Help "Low on space" phone/application storage notification

[euph_22]

Are we able to get a free upgrade to Incredible 2 or something similar with this problem? This prevents me from doing work on my phone. Does Verizon or warranty work with this problem?

No, no and no respectively. (ok, you could TRY to get a warranty replacement for it, but good luck with that. Especially since swapping it out with another Incredible won't help you).

Did you try the suggestions for dealing with the problem? (like: clearing cache from apps, adjusting how long the mail inbox stores email, deleting text/picture messages, clearing application data, so forth).

 

[hgoldner]

I have literally hundreds, at least 300 apps installed, so it's not the number of apps, it's the size that the apps decide to take out of \data\data, regardless of whether you move them to SD or not.

For those of you who aren't rooted, let me tell you what's hogging space in my \data\data partition although, (as I've mentioned above in this thread), I run an app called NotEnoughSpace which moves stuff out to other locations so it's not "really" in that partition any more.

First of all, the single biggest hog of \data\data is your contacts database. I have 1690 Outlook Exchange contacts and that takes up nearly 27 megabytes in the partition. Remember, you have 150 megabytes, but you only want to use 135, so contacts can take a huge chunk of that.

Another thing I've seen repeatedly murder the space is synchronization of Facebook contacts. Can't understand why, but I do not recommend syncing Facebook contacts to the phone --- will absolutely kill that partition and bring the handset to its knees if you lots of Facebook friends. My daughter did that on her Incredible (even though its rooted and running Nothing Special (Plain) mentioned above, and completely lost functionality of her handset until I talked her through deleting the Facebook contacts.

Mobiplayer takes 10 megabytes.
Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Air each take at least 1 megabyte.
Google Earth takes several megabytes.
Firefox takes 8.1 megabytes
"Internet" (the default browser) takes 1.1 megabytes.
PowerAmp takes 1 megabyte
Angry Birds (any of the 3 versions), Shazam, gReader Pro all take gobs of space.

And, finally, the Mail app is a huge pig, even if you don't use it (it's required for Exchange functionality, regardless of which email client you ultimately use).

Finally, the only way you can directly manipulate what's in the partition is to be rooted. Period.

 

[euph_22]

I have literally hundreds, at least 300 apps installed, so it's not the number of apps, it's the size that the apps decide to take out of \data\data, regardless of whether you move them to SD or not.

For those of you who aren't rooted, let me tell you what's hogging space in my \data\data partition although, (as I've mentioned above in this thread), I run an app called NotEnoughSpace which moves stuff out to other locations so it's not "really" in that partition any more.

First of all, the single biggest hog of \data\data is your contacts database. I have 1690 Outlook Exchange contacts and that takes up nearly 27 megabytes in the partition. Remember, you have 150 megabytes, but you only want to use 135, so contacts can take a huge chunk of that.

Another thing I've seen repeatedly murder the space is synchronization of Facebook contacts. Can't understand why, but I do not recommend syncing Facebook contacts to the phone --- will absolutely kill that partition and bring the handset to its knees if you lots of Facebook friends. My daughter did that on her Incredible (even though its rooted and running Nothing Special (Plain) mentioned above, and completely lost functionality of her handset until I talked her through deleting the Facebook contacts.

Mobiplayer takes 10 megabytes.
Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Air each take at least 1 megabyte.
Google Earth takes several megabytes.
Firefox takes 8.1 megabytes
"Internet" (the default browser) takes 1.1 megabytes.
PowerAmp takes 1 megabyte
Angry Birds (any of the 3 versions), Shazam, gReader Pro all take gobs of space.

And, finally, the Mail app is a huge pig, even if you don't use it (it's required for Exchange functionality, regardless of which email client you ultimately use).

Finally, the only way you can directly manipulate what's in the partition is to be rooted. Period.

I just wanted to say that those all depend GREATLY on your individual situation. Just because contacts for you are the biggest user doesn't mean that is universally true. If somebody has a lot of text messages or picture messages, for example, that might be a greater culprit.

 

[ned4spd8874]

Sorry to crap, but "NotEnoughSpace" sucks. I bought it and used it for a while, but had to stop using it after a while. I can't remember everything that was happening since it's been a couple months, but one thing that I know was happening was a lot of the apps would disappear on me all the time. Be forewarned!

