sdcard. Or there is a fodler just called sdcard for the internal in the root of the file system.
What problem is it creating, other than just being different than you are used to ?
hednik said:
That is how it they are formatted now. It's not a mistake or anything being messed up. I guess I'm just used the internal being sdcard0 and ex sd card being extsdcard. I don't use myfiles much. I use root explorer and it can displays it as storage and then inside that folder is extsdcard and sdcard. Or there is a fodler just called sdcard for the internal in the root of the file system.
What problem is it creating, other than just being different than you are used to ?
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Yhea, i'm having some trouble too. After the update my extCard is totally mess-up. The folders with the pictures and songs are not recognized, and the Gallery doesn't show hundreds of pictures, but i see if i use a file manager. I've synced all my songs so far, but with the pictures is a mess: seems also the format is not recognized anymore and with Kies i'm not seeing a way for put the pictures in the new folder named "Photo". It's really frustrating.
hednik said:
That is how it they are formatted now. It's not a mistake or anything being messed up. I guess I'm just used the internal being sdcard0 and ex sd card being extsdcard. I don't use myfiles much. I use root explorer and it can displays it as storage and then inside that folder is extsdcard and sdcard. Or there is a fodler just called sdcard for the internal in the root of the file system.
What problem is it creating, other than just being different than you are used to ?
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I cannot use the Apps2sd app anymore. And basically I would just like to be like before the update.
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i'll try not to rant too hard but Kies and OTA firmware updates are a joke. you are essentially dirty flashing one rom over another with no real clearing of caches, no resetting, no way for all the programs to regroup, rebuild and run on the system hardware/software properly. the thing about dirty flashing is, it sticks well with some devices but generally not with many others. you'll see these types of issues many times among the avid flashers and those that must have the latest release of a developers rom.
i would recommend backing everything up, booting into stock recovery, wiping data/factory reset and wiping cache. if you decide to perform another update via kies in the future, i would do this procedure before AND after the update.
yes, you have to start over when you perform these sorts of actions but you have to ask yourself, are you happy with how your device is performing now (before the update)? is it worth starting over? (it might be if you're going to run on the updated OS for a year or so) and how well do you want it to perform after you install the update?
cheers
EDIT: i just assume everyone accesses recovery and download mode so i didnt post the button combo. recovery is: Volume Up + Home + Power. release just the power button when you get a vibrate.
RPK925 said:
Also it says I only have 11.95GB total in my internal memory.
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This is normal for a 16GB SGS3. 16GB is advertised but actual formatted available space is less. 11.95GB is right on par. This is the case for just about all devices that have memory that is writable, including hard drives on a computer.
RPK925 said:
I cannot use the Apps2sd app anymore. And basically I would just like to be like before the update.
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Click to collapse
Any particular reason why you are using Apps2sd? $10 to $20 will land you an external memory card with huge amounts of space (32GB at least). This is plenty to store music, photos, and other misc. files. And even with a ton of apps installed to internal, you still should have ample space left over. There is just no good reason to use Apps2sd on this phone as it has so much internal memory. If this is just to keep you from losing data, then I would suggest rooting and using an app such as Titanium Backup as it makes it super easy to restore apps and the corresponding data after anything that requires a factory reset.
simonMac777 said:
Yhea, i'm having some trouble too. After the update my extCard is totally mess-up. The folders with the pictures and songs are not recognized, and the Gallery doesn't show hundreds of pictures, but i see if i use a file manager. I've synced all my songs so far, but with the pictures is a mess: seems also the format is not recognized anymore and with Kies i'm not seeing a way for put the pictures in the new folder named "Photo". It's really frustrating.
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Click to collapse
As stated by xBeerDroidx, factory reset from stock recovery. You will have to re-setup your device but it will be a one time frustration for now until the next update.
As stated by xBeerDroidx, factory reset from stock recovery. You will have to re-setup your device but it will be a one time frustration for now until the next update.
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Click to collapse
Actually i did.
After the update, without factory reset, everything was (almost) fine… except a strange malfunction of the Gps (lock signal lost after a while) and sporadic reboot without reason. For the Gps I’ve found here the solution (NV Rebuild), but for the reboot… I wasn’t sure about it. So I decided for a factory reset. After that my ext card, with the ICS paths, was not recognized. So bucked up everything, format the ext card and let Kies sync my files and create all the folders needed from JB: Camera Photo Video for pictures, and media for the music. Now I’m let’s say 90% ready to go… I’m curios to test especially the Gps.
So, my latest adventure into rooting/flashing.
Wasn't happy with the stock 4.3 update, so decided to go back to CM (CM11 this time).
Everything went well. Root, CWM6, CM11, et viola.
However.
CM11 stopped recognizing my 64gb micro SD card. I've had this happen before so I was poking around in CWM trying to figure out how I fixed it last time.
I mistakenly told CWM to create a 4gb partition. That was stupid, because CWM couldn't even mount my external SD at the time. Complete oversight on my behalf. Anyway, it said it "succeeded" but I still couldn't see my external SD in any way. Long story short, I figured out the ext sd card and reformatted to fat32, making it totally visible in CM11 and CWM.
