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Hi Guys.
Looking for a little bit of help
Hope this is in the right section.
Basically i have had astro file manager on my phone for a couple of weeks now.
I use it too move the odd file hear and there and clear internal caches etc.
I also use it too delete folders full of stuff i no longer have.
ie. I uninstalled xscope web browser but there was still a folder for this in astro so i deleted the folder.
Should i be doing this??
Also is there a better way too clear all of the unwanted stuff from my phone like the folders with nothing in etc??
And is there a way i can clear all caches from my apps to free up a little space every week?
What do you guys do to ensure there is as less clutter as possible?
On a slightly different note how can i arrange my folders within my pictures so that i can have sub folders like family, friends, 2010 holiday etc etc?
Im sure i have a million questions but ill get these first ones out the way first
Thanks for your help
And FYI im running android 2.1 unrooted on a Virgin HTC desire (don't know when ill get the update through was led to believe the 15th september)
any help on this.
I went through my apps individually via settings > apps > manage apps
sorted them via size and cleared all the biggest files cache.
Freed up 10mb of space.
What damage am i doing or what information am i losing by doing this though??
Or will i notice no difference myself when in these apps with cleared cache?
Theres an app called "quick app clean cache" its not free but very cheap, works as a good cache cleanner for non rooted phones, you can clean all cache with 1 click on a rooted phone but on stock phones the app lists every app thats got a cache and tells you the size so you dont have to check every single app.
Sent from my HTC Desire runing Android 2.2 via the XDA App
What info will I loss though. Anything important. Market has 3mb cache. Will it effect me deleting all caches
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
You mentioned about folders on your sd card, but the threads about internal space?
Deleting caches will generally only delete thumbnails etc which are there to speed up file browsing. You wont loose anything important if you delete them.
when clearing facebook cache username and password go
lennshow66 said:
when clearing facebook cache username and password go
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, they will only go if you clear the data from the app, not the cache.
You can delete any cache files, they shouldnt effect anything, the browser, market, facebook & youtube ushally have the largest.
Some apps like facebook, twitter & movies (flixster) seem to grow in data size (not just cache) when you use them,
clearing the data deletes all info so dont clear data on anything like contacts or anything important, but on those 3 its ok as it just means putting your user name & PW in again and reactivationg the settings/notifications. Shouldnt take more than a min or 2
Sent from my HTC Desire runing Android 2.2 via the XDA App
OK, so first things first. I am rooted and have attempted repeatedly to remove the Google Play Services apk with no luck. I have used TB to uninstall. freeze, delete. It will delete the file and or remove it but when I reboot its back and it wont go away. I have looked into the my
/data/app
folder and deleted the file from there and then removing it with TB, still whether I reboot or I wait anywhere from minutes to a coupel hours its back and as it doesnt show up under the PLAY store I cant think of any other way to remove the dang thing and its eating about 40mb of internal storage. I move it to SD and it will work for a bit, but then its back to internal storage..... I dont even use Google+ that much on my phone. I use it on my PC.
Any ideas/suggestions?
File in question:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms&hl=en
ozzmanj1 said:
OK, so first things first. I am rooted and have attempted repeatedly to remove the Google Play Services apk with no luck. I have used TB to uninstall. freeze, delete. It will delete the file and or remove it but when I reboot its back and it wont go away. I have looked into the my
/data/app
folder and deleted the file from there and then removing it with TB, still whether I reboot or I wait anywhere from minutes to a coupel hours its back and as it doesnt show up under the PLAY store I cant think of any other way to remove the dang thing and its eating about 40mb of internal storage. I move it to SD and it will work for a bit, but then its back to internal storage..... I dont even use Google+ that much on my phone. I use it on my PC.
Any ideas/suggestions?
File in question:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms&hl=en
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It takes only 7.92MB of internal storage for me.
You need to remove the GPlay store to remove it permanently.
Maybe if I rename the play store apk and add a .bak then reboot then remove the dang thing entirely it will be gone.
I looked and I dont know whats different with mine but its eating around 39mb on my phone.
Why would you want to remove it? This app, as far as I can remember I read, gives us "Smart Update" which lets you install and update only the updated portions of apps instead of redownloading the entire app. So... I just moved the app to my system partition using TB, then Integrate it with the ROM everytime it gets updated. Internal memory problem solved.