 

[bobarr]

Thanks so much for the info! I promptly deleted Firefox to save space. Earlier it took a hard reset/reload for me to get rid of the space problem.
I think I'll try rooting the device to learn more. Its a shame that once rooted, a partitioning program can't be used to 'slide the partition size' up a bit. Bo

 

[pedro_lopez]

I fix my low memory stuff following this procedure...

1st. When the low memory tag was noticed, please click on it and discover which app contains a significant quantity of bytes. For example my contact storage occuppied
almost 67 mb.

Click the summary on the dialog window of low memory. For example in my android the
device has only 87 mb. So I am very close to full the memory of personal data.

If you open the task manager, you can also see the personal data memory used.

Then, I backup all my contacts, because this application was about 90% of the memory of personal data used. When all the contacts were copy to the sd, now click again in
the dialog box of low memory... and I delete all data from contacts storage to 0 mb.

Of course you will lose all your contacts.

Now sync again your contacts and by a reason I don

 

[NightAngel79]

A FACTORY RESET is not an option for most people so i've been looking elsewhere for solutions to this annoying notification memory problem.
My research has shown me that this error doesn't appear to be the same for everyone.

1. Some people have a problem with the HTC mail app (better settings below)
2. Some people have a problem with the internet browser cache.
3. Some people have a problem with the Peep cache.
4. Some people have too many messages- have to delete
5. Some people have an insanely large call history- have to delete

HTC MAIL SETTINGS- these settings changes had a short term affect (one week)

SETTING 1
MAIL>Menu>more>Settings>General settings>Temporary attachment storage> sd card


SETTING 2
Send & receive> mail size limit> no limit

My possible solution- hopefully long term
Clear the contact storage cache
SETTINGS>APPLICATIONS>MANAGE APPLICATIONS>CONTACT STORAGE>clear cache

I'm curious if this solution is longterm or not.
I cleared the peep and browser cache but it only helped for 2 days.
Taking off the HTC MAIL app also only had a temporary effect.

Does clearing the CONTACT STORAGE cache have a long term effect?

Just thought it was worth quoting this old post, never know if this might help someone......

also a users post (i don't remember who) was added to the OP on my recommendation. It was pretty informative IMO. Any other REALLY good explanations that can be added to first post to better help people who dont wanna sift through over a years worth of this thread (this thread really is a year old)
Please !report them or PM me or woop and ask/recommend a post.

 

[arfyness]

Whoops, I hadn't fully read this thread!
I uninstalled an app called Applications Folder, a handy program, but it eats up over 2Mb of data space. This got me up to 513MB free and it appears to be OK.

In conclusion, it looks like I can't keep adding apps to my new toy. I think I have about 150 so far.

It seems like the HTC folks should make the data partition a bit bigger or really install the programs in the phone memory partition - which has lots of space.

Sorry for the bother.
Bo

Bobarr, it's just the data for the applications. The app itself may be contained on the removable SD card, but if it stores a lot of data to the "application data space" it will fill up quickly. I totally agree though, there should be MORE SPACE in the application data space. My Incredible's 8GB internal and 32GB microSD is useless if apps I wanna use can't make effective use of all that space...

 

[snakep]

After researching my problem here and elsewhere, I've tried most of the suggestions. I've removed all apps that I seldom use, I've cleared all the cache in my applications, and I've reduced the number of emails stored on the server. I even got a little overzealous and accidentally wiped out all my texts and deleted all of the program data (including account information) for the HTC mail app. I normally use the Gmail app, and I've even deleted all the data for that one, so now it just says "Waiting for sync." Unfortunately, it won't sync while the low space notification is still there.

Despite all my efforts to reduce the number of apps and cache, I still seem to be actually low on storage. In phone memory, I have 37.7 MB available out of 748. I don't have root, so I can't see /data/data. Does anybody know what else could be hogging space? I would like to install a terminal emulator, but right now I can't even install or update any apps.

 

[funkpod]

I dunno what to say, usually those things work....maybe you have to force reset, if you already have cleared everything else out?

 

[snakep]

That's kind of what I'm expecting to have to do, but I'm still hoping to figure something else out.

