Develop Bugs

[Q] There is insufficient space on this device

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

That was strange...

I connected my phone to Windows 10 laptop and copied over a folder I download from torrent to the laptop and then I was going through the folders I had in my storage and saw that there was one named 'sdcard'. I opened it and saw there was 'UC Browser' related folder (I think it was UC Downloads but don't remember it correctly but sure there was UC in the name). I deleted that folder happily thinking I cleared some useless folder and then I ejected my phone and opened gallery and all photos were grayed. No thumbnails. I restarted my device and BOOM.... ALL MY FILES WERE DELETED. there were only Android and Whatsapp (but no media was present) folders and storage was empty. But all my installed apps are there and they work like normal except the games which had files in SD card (like asphalt xtreme, Angry Birds 2)
Soory for this long boring story but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE somebody tell how did that happen.
What actually happened?
Were was the fault?
Anyone else faced this issue ever?

Ashish.akc said:
I connected my phone to Windows 10 laptop and copied over a folder I download from torrent to the laptop and then I was going through the folders I had in my storage and saw that there was one named 'sdcard'. I opened it and saw there was 'UC Browser' related folder (I think it was UC Downloads but don't remember it correctly but sure there was UC in the name). I deleted that folder happily thinking I cleared some useless folder and then I ejected my phone and opened gallery and all photos were grayed. No thumbnails. I restarted my device and BOOM.... ALL MY FILES WERE DELETED. there were only Android and Whatsapp (but no media was present) folders and storage was empty. But all my installed apps are there and they work like normal except the games which had files in SD card (like asphalt xtreme, Angry Birds 2)
Soory for this long boring story but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE somebody tell how did that happen.
What actually happened?
Were was the fault?
Anyone else faced this issue ever?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is your phone one plus 3. it doesn't have SD card slot

hem.acharya said:
is your phone one plus 3. it doesn't have SD card slot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I know that but it is oneplus 3. I told that there was a folder named 'sdcard' inside the internal storage

hem.acharya said:
is your phone one plus 3. it doesn't have SD card slot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ashish.akc said:
Yeah I know that but it is oneplus 3. I told that there was a folder named 'sdcard' inside the internal storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and no.
Yes ---> when you boot to TWRP and go to "Install", you will be in a folder named "sdcard". It is the folder where you can transfer files into it from the computer (vise versa), install ROMs, etc.
No ---> OnePlus 3 doesn't have an SD card slot.
Let me know if you need more information.
Also, I've posted a guide to solve a lot of issues with the latest Nougat release. Check it out: https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/guide-flashing-oos-v4-0-1-custom-rom-t3537757

If you connect laptop to 1+3 in TWRP, sdcard it's youre internal memory.
If you connect laptop to 1+3 in system, internal memory it's where you got youre media, documents, etc. Youre sdcard it's from the rom.
Recently, i was on a rom and i have a 0 directory. And in it was my pictures, music, movies. They are moved inside of 0.
That happend to, on my HTC One m8, when Android 6 was new, about a year ago.

Ashish.akc said:
I connected my phone to Windows 10 laptop and copied over a folder I download from torrent to the laptop and then I was going through the folders I had in my storage and saw that there was one named 'sdcard'. I opened it and saw there was 'UC Browser' related folder (I think it was UC Downloads but don't remember it correctly but sure there was UC in the name). I deleted that folder happily thinking I cleared some useless folder and then I ejected my phone and opened gallery and all photos were grayed. No thumbnails. I restarted my device and BOOM.... ALL MY FILES WERE DELETED. there were only Android and Whatsapp (but no media was present) folders and storage was empty. But all my installed apps are there and they work like normal except the games which had files in SD card (like asphalt xtreme, Angry Birds 2)
Soory for this long boring story but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE somebody tell how did that happen.
What actually happened?
Were was the fault?
Anyone else faced this issue ever?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think to have understood the issue: you've deleted the entire Internal Storage (aka /sdcard or /storage/emulated/0).
There is no other reason.
Luckily, both system and installed apps are stored with their own configurations in /data partition, that's different from the Internal Storage.
To recover files, you can at first try with Android software: GT Recovery.
Otherwise, you've to look for commercial PC programs:
http://alternativeto.net/software/jihosoft-android-phone-recovery

