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Help Low memory

Notes_Norton

Notes_Norton

Android Expert
Hi,

I'm a newbie to cell phones and Android.

I have an Optimus M running Froyo (MetroPCS) and I often get low memory messages - especially if I have been googling a lot.

It seems the fix I discovered (might not be the right fix) is to wipe out the web browser memory, and that nukes everything, including my bookmarks. I've written my own web page on my web site, so I can get them back again, but it's a bit of a pain.

I only have one downloaded app, a calculator with a memory.

I've searched this forum for a cure, but I couldn't find anything.

Could I nuke apps I don't want to use like MocoSpace or Uno or Boingo, and if so (1) Will this work? and if "yes" (2) How? [newbie instructions}

Any more help that I haven't thought of will help too.

Thanks,
Notes ♫

Bob "Notes" Norton
Norton Music, Band-in-a-Box improvement products (tools and toys) and much more
The Sophisticats
 
If you're doing that much surfing, you must be visiting a lot of full sites. Normal browsing shouldn't defeat the ~90MB(?) we start with. You don't have to delete the browser's entire data, you can just delete temporary internet files (aka cache) to reclaim space. Bookmarks have negligible space consumption.

To delete stock (MetroPCS) apps, you will have to venture into rooting your phone. See the Newbie guide in the All things root forum for starters.
 
If you are really having that much of a problem from the cached data, you should probably try an alternative browser. I really like Dolphin and it allows you to cache to the SD card under advanced settings.
 
Thanks to both of you.

Yes I do a lot of surfing, especially googling on it, especially when I'm away from my home/office computer.

Rooting is something I'll look into, if there is a newbie guide, I should be able to understand it.

Is there a best way to move an app to the SD?

Firefox has a browser for Android (I use Firefox on my PC) and if could use it on the SD card it could be just great. (I haven't downloaded it yet) - I'll also look into Dolphin.

This is my first smart phone. I chose MetroPCS because of the flat rate. My mother-in-law has Sprint, and when her other daughter was in the hospital, her bill went up to a couple of hundred dollars from people calling her. I run a business on this number (http://www.nortonmusic.com) and a business can't be on the "do not call list" so I get plenty of people calling me to try to sell me something. I don't want to pay for their calls.

Since my business takes me away from home a lot, I google a lot when I'm away. I can clear the cache/history/cookies, but after a few days of this the memory gets full again rather quickly, requiring a daily clearing.

By clearing all the data (which includes the bookmarks) it lasts a lot longer. I still do daily clearing, but don't see the low memory icon for a week or so.

I'm really enjoying web surfing away from home. What a treat to hear a song on the radio and then be able to google the artist, or to see a sign in Spanish and then translate it (I live in South Florida), or to be able to check my e-mail when away from my desk.

Notes ♫

Bob "Notes" Norton
Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com
The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com
 
I have never cleared any cache or data from Dolphin and it is 1.82MB right now. It is caching to the SD card, so if you surf a lot you might need to make sure you have enough space on it. My largest apps are Maps and Facebook.

Firefox is not ready for our phone yet. The beta in the market is only for phones with the next generation processor that runs faster. If you dig deeply on their site they have a completely unsupported beta version for our phone, but it doesn't work. It starts to load and then just exits. Once the official version is complete, there is supposed to be a version for us. It was also huge and didn't support app to SD.
 
Make sure you are also clearing out your cache from the apps you use as well. I'd recommend if you are rooted getting CacheMate, Or aCCleaner if you are not rooted. This will also keep the phone moving at top speed. ^^. I always recommend Skyfire for a browser not only because of it's ability to use video but also because you can set an option to clear cache when you close it.
 
OK, it's definitely the browser.

I clean cache, cookies, history and form data, each time I exit. I got the low memory notification again. I went through just about everything except the browser (even accidentally wiped out the swipe keyboard - later to figure out how to get it back) and nothing fixed the message.

Cleared the cache, cookies, history and form data again, with on improvement.

Cleared all the data (which also clears the links) and the problem is solved again. Since I've now put a web page on my site with my links on it, it was no problem to restore the link.

So I wonder what is not being cleared when I clear the cache?

I guess I will need to get an alternative browser, and learn how to root so I can get rid of the unused apps. I'll probably never have any use for Moco Space, Boingo, Calendar, Free Games, Loopt, Mobile Banking, Pocket Express Uno, and a number of other apps. I want a phone, web browser, and decent calculator (Calculator app does a great job for what I need).

I read somewhere that rooting a phone can void the warranty. Is this true?

Also, is there any way to back-up the entire phone to a computer so that if screw up the rooting process it won't turn into a brick (I use a disk image app on my computer before I try anything new to me, it's saved my "you know what" many times).

Thanks again,
Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton
Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com
The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com
 
Just be careful with what you delete. It is pretty safe to say that you should never delete stuff google put on there, so I would leave the calendar alone. There is a thread of safe to remove apps you should look at first. One to be very careful with is the stock browser. DO NOT DELETE IT! For archiving, I backed up everything with Titanium before I deleted anything. It requires root access first though.
 
Thanks again.

I read that Apps2sd can move apps to the SD and even delete apps without rooting. Any truth to this?

Notes
 
The only way to get rid of the Metro bloatware is to root the phone. You seem like somewhat of a tech guy so it should be fairly easy for you to handle.

The most important thing to do is read,read and reread the instructions. Make sure you fully understand them and make sure you follow them to the letter(especially the safe list of deletable apks).

Lastly if you need ANY help or have ANY questions do not hesitate to ask, everyone here is helpful and friendly. If you would like one on one help feel free to PM me and I'll be glad to assist you.
 
Notes_Norton said:
Thanks again.

I read that Apps2sd can move apps to the SD and even delete apps without rooting. Any truth to this?

Notes
Click to expand...

That app cannot move any apps to sd that you cannot already do yourself. It was for pre 2.2 versions of the OS. I have it installed as a quick way to clear all my cache memory at once, but that is about the only thing it is good for on this phone.
 
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