 

[euph_22]

After researching my problem here and elsewhere, I've tried most of the suggestions. I've removed all apps that I seldom use, I've cleared all the cache in my applications, and I've reduced the number of emails stored on the server. I even got a little overzealous and accidentally wiped out all my texts and deleted all of the program data (including account information) for the HTC mail app. I normally use the Gmail app, and I've even deleted all the data for that one, so now it just says "Waiting for sync." Unfortunately, it won't sync while the low space notification is still there.

Despite all my efforts to reduce the number of apps and cache, I still seem to be actually low on storage. In phone memory, I have 37.7 MB available out of 748. I don't have root, so I can't see /data/data. Does anybody know what else could be hogging space? I would like to install a terminal emulator, but right now I can't even install or update any apps.

If you're at 37.7 MB of available space, it's probably not a bug (certainly not the common low on space problem most people have). Clearly cache/data won't be likely to help too much, since data/cache is usually not stored on the internal storage (private data/cache will be stored in the data/data partition which is separate from what your talking about, and non private will generally be on the SD card). Go into the application manager menu in settings (from the home screen hit menu, select settings then manage applications, and hit all). You can sort the applications by size (you might have to toggle it a couple of times before it sorts everything). Do you see anything taking up an inordinate amount of space? If so, that might be your problem. Try uninstalling (and reinstalling if you wish) those apps and seeing if they take up less space on the reinstall. Assuming that does help (which is honestly a longshot, you're going to have to either move apps to the sd card (they will still take up some space in the internal, but not as much) or uninstall things. You're better off starting with the big apps (since getting rid/moving 1 30 MB app is easier/quicker that 30 1mb apps).

You could try a factory reset, but assuming you reinstall everything, your expected space savings will be minimal. If you don't reinstall everything, you really just took a brute force route to uninstall those apps.

On an unrelated not, what are you planning on doing with a terminal emulator without root? I'm just curious.

 

[snakep]

If you're at 37.7 MB of available space, it's probably not a bug (certainly not the common low on space problem most people have). Clearly cache/data won't be likely to help too much, since data/cache is usually not stored on the internal storage (private data/cache will be stored in the data/data partition which is separate from what your talking about, and non private will generally be on the SD card). Go into the application manager menu in settings (from the home screen hit menu, select settings then manage applications, and hit all). You can sort the applications by size (you might have to toggle it a couple of times before it sorts everything). Do you see anything taking up an inordinate amount of space? If so, that might be your problem. Try uninstalling (and reinstalling if you wish) those apps and seeing if they take up less space on the reinstall. Assuming that does help (which is honestly a longshot, you're going to have to either move apps to the sd card (they will still take up some space in the internal, but not as much) or uninstall things. You're better off starting with the big apps (since getting rid/moving 1 30 MB app is easier/quicker that 30 1mb apps).

You could try a factory reset, but assuming you reinstall everything, your expected space savings will be minimal. If you don't reinstall everything, you really just took a brute force route to uninstall those apps.

On an unrelated not, what are you planning on doing with a terminal emulator without root? I'm just curious.

Thanks for the reply. Do you know what threshold I should reach to be safe? I have looked through the application manager at all apps sorted by size, and the largest is Aldiko at around 10 MB, but it's already on the SD card. They go down from there, and I really don't have that many apps. That's what is so confusing; I don't understand how so much space is being used.

Part of the reason for getting a terminal emulator was to try to see what's in some of these directories. I do have Astro, but /data/data appears empty. From what I've gathered recently, I think it's because I don't have permission. I also was considering rooting the phone if that would help see what's causing the problem, but right now it says I have insufficient space to installsomething as small as the Android Terminal Emulator, which is less than 100 kB.

You mentioned private data; does that just mean data that only root has read permission for? Also, are all the apps stored in /data/data (except those on the SD card)? What else is in /data/data? I found some files in /proc that look like file tables but I couldn't tell the size of the partitions.

 

[coco savage]

man i had this problem....sometimes there is a quick fix with deleting data from maps, peep...but a month ago my fix was done through uninstalling updates to gmail, maps, google search and then reintalling. (cant find the web page)

Recently after reading some things in here....deleting Angry birds, and call history did the trick. It just seems something different each time for me...ugh

 

[euph_22]

You mentioned private data; does that just mean data that only root has read permission for? Also, are all the apps stored in /data/data (except those on the SD card)? What else is in /data/data? I found some files in /proc that look like file tables but I couldn't tell the size of the partitions.