However, once looking at storage in Settings, I noticed my internal storage was smaller; about 11gb. It would appear I DID create a 4gb partition from CWM, but on the internal memory. The big kicker is that I can't find that partition anywhere! The phone works fine, but I'm missing precious internal space. I can't see the partition from CWM or any partition managers I download in the app store. Also can't see it if I plug the phone into my PC (win7).
I have some big MC2 reset tool I use whenever I want to go back to stock. I can never make up my mind between stock and custom, so I sometimes go back and forth. It's like a 1gb single flash that I install from recovery: it resets my flash counter and goes back to full unrooted stock. Would this fix my issue, causing me to have to re-root et al to get back to CM11? Or, would the fact that my internal memory is no longer the stock size/partition table cause a brick situation if I try to go back to stock?
Your internal storage is fine. You did not create any partition. Your phone has 16 gigs but you only get access to approximately 11 since your phone uses the rest for system, modem, etc..
Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
jlmancuso said:
Your internal storage is fine. You did not create any partition. Your phone has 16 gigs but you only get access to approximately 11 since your phone uses the rest for system, modem, etc..
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Curious, since before I did this, I could see 16gb total storage in CWM (of course, with various parts of it being utilized for OS, apps, misc, etc). Also, I pull up my wife's stock GS3 and it also sees a total of 16gb available storage. Does stock ROM view internal storage completely differently? Does CM11 view it differently than other ROMs? If so, you'd think it'd be something widely known, or at least mentioned in the android community.
Edit:
Also, before this I could connect phone to PC, and PC would see 16gb total storage for phone. Now, it only sees 11.0 exactly. Awfully huge coincidence that there's now a difference in visible storage space that's close to the same size as the supposed partition CWM said it created for me.
Not sure about cwm display but here is a screen of my storage in slimkat. Has looked like this since day one before root and custom rom
Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
jlmancuso said:
Not sure about cwm display but here is a screen of my storage in slimkat. Has looked like this since day one before root and custom rom
Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Fascinating. It would appear CM and stock definitely show the available storage space differently. I'm officially ready for bed!
'preciate the help, friend!
I have a 32GB version of the N3. Im cunning CM11. Update nightlies every few days. This problem has been ongoing for months now and I cannot figure it out.
I keep running low on memory. My maximum used space inside the phone is AT THE MOST 7.5GB. It now says I have 500+ MB free. In practice I remove un-used stuff and the available space goes up.
I have been able to calculate a total of 18.4GB of space is missing and not usable. I have gone through my phone dozens of times trying to locate large files and remove them or locate the missing space.
Wont let me upload a photo, so here is the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tj39fbuu2tpbwqj/Screenshot_2014-07-15-12-40-05.png
Check in your downloads for files to delete, or if you dont need anything backed up do a complete internal format thru twrp/cwm or even flash an international rom which wipes everything on internal.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
Hello..
I have htc desire 816 with 8gb of internal storage ....when i bought it,it had about 4gb free of that storage.....which is quite normal.
After buying it, I updated to lollipop 5.1 then i got it rooted......
Lately i've noticed the insufficient internal sotrage,so I've uninsalled ALL the apps and games from internal and external memory,however,that only freed up about 2 gb of the intrrnal storage ....so what is taking all that space despite there is No apps ....I know that the system files are taking some space....but those files only took 4gb when i bought the phone
Now i don't have any apps ,However, there is only free 1.8gb
I tried using clean master,but it only cleaned about 300mb of junks and cache
This is strictly a personal opinion but you should lose Clean Master and anything else made by Cheetah Mobile.
As for your storage issues... You state you've rooted. Have you done a backup? If so, are you sure your recovery is saving backups to the external storage?
Sent from my YOGA Tablet 2-830F using Tapatalk
Ibrahim elhossiny said:
Hello..
I have htc desire 816 with 8gb of internal storage ....when i bought it,it had about 4gb free of that storage.....which is quite normal.
After buying it, I updated to lollipop 5.1 then i got it rooted......
Lately i've noticed the insufficient internal sotrage,so I've uninsalled ALL the apps and games from internal and external memory,however,that only freed up about 2 gb of the intrrnal storage ....so what is taking all that space despite there is No apps ....I know that the system files are taking some space....but those files only took 4gb when i bought the phone
Now i don't have any apps ,However, there is only free 1.8gb
I tried using clean master,but it only cleaned about 300mb of junks and cache
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had the same issue. The firmware is in it's own partition with room for updates but some of those files fill up your internal storage as well, they did for me when I updated so the solutions are either use a root file explorer or Titanium Backup app to move some user apps to system apps , use the forum here in XDA for altering your SElinux permissions and enable write permissions to your system partition(WP.MOD_KO) so that you can use Link2SD app to move your user apps to your external SD card or pay to obtain full S off using the Sunshine app and have those permissions plus more enabled at the system level so that you can also use Link2SD app to move user apps to the external SD card.