dbabaev21 said:
Yes and no.
Yes ---> when you boot to TWRP and go to "Install", you will be in a folder named "sdcard". It is the folder where you can transfer files into it from the computer (vise versa), install ROMs, etc.
No ---> OnePlus 3 doesn't have an SD card slot.
Let me know if you need more information.
Also, I've posted a guide to solve a lot of issues with the latest Nougat release. Check it out: https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-3/how-to/guide-flashing-oos-v4-0-1-custom-rom-t3537757
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
null0seven said:
If you connect laptop to 1+3 in TWRP, sdcard it's youre internal memory.
If you connect laptop to 1+3 in system, internal memory it's where you got youre media, documents, etc. Youre sdcard it's from the rom.
Recently, i was on a rom and i have a 0 directory. And in it was my pictures, music, movies. They are moved inside of 0.
That happend to, on my HTC One m8, when Android 6 was new, about a year ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simone98RC said:
I think to have understood the issue: you've deleted the entire Internal Storage (aka /sdcard or /storage/emulated/0).
There is no other reason.
Luckily, both system and installed apps are stored with their own configurations in /data partition, that's different from the Internal Storage.
To recover files, you can at first try with Android software: GT Recovery.
Otherwise, you've to look for commercial PC programs:
http://alternativeto.net/software/jihosoft-android-phone-recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never installed twrp. I have been running it all stock all the time and always used the default file manager.
And let me get more detailed about the folder I deleted: the folder named 'sdcard' was located in root directory that is in the same directory as there are other folders like Android, DCIM, Downloads, Pictures and others. It appeared like any other folder.
I had taken a full backup of the internal storage in last week of November and saw that there was no folder named 'sdcard' there.

Ashish.akc said:
I never installed twrp. I have been running it all stock all the time and always used the default file manager.
And let me get more detailed about the folder I deleted: the folder named 'sdcard' was located in root directory that is in the same directory as there are other folders like Android, DCIM, Downloads, Pictures and others. It appeared like any other folder.
I had taken a full backup of the internal storage in last week of November and saw that there was no folder named 'sdcard' there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it much strange (like the name of your thread ).
/sdcard should be seen as a folder only when you are browsing device with root permissions (and in rare contexts).
Because via PC or non-root File Manager, that folder is shown as Internal Storage, so can't be deleted.
Folders like Android, DCIM etc. are subdirectories of /sdcard, so you erased that too.
Regarding TWRP recovery: it backups only /data partition, because of more convenience.
Internal Storage shouldn't be erased after factory reset or firmware changing, then it maybe very big.
Personally I'm in disagree, because user should be free of doing "uncomfortable" choice.

OP3 Open Beta - Storage space taken by invisible files

Hey guys,
Since a few months I've got the issue that the storage space on my phone is taken up by a lot of (or very big) files which I cannot see. Today my phone was full so I deleted all my offline music which gave me like 20GB back, but there's still only 23GB of free space left.
When I go to 'Internal shared storage' the thing that takes up most space is 'Other' which takes up 21.64GB. When I browse all files on my phone through a file explorer, I cannot find anything that could take up more than 21GB. I can't find anything when connected to my laptop either.
I was hoping that it was a bug I read about a long time ago, where a reboot would fix it. But nope.. Rebooting didn't fix anything.
I've got the feeling that my music was copied to my phone more than once, but I have no way of finding out?
Does anybody here know how to fix this by any chance?

Install Es explorer,Run Space analyzer,go to All files section.
You can probably find the missing spaces or who ate them.

Check out dcim/.thumbnails.

MarcTremonti said:
Check out dcim/.thumbnails.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, only a few relatively small thumbnails.
Jongla said:
Install Es explorer,Run Space analyzer,go to All files section.
You can probably find the missing spaces or who ate them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That helped! Somehow I couldn't see the TWRP backups through regular file explorer but ES File Manager showed me those files. Got some space back!!

Search & Download : Secure Eraser. It will help to clear unnecessary hidden storage without deleting your personal files
Press Thanks, if i helped u out !!

Use TWRP?
TWRP > restore > select backup -> delete backup

All my music and pictures on my Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite is randomly removed all the time, how can I solve this?

I've a Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, but all my music and pictures get randomly removed all the time and then I need to download them again.
I don't remove them myself for clarity.
I guess the cleaner app removes it but there is no option to add them to exceptions and there is also no option to turn off auto clean.
This is a very annoying problem and I'm tired to download all my music and pictures over and over again so how can I solve this?