Minor quibble, but no apps are stored in /data/data. That's just where apps save data. And since the developer of the app decide what to save where, what's actually being saved there. But it was intended for email, messages, and other data the user would presumably not want read by a 3rd party, hence it's in a secured folder. And you're right, you have to have administrator positions to see the /data/data partition.

My understanding is that you get the warning message starting at 10% (~80MB), and the phone locks down at 5% (~40MB).

 

[sweeds]

I have had a persistent notification on my phone for the last week. It reads:

Low on space
Application data space is low. To up...

When I click it it takes me to the application management, I assume to uninstall or move files to my SD. I have a 32Gb (working, yes I tested it with h2testw) micro SDHC card. I have app2sd and have transfered many of the moveable files to the SD card.

Under Settings > SD & phone storage the memory reads:

Total/Available
SD Card: 29.71GB/13.91GB
Internal Phone Storage: 6.46GB/5.75GB
Phone Memory: 748MB/630MB

Am I missing something? It seems like I have more than enough memory. And now I am getting errors that there is not enough space to process/store SMS messages and is starting to become a real problem. Suggestions?

 

[sdrawkcab25]

Here you go, the notification has nothing to do with the memory you see, but is talking about a 150Mb partition for app data:

http://androidforums.com/incredible...e-phone-application-storage-notification.html

Ps: merging this with the thread that is linked above.

 

[NightAngel79]

Despite all my efforts to reduce the number of apps and cache, I still seem to be actually low on storage. In phone memory, I have 37.7 MB available out of 748. I don't have root, so I can't see /data/data. Does anybody know what else could be hogging space? I would like to install a terminal emulator, but right now I can't even install or update any apps.

What Euph said was spot on but what i cant get over is you only having 37.7mb available. AND you said you don't have many apps. At one point i had WELL over 350 apps on phone and still had around 300mb available. I was periodically getting the 'low on space' message because of data though. Almost seems like you have a bad phone or something. How long have you had your device?

 

[sweeds]

This thread still gets new posts every day it seems. Considering the mammoth it has become, plus the fact there are merged threads confusing the flow, I thought it may be prudent to repost once again, the single post that best explains the heart of the situation:



The /data/data folder is inaccessible by most file managers other than Root Explorer which obviously means you need to be rooted. So, if you aren't rooted, your best bet is to start deleting apps, cache and data in the Applications > Manage applications menu. If you are rooted, you can use higher powered cache cleaners and go straight to the data/data folder using Root Explorer and weed things out carefully while noting the filesize of the likely offenders.

Quoted to continue to the knowledge train.

Is there any way to increase the partition size?

 

[Skorpios1027]

Quoted to continue to the knowledge train.

Is there any way to increase the partition size?

Not that anyone has been able to find

 

[snakep]

What Euph said was spot on but what i cant get over is you only having 37.7mb available. AND you said you don't have many apps. At one point i had WELL over 350 apps on phone and still had around 300mb available. I was periodically getting the 'low on space' message because of data though. Almost seems like you have a bad phone or something. How long have you had your device?

I've had my phone since last October. When I first started researching this problem, I noticed that most of the results were from early last summer. I found a few posts suggesting that Froyo solved, or at least reduced, the problem. Froyo had been out for a while when I got mine, so I've never even had 2.1 on my phone. But then, my issue seems to be a little bit different than what I've seen other people report.

Back to what euph said: if the apps aren't stored in /data/data, where are they stored? I've found a bunch of files in /mnt/asec that might be apps, but I don't know. There are a bunch of directories with names that correspond to some of the apps that I've downloaded, and in each directory is a file called pkg.apk. Are these the actual executable files? I think that the stock apps are stored in /system/app. Though I can't tell what is in /data, I know that its total size is 748.02 MB, and when I uninstall apps (I got rid of Pandora after reading some older posts; it hasn't helped) the available space in /data increases.

At this point, I've cleared all data for HTC mail and messages, the latter before realizing that it would wipe out all my messages. When I look at the application settings, they have zero cache and data. In fact, all of my apps have zero cache now.