According to Google Play reviews, you need it for YouTube and possibly other Google services.
narflynn619 said:
This app, as far as I can remember I read, gives us "Smart Update" which lets you install and update only the updated portions of apps instead of redownloading the entire app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but this is wrong. Smart Update is a Google Play Store feature and has nothing to do with Google Play Services.
ridder215215 said:
According to Google Play reviews, you need it for YouTube and possibly other Google services.
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Click to collapse
Yeah true, since newest version.
Google Play Services is something like a replacement for older Google APIs on Android. It allows developers to use a newer version of those APIs (this "newer" version is not better in any way, but new ). Google's idea is to get more independant from hardware manufacturers and their updates. They want this APIs to be no longer part of the system to update them on their own. They started porting their Apps to the new APIs, YouTube is one of the affected apps (what means they did not add any feature but let the app work only on Android systems with Play Services installed).
Im at war with Google now. Will go Windows
Up until today I was quite happy with my ZTE T60. Then suddenly upon waking up this morning it was sluggish, the Internet was unresponsive and became a great disappointment. Then the low memory warnings started, my "market" Icon was switched to "Play Store". So into settings and application management I go. Now I notice two new applications I did not install or was I asked for permissions. One being the play store which is only a MB or so bigger than the old "market" app but now I also have this "Google play services" thats 19MB! My device only has 128M ROM. I don't have room for it and I cant get rid of it. Being that Google took over my device I have decided to boycott all Android devices. I would also like to note the same exact thing was done by Google with my Samsung GT-S5570 Galaxy mini. Whats the point of pushing store software onto devices like this that takes up all of the Rom so one couldn't download anything from the store if they wanted to? Doesn't Google realize this enormous update is not suitable for every android device on-line and why have they mandated it? Sorry Google, I used to love ya but this is the big goodbye.
I am not sure about windows phone OS but I can agree with you. Now Apple and Android are doing the same bad things than Windows for desktop did in the past.
Unfortunately on mobilephones its is even worse because by default you are not root/admintrator.
Iron_Dingo said:
Up until today I was quite happy with my ZTE T60. Then suddenly upon waking up this morning it was sluggish, the Internet was unresponsive and became a great disappointment. Then the low memory warnings started, my "market" Icon was switched to "Play Store". So into settings and application management I go. Now I notice two new applications I did not install or was I asked for permissions. One being the play store which is only a MB or so bigger than the old "market" app but now I also have this "Google play services" thats 19MB! My device only has 128M ROM. I don't have room for it and I cant get rid of it. Being that Google took over my device I have decided to boycott all Android devices. I would also like to note the same exact thing was done by Google with my Samsung GT-S5570 Galaxy mini. Whats the point of pushing store software onto devices like this that takes up all of the Rom so one couldn't download anything from the store if they wanted to? Doesn't Google realize this enormous update is not suitable for every android device on-line and why have they mandated it? Sorry Google, I used to love ya but this is the big goodbye.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need it for like all services by google. The google play store will just keep downloading it and putting it on your phone until the end of time. Youd probably have to re engineer the google play and other google apps to not download this app.
Sent from my LT28i using XDA Free mobile app
Good evening. After buying a couple of themes on the Galaxy store and applying them, my themes always seem to go back to the 'default' ones all the time. I cant figure out how to use any of the bought themes as 'default' even though in the software its is selected as default. Thanks
Try clearing system cache on the boot menu.
Cache on themes; you may need to clear the data if this doesn't work but you'll lose all the downloads. Try not to do this.
Maybe clear caches on other related Samsung apps.
Make sure it's not a 3rd party app causing this.
Does it run ok in safe mode?
Tks for the quick reply. I'm fairly new on the Galaxy phones so ill need to see how to clear the system cache. Same goes for safe mode. Not sure how to get there ..
What OS are you running?
Android Version 11 - Default ROM
Just google how to pull up the boot menu* and safe mode. It similar on all Samsung models but can vary slightly.
You need to push the button(s) in the right sequence and at the right time.
Try the less time consuming fixes first.
Play with it. The more you play with it the more you learn. Androids are fun to play and unlike MS Regedit it's pretty hard to screw up a stock Android**.
*make sure you hit "clear system cache" option and not hard reset one which is normally below it!
**get a fast 500gb sd card (about $75) to use as a data drive; keep all your critical files here. Use it for music and vids storage as well. Regularly backup the DCIM folder here too.