The last 2 methods are the most used and also require you to reformat your external SD card into 2 partitions using EaseUS PARTITION MANAGER on a P.C. Instructions for doing this are easy and available on Youtube and Google if you want to read them instead. These are really the only ways to help your storage issue other than just not using very many apps. I chose the full S off method and Link2SD but the other works it just alters your SElinux permissions and has to be removed to do stock updates whereas S off doesn't affect stock updates. Only system file changes do like the mod I described.
I also echo the previous posters thoughts on Cleanmaster and most all "task killing" apps. Android has built in RAM management that does a good job on its own of managing memory and there is the on screen square button on the right that shows you open apps and tabs and allows you to quickly close them all out. You'd be better off regulating Wavelocks using Amplify app and Greenify to freeze apps from staying on . Root required and there are paid version but the basics are free in both apps.
I had a brain f**t and misread that you've uninstalled "all" of your apps so the previous poster might be onto something if you've done any TWRP nandroid backups to internal instead of micro storage. They can take up to 2 to 4 gbs just on their own even with compression enabled. If you haven't and even if you have my previous info and advice is still accurate for improved storage space.
On my phone, the .thumbnails folder in DCIM takes 1 GB...
TobiBot said:
On my phone, the .thumbnails folder in DCIM takes 1 GB...
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Yeah mine says 550 mb total in thumb data but it is not pictures from my camera like the other few kbs are. Can't open it so I wonder if it's some sort of cache for something else. Don't know all the ins and outs of the Android file structure but I do know that when I started flashing custom roms,CM in particular, my internal storage went up due to the lack of bloatware coming from my stock Rom. Good to know this though. Not going to delete it though for now till I find out what it is.
Some Facts About Thumbnails
thoctor said:
Yeah mine says 550 mb total in thumb data but it is not pictures from my camera like the other few kbs are. Can't open it so I wonder if it's some sort of cache for something else. Don't know all the ins and outs of the Android file structure but I do know that when I started flashing custom roms,CM in particular, my internal storage went up due to the lack of bloatware coming from my stock Rom. Good to know this though. Not going to delete it though for now till I find out what it is.
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Some Apps, like WhatsApp save pics in .thumbnails to work smooth, i think.
You can delete them, but they will create themselves at the next boot again, i also tried to write an init.d script which deletes them at boot, but it doesnt work.
Also if you create a file ".thumbnails" which isnt writable, the system doesnt give you the space
Ive read something about creating this file before first boot after flashing so it works, but i havent tried it...
Damn thumbnails
Sorry if my english is horrible ^^
TobiBot said:
Some Apps, like WhatsApp save pics in .thumbnails to work smooth, i think.
You can delete them, but they will create themselves at the next boot again, i also tried to write an init.d script which deletes them at boot, but it doesnt work.
Also if you create a file ".thumbnails" which isnt writable, the system doesnt give you the space
Ive read something about creating this file before first boot after flashing so it works, but i havent tried it...
Damn thumbnails
Sorry if my english is horrible ^^
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Click to collapse
Your English is perfectly fine. Better even than some to whom English is their "first" language. Thanks for that breakdown and I bet that's what it is. I forgot about the apps storing their stock images in your phone. I used to love using the app called Pocket until I found that it stores all the saved links and images directly on your phone. I saved almost a full gb by deleting it finally. Great app other than that and if I had a device with more storage I'd still have it on my phone instead of just my computer. This is all why it pays to be curious about your own phone storage and learn how to navigate a good root file explorer.
I'm trying to do a full backup of my HTC 10 in case something happens and I need to restore the device to a working state but I'm failing to understand which partitions should I include for that.
These are the partitions I have:
System (3360MB)
System Image (3824MB)
Cache (0MB)
Data (excl. storage) (11451MB)
Boot (64MB)
Recovery (64MB)
I know that Boot is important, but I'm not sure about System or System Image. Which one should I pick and why? Then there's the question of Data... All backup guides I saw mention "Data" but it doesn't contain the "excl. storage" string nor it takes as much space as the one listed on my device. This is a problem because I don't have an SD Card installed and a full backup with all those partitions (even if I just want to include Data) takes too much space and I don't have that much space left on Internal Storage.
What should I do?
https://twrp.me/faq/whattobackup.html
I personally have a System Image backup that I'll likely never need (I just RUU when I want to update) and when I'm doing normal backups I do System, Boot, and Data for my "just in case" backups (like, for if a new ROM doesn't work out).
Additionally, I just transfer all of my files (DCIM, Downloads, and any music or other media files that may be hiding elsewhere in /sdcard) to my laptop for off-site storage and easy access. I don't worry much about my external SD as nothing should touch that unless I tell it to, and I try to keep everything on that card anyway, but I always double check.
If I could make a suggestion: A good 32GB microSD card is under $20 at Walmart (or at any online retailer, obviously) and it's nice to have a physical card that can move around and be separate from the internal file system. I would never assume that $20 is pocket change for anybody, I've certainly gone through seasons where that's an unjustifiable expense, but if you've got some freedom in your budget it might be a worthwhile investment. I got a 64GB card for not much more than that, and it sure is nice to have room to store stuff without hitting the limit.