Help Available Space Question

[MykeHawke]

So, I rooted my phone last weekend and was able to get rid of a bunch of the stