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Help Play/Market old apps versions cache, where are they stored ?

Emiliano55

Emiliano55

Newbie
Hey guys!

I've been on Android with my Ace for about 2 weeks and even tho I'm learning a lot there are certaing things I still do not have covered :D


Every time I upgrade an application thro Play/Market I notice my internal memory decreases a bit, sometimes it decreases a lot. It doesn't matter if I'm updating an internal installed app or an app installed on my SD. The internal memory is always being affected afterwards.

It seems that every time I update an app Android keeps an old cache of the old app version somewhere so I keep accumulating MB on my phone.
I always delete the cache at "settings - applications" for the google play market after upgrading apps but those are just some KBs.

So basically my question is, does anyone knows where Android stores the old apps version cache from the market after being upgraded ?


Thanks!!
 
You can just move the apps to the sd card and do a cache wipe of the whole system, wipe the dalvik cache too once a month.
I believe android stores the installation files of the apps that you install from play store, those can be deleted, i don't remember their location. You need root access for that though.
 
Yea I have rooted my phone but I want to know that location so I don't have wasted MBs everytime I update an app.

Btw, what exactly does wiping dalvik cache ? I have a friend that did it and then he couldn't access ANY of his apps ? He had a backup image and had to get back to that :S
 
Its the cache of all the apps including system apps, the system builds that when it first boots up and it keeps on increasing slowly, you can safely clear that through CWM, after clearing that the bootup will take some time cause it has to build a new cache now.
This frees up around 30mb, but this shouldn't be done too often, once a few weeks is enough.
 
Thanks, I will wipe dalviks cache once in a while then.

As for my original question, anyone knows where is the market cache for apps that have been upgraded ?

EDIT:

Btw, where are those .dex files located ? I'm using File Manager and my "data" folder is empty (??). I do see some 'odex' files in the system/app folder, along with the selftitled apks files.
 
Don't touch the .odex files, they are required for the app. The apps won't work without it.
Although if you want to delete any app from there, you should delete its corresponding odex file too, but clearing space here won't give you space at the internal memory. This is a totally different partition, its for the rom only.

You need to google for that, i just read that in a reply somewhere at xda, i don't remember it coz there weren't many files in there, the system clears them itself after some time, its not a big memory user.
You can just move the files to sd, since you are rooted you can use app2sd, link2sd or s2e to move all apps to sd-ext, that'll free up all your internal memory.

S2E for CM roms only: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1477996
Link2sd for any other rom: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1476121
App2sd: couldn't find a tut, but its alot like link2sd.
 
Thansk man, understood.

I will make a wipe dalviks cache since I deleted some vendor/useless apks with Titanium Backup and did not notice the internal memory increased. I guess that's because the .dex files are still present at the dalviks cache and needs to be wiped, right ?


Now, what's the difference between wiping dalviks cache and wiping system cache data ? THis is also an option on CWM recovery. Would this option also give me some extra space or will harm my phone ?

Note: I just want some free extra space, not interested on a factory reset or erasing the phone data at all!

Thanks!!!! :)
 
The dalvik cache is stored in /data/dalvik-cache, its different than the regular cache, i don't know the exact difference but since there are 2 separate options in CWM for this, we should really assume they are different. If u erase normal cache from CWM the bootup won't take that long as when u delete dalvik cache.

I usually use CWM for erasing dalvik, i don't trust TB that much, i even use root explorer to remove system apps, i have found TB unable to delete or add system apps many times, it shows that it was successful but when i looked into the file system the app was still there. We usually wipe cache when there are some glitches or bugs in the normal functioning of the rom or when we want to install a new rom, otherwise i just use an app to clean cache, once a week cleans up around 5-10mb, i am a low net user, its usually internet cache there.

You should just go for the apps i gave you links for, they are your best options for free memory. Wiping caches is just a temporary thing.
 
Thanks man!

I just did a wipe cache partition and a wipe dalvik and got an extra 13MB! It worked fine :)

Yes, I have app2sd installed from the beginning, but I just wanted to make sure how can I free extra space since that application does not magic. Now that I know this I will do it once in a while to free space.

Thanks very much dude :)
 
Emiliano55 said:
Thanks man!

I just did a wipe cache partition and a wipe dalvik and got an extra 13MB! It worked fine :)

Yes, I have app2sd installed from the beginning, but I just wanted to make sure how can I free extra space since that application does not magic. Now that I know this I will do it once in a while to free space.

Thanks very much dude :)
Click to expand...

Without sd-ext and darktremmor's script, that app2sd app is just a waste of space.
You should look at the links i gave you.
 
Thanks man. I will give it a try.

Btw, do you think wiping cache partition and dalvik cache once in a month is good ? I mean, is it normal for Android users to perform this clean up within this period ? I'm thinking about doing both once in a month or every 3 weeks but I think maybe doing it this this often may harm my OS... which I don't think so since both options seems to be totally safe. Right ?
 
Hehe. I did it along with dalvik cache and it saved 13MB with my just 2 weeks old Ace. So maybe you should try someday.

The thing is, maybe those 13MB was just because wiping the dalvik. I will never know that since I did both at the same time :p
 
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