Best not to store Downloads here until they are known to be free of malware this includes downloaded jpegs! I had a malware jpeg recently.
Use ApkExport to make copies of all your apps and updates to store here.
Keep everything you need to do a full reload and data restore here. Then back this up to a PC as well. Now a reloading will be a snap will with no PC and minimum internet connection needed... and no data loss.
Forced reloads are rare but can happen, be ready... especially if system is not behaving in a stable manner (like it is now).
I also have a theme problem. I have a s20 ultra 5g, after purchasing a number of themes from the store, they only theme the main screen. Not the telephone app nor the message app. Does anyone know why or can provide a solution. I am running android 11 but hand the same results running 10. Thanks in advance!
I guess themes are not ready for oneui 3.0
Why do you pay for samasung themes. They only theme samsung apps and leave out other apps.
Try to theme with Substartum and Synergy.
Better experience of themeing.
agentsandy007 said:
I guess themes are not ready for oneui 3.0
Why do you pay for samasung themes. They only theme samsung apps and leave out other apps.
Try to theme with Substartum and Synergy.
Better experience of themeing.
Although these also not supporting oneui3.0 right now. But wait for sometime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To fix most teeming problems, take your phone off of dark mode and it will theme the phone app along with your contact app and your messages app. You can do this in your developers app and in your settings app. You shouldn't have to set a theme as default, it should do that automatically.
I discovered something, maybe someone is interested, so I'll write it briefly.
If you take a picture with the camera (whatever else, right) and then look at it in the gallery, it is cached as a preview. If you delete it, it is gone in the gallery and if you then empty the trash, it is not saved anywhere (is temporarily saved in /storage/emulated/0/MIUI/Gallery/cloud/.trahsbin). Nothing new so far.
But: if you look under /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.miui.gallery/gallery_disk_cache/full_size or small_size, you can still see the smaller pictures, so to speak the small preview pictures in the gallery (you can rename the .0 to .jpg). Even the oldest ones that have been made and deleted long time ago were there, just smaller (less than 1MB), but they are there and take up memory. Even a restart does not delete them. I don't know if there is any limit and if it will not be erased at some point. Otherwise it is just a kind of second backup or the memory will run out at some point in the case of frequent photographers or video takers. The security tool did not remove them when you tried to use the cleaner tool. At least in my case it didn't.
I've just looked and yes they are all there - This is a huge security issue in my opinion
That's unfortunately quite standard way for many apps which cache picture files for faster viewing, previews mostly will not get deleted automatically. App can store such previews as cache or app data, so to remove previews you need to clean corresponding category. For MIUI gallery it would be app data.
If you are concerned about storage use, clean data every now and then. If you are concerned about security - don't use your phone to take sensitive pictures.
_mysiak_ said:
That's unfortunately quite standard way for many apps which cache picture files for faster viewing, previews mostly will not get deleted automatically. App can store such previews as cache or app data, so to remove previews you need to clean corresponding category. For MIUI gallery it would be app data.
If you are concerned about storage use, clean data every now and then. If you are concerned about security - don't use your phone to take sensitive pictures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree with this comment for a few reasons
1- There is no option to clear data of the MIUI gallery app. It only allows you to clear cache
2 - This only effects pictures taken with the stock camera app. If you use a 3rd party camera app & a different gallery app it doesn't happen (I've checked their data folders too)
3 - Define sensitive image. In my opinion any image I take is sensitive if I don't intend to share it with anyone regardless of what the image actually is. If I delete the image it should be deleted & not stored in data of the stock gallery apps data
TheFixItMan said:
I disagree with this comment for a few reasons
1- There is no option to clear data of the MIUI gallery app. It only allows you to clear cache
2 - This only effects pictures taken with the stock camera app. If you use a 3rd party camera app & a different gallery app it doesn't happen (I've checked their data folders too)
3 - Define sensitive image. In my opinion any image I take is sensitive if I don't intend to share it with anyone regardless of what the image actually is. If I delete the image it should be deleted & not stored in data of the stock gallery apps data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. you are right, but with root access it can be done easily directly or through another app. I suppose that "MIUI optimizations" are blocking "clean data" button.
2. it happens with Simple gallery app, Total commander, Quickpic,.. Some apps store data in cache, others store them as app data. It doesn't matter if you use stock or 3rd party camera app. As soon as you open MIUI gallery or another gallery app (or allow them to be always running and scanning storage for new pictures), it generates a preview and keeps it for a future use.
3. yes I agree, but you unfortunately can't rely on this assumption. Any app with access to storage area should be considered as a source of potential data leak.
I am not defending MIUI apps (I avoid them like plague), just wanted to highlight that it's not the only app with such issue.
_mysiak_ said:
1. you are right, but with root access it can be done easily directly or through another app. I suppose that "MIUI optimizations" are blocking "clean data" button.
2. it happens with Simple gallery app, Total commander, Quickpic,.. Some apps store data in cache, others store them as app data. It doesn't matter if you use stock or 3rd party camera app. As soon as you open MIUI gallery or another gallery app (or allow them to be always running and scanning storage for new pictures), it generates a preview and keeps it for a future use.
3. yes I agree, but you unfortunately can't rely on this assumption. Any app with access to storage area should be considered as a source of potential data leak.
I am not defending MIUI apps (I avoid them like plague), just wanted to highlight that it's not the only app with such issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Storing them in cache is fine as the cache can be deleted - I've checked simple gallery app and it doesn't store anything permanently in data.
What I have an issue with is the permanent storage of these files in data. If they are temp files they should be stored as cache which is deleted when you clear the cache.
I agree that anything stored could be leaked however if you delete a file it should be deleted and not leave temp files behind that cannot be removed through clearing cache (by deleted I mean deleted at user level & not deleted beyond some forensic recovery tool)
Using open camera and simple gallery app no such files are left behind permanently in data
Thanks for cross-checking this. I think both of your comments are right. Many apps are keeping this cached data, but I also would like to see a possibility to clean this data for privacy reasons. The question what is considered to be sensitive is manyfold of course. I sometimes take a picture of a postal document to store it on my PC, but would also consider family pictures as private.
For me - in a good sense - it looks like a simple bug, that the authors of the SW didn't check this. In a more bad sense, but I haven't tried that (and will not ) is that this cache is possibly transferred to Xiaomi if you use a Mi-account on your device. Who knows. Just remembering the old story with this Mi-browser......
Therefore I shared, as it may fill your device storage over time, which was my main concern.
Thanks for sharing, I didn't want to discourage you or dismiss this issue as irrelevant. MIUI gallery should certainly store such data in cache folder and/or delete the preview after removal of the source picture. I am going to delete all data and disable the app through ADB, I used it only once to test the sky replacement feature anyway and now I have a good reason to disable it again.
Edit: with disabled MIUI gallery, after taking the screenshot it doesn't show the usual edit window, it saves the picture right away. Just in case if anyone wondered about the impact.
_mysiak_ said:
Thanks for sharing, I didn't want to discourage you or dismiss this issue as irrelevant. MIUI gallery should certainly store such data in cache folder and/or delete the preview after removal of the source picture. I am going to delete all data and disable the app through ADB, I used it only once to test the sky replacement feature anyway and now I have a good reason to disable it again.
Edit: with disabled MIUI gallery, after taking the screenshot it doesn't show the usual edit window, it saves the picture right away. Just in case if anyone wondered about the impact.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also revoke the storage permissions for the MIUI gallery app - you keep the screenshot edit window but as it doesn't have permissions to access storage it can't save the preview files to data
Interesting ,thanks for sharing.
Is there an app that will clear all unused data for an app after removing the app? I have tried several apps that didn't work out and I 'Uninstalled' them but not sure if all the remnants are removed also.
SD Maid Pro, works well at least for Android 9 and 10. Not sure about higher.
The remnants usually amount to kbs at least before scoped storage. Scoped storage screwed up a lot of things, needlessly.
Blackhawk, thanks it works with Android 13. Don't know how well except it did get rid of a lot.
JimReid said:
Blackhawk, thanks it works with Android 13. Don't know how well except it did get rid of a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome
It got app remnants nothing else would touch on my stock N10+. Been using the pro version for almost 3 years. No unwanted deletions. Clear the system cache once a month or so too.
I also use the old version of Device Care with 360 degrees (I firewall block it) to clean logs.
That's all I do for maintenance. My current load is over 2.5yo, still fast and stable. That's what Android is capable of if you don't screw it up with upgrades and updates. Security simply isn't an issue for me in it's current configuration and usage.