Googole said:
I've a Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite, but all my music and pictures get randomly removed all the time and then I need to download them again.
I don't remove them myself for clarity.
I guess the cleaner app removes it but there is no option to add them to exceptions and there is also no option to turn off auto clean.
This is a very annoying problem and I'm tired to download all my music and pictures over and over again so how can I solve this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe your device has something like "storage manager" active?
Go into settings and then storage, see if you find something suspicious.

Uninstall or disable cleaning app... you really need to play with your device more.
That cleaner app sounds more like malware

blackhawk said:
Uninstall or disable cleaning app... you really need to play with your device more.
That cleaner app sounds more like malware
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've found out that Cleaner is useless and is just a waste of space so I removed it.
I hope my problem is solved.

User699 said:
Maybe your device has something like "storage manager" active?
Go into settings and then storage, see if you find something suspicious.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've made a screenshot of the Storage page.
Screenshot_2021-04-19-11-09-51-509_com.miui.securitycenter.jpg
drive.google.com
I don't know if it is suspicious but Other is 8,61GB

Removing Cleaner didn't solve my problem.
I download my music from Google Drive and all music downloaded from there is gone now.
The songs that I didn't download from Google Drive aren't removed.
The most of the pictures are removed too, but some didn't.

Googole said:
Removing Cleaner didn't solve my problem.
I download my music from Google Drive and all music downloaded from there is gone now.
The songs that I didn't download from Google Drive aren't removed.
The most of the pictures are removed too, but some didn't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well If so, have a look at gdrives settings.
Also: Are gdrive files in another folder than those not being removed?

Could be malware... you know odd behavior.
The OS or an app may have been corrupted.
A factory reset be a good idea at this point.
Self destructing files aren't normal.
Is it just Google stuff that's vaporizing?
If so maybe deleting/recreating your Google account might solve it.
I'm leaning towards a full nuke of that OS though.
I don't trust Google with any of my data management other than Gmail. I backup and load everything from the SD card, flash stick and hdds.

blackhawk said:
Could be malware... you know odd behavior.
The OS or an app may have been corrupted.
A factory reset be a good idea at this point.
Self destructing files aren't normal.
Is it just Google stuff that's vaporizing?
If so maybe deleting/recreating your Google account might solve it.
I'm leaning towards a full nuke of that OS though.
I don't trust Google with any of my data management other than Gmail. I backup and load everything from the SD card, flash stick and hdds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, could be malware.
A malware checking app would be a first step. If you can run adb on your computer you can check for modifications made on the file system (as you operate as "shell" instead of "root" (unless you are rooted) you won't be able to read everything. Actually you'll get "access denied" very often. But if you find system directories/files with another date then the 'standard recovery date' this could be a sign for malicous activity)

User699 said:
True, could be malware.
A malware checking app would be a first step. If you can run adb on your computer you can check for modifications made on the file system (as you operate as "shell" instead of "root" (unless you are rooted) you won't be able to read everything. Actually you'll get "access denied" very often. But if you find system directories/files with another date then the 'standard recovery date' this could be a sign for malicous activity)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's another possibility, a malware jpeg.
I ran into two in the last 15 years, one a year ago on my N10+. Downloaded from a site into the download folder it corrupted many files in that folder. Some only had damage to the file name and were easily repairable, some were not.
Deleted all I couldn't repair or was in doubt about especially the tainted jpeg.
If that jpeg would have been moved to another folder the same thing would have happened.
The only way to stop this type of malware is to find the infected jpeg. It may not show up on many or any virus/malware scans. I found this one because I noticed the damage immediately after viewing it in downloads. If one one these gets in your database they are little nightmare. One reason I keep downloads in the Download folder for examination, especially jpegs, are these little nasties.
Not real common but they're out there.

blackhawk said:
Could be malware... you know odd behavior.
The OS or an app may have been corrupted.
A factory reset be a good idea at this point.
Self destructing files aren't normal.
Is it just Google stuff that's vaporizing?
If so maybe deleting/recreating your Google account might solve it.
I'm leaning towards a full nuke of that OS though.
I don't trust Google with any of my data management other than Gmail. I backup and load everything from the SD card, flash stick and hdds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done a factory reset earlier but it didn't solve the issue.
All music and the most of the pictures downloaded from Google Drive are removed all the time.

User699 said:
True, could be malware.
A malware checking app would be a first step. If you can run adb on your computer you can check for modifications made on the file system (as you operate as "shell" instead of "root" (unless you are rooted) you won't be able to read everything. Actually you'll get "access denied" very often. But if you find system directories/files with another date then the 'standard recovery date' this could be a sign for malicous activity)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll check for malware and I'll let you know what the results are.

blackhawk said:
There's another possibility, a malware jpeg.
I ran into two in the last 15 years, one a year ago on my N10+. Downloaded from a site into the download folder it corrupted many files in that folder. Some only had damage to the file name and were easily repairable, some were not.
Deleted all I couldn't repair or was in doubt about especially the tainted jpeg.
If that jpeg would have been moved to another folder the same thing would have happened.
The only way to stop this type of malware is to find the infected jpeg. It may not show up on many or any virus/malware scans. I found this one because I noticed the damage immediately after viewing it in downloads. If one one these gets in your database they are little nightmare. One reason I keep downloads in the Download folder for examination, especially jpegs, are these little nasties.
Not real common but they're out there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All my pictures are in the .jpg format

Create a folder in the root directory (not in any other folder) of your storage
In this folder create another two folders - one for music & one for pictures
Move all pictures & music to these folders
This will eliminate sync from apps deleting anything as they shouldn't have access to these folders
If they are still being deleted after this then the user is telling an app to delete them (intentionality or unintentionally)

TheFixItMan said:
Create a folder in the root directory (not in any other folder) of your storage
In this folder create another two folders - one for music & one for pictures
Move all pictures & music to these folders
This will eliminate sync from apps deleting anything as they shouldn't have access to these folders
If they are still being deleted after this then the user is telling an app to delete them (intentionality or unintentionally)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your suggestion, I'll try it and let you know what the result it.

I've downloaded MalwareBytes, scanned my phone but it didn't find any malware @blackhawk

Googole said:
I've downloaded MalwareBytes, scanned my phone but it didn't find any malware @blackhawk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you said you did a factory data reset there must be an app somewhere which is responsible for that.
I would check Google Drive – I don't even have a google account so I can't check it, but maybe GDrive is deleting files automatically.
Is it ONLY GDrive files being deleted?

User699 said:
Well If so, have a look at gdrives settings.
Also: Are gdrive files in another folder than those not being removed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've looked at the Gdrive settings, but I couldn't find anything related to the problem.
The Gdrive files are on Google Drive and those not being removed and removed are in my internal storage.

User699 said:
Since you said you did a factory data reset there must be an app somewhere which is responsible for that.
I would check Google Drive – I don't even have a google account so I can't check it, but maybe GDrive is deleting files automatically.
Is it ONLY GDrive files being deleted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've checked the Google Drive settings but I couldn't find anything related to the problem.
Only files downloaded from Gdrive are deleted.
Files downloaded from other places aren't deleted.

Googole said:
I've checked the Google Drive settings but I couldn't find anything related to the problem.
Only files downloaded from Gdrive are deleted.
Files downloaded from other places aren't deleted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And GDrive downloads them into Downloads folder?
If not you could try to move these things into another folder and see whether they will be deleted again or not.

Question Media Storage takes 33.3 GB of the storage

Looking to my storage details that has 100gb of 128 and now I see that system process name media storage takes 33gb.
What is this? Can I delete it somehow?
Maybe it because of Spotify? (That takes 12 gb by itself)
Thanks!

Empty all of your bins. Photos, Files etc.
It's just temp files in recycle bins.

M1cky said:
Empty all of your bins. Photos, Files etc.
It's just temp files in recycle bins.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see how much size the photos are taking, but I'm not sure what can I delete to clear this 33gb. What do I need to delete if I want to save (for now) my photos

Roy_Alter said:
I can see how much size the photos are taking, but I'm not sure what can I delete to clear this 33gb. What do I need to delete if I want to save (for now) my photos
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just go to the bin in Google Files or Google Photos and empty it. Maybe OnePlus Gallery or default file explorer too. Whichever one you use.

M1cky said:
Just go to the bin in Google Files or Google Photos and empty it. Maybe OnePlus Gallery or default file explorer too. Whichever one you use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I deleted everything in Google photos and it was just 4 GB
The media storage is now taking 35gb

You could try clearing cache and storage from the applications on your phone, if you use stuff like telegram etc it tends to cache everything. It's gonna be a case of you going into each app and seeing how much storage it's using, also if you've submitted any logs to OnePlus they can be sizable!! My Chrome uses 650mb. I've just cleared the cache

Also if you go into settings>about device>storage you'll see :