One more question: what is the difference between phone memory and what I would traditionally thing of as memory? It seems like "phone memory" is more like a partition for storing app data vs. a location for data that is currently being used by applications, like RAM on a PC. When I open Advanced Task Killer, it says that I have 181MB available and Settings->Applications->Running Services says there is 171MB +115MB available.

 

[Rob.G]

...Back to what euph said: if the apps aren't stored in /data/data, where are they stored? I've found a bunch of files in /mnt/asec that might be apps, but I don't know. There are a bunch of directories with names that correspond to some of the apps that I've downloaded, and in each directory is a file called pkg.apk. Are these the actual executable files? I think that the stock apps are stored in /system/app. Though I can't tell what is in /data, I know that its total size is 748.02 MB, and when I uninstall apps (I got rid of Pandora after reading some older posts; it hasn't helped) the available space in /data increases...

The downloaded apps are stored in /data/app/.
Stock apps, as you have deduced, are in /system/app/.

...One more question: what is the difference between phone memory and what I would traditionally thing of as memory? It seems like "phone memory" is more like a partition for storing app data vs. a location for data that is currently being used by applications, like RAM on a PC. When I open Advanced Task Killer, it says that I have 181MB available and Settings->Applications->Running Services says there is 171MB +115MB available.

That's correct, it is a partition for storing data. It's not the internal or phone memory that's listed in any file explorer.

 

[snakep]

Now that I'm starting to get a clearer picture of my problem, I wonder if there are files in /data/data that haven't been removed after I cleared cache and data for various apps. For example, I cleared the data from the HTC mail app, which cleared all of my account information, but maybe it left some of the mail files in place. Also, I uninstalled the Lightning Bug app but it left behind some data on the SD card. Maybe some of the other apps I've uninstalled have done something similar in /data/data.

I would like to gain root access and go take a look for myself, but because of my low available space I can't install any apps right now so I can't get a terminal emulator. Is there a way to install directly to the SD card? If not, my only choice might be to reset and start over.

 

[carylev]

well i hate to say it but im afraid my time with the DINC is coming to an end as a result of this problem. in the past ive been able to make the notification go away by deleting long text msg strings, but i randomly got the notification this am, cleared out my texts, and its still there. i checked and i have no cache to clear and im at a point where im not willing to delete any of the large apps i have installed. my gmail doesnt push when i have this notification and i just dont see a solution. whats the point of having a smartphone with 5.88GB of available internal phone storage if i cant use it???

i really have no interest in updating my phone. i love my DINC other than this annoying problem and i really wanted to wait for a viable 4G/dual processor phone. but i cant go months without getting my email pushed to my phone and its absurd that i shouldnt be able to add any more apps.

im not a superuser or tech savvy enough to root my phone or really understand what the data/data partition is so thats not an option for me. if anybody has a potential solution for me i would be eternally grateful. frankly none of the current phones available on verizon have captured my attention and im frustrated beyond description. anybody? anybody? bueller?

 

[ned4spd8874]

well i hate to say it but im afraid my time with the DINC is coming to an end as a result of this problem. in the past ive been able to make the notification go away by deleting long text msg strings, but i randomly got the notification this am, cleared out my texts, and its still there. i checked and i have no cache to clear and im at a point where im not willing to delete any of the large apps i have installed. my gmail doesnt push when i have this notification and i just dont see a solution. whats the point of having a smartphone with 5.88GB of available internal phone storage if i cant use it???

i really have no interest in updating my phone. i love my DINC other than this annoying problem and i really wanted to wait for a viable 4G/dual processor phone. but i cant go months without getting my email pushed to my phone and its absurd that i shouldnt be able to add any more apps.

im not a superuser or tech savvy enough to root my phone or really understand what the data/data partition is so thats not an option for me. if anybody has a potential solution for me i would be eternally grateful. frankly none of the current phones available on verizon have captured my attention and im frustrated beyond description. anybody? anybody? bueller?

Alas, I am having the same thoughts as yourself. I AM tech savvy and am rooted; and have tried the magic partitioning tools which just made things worse. I am eligible for an early upgrade and have started to seriously consider getting a new phone. I'm just afraid that the new device will still have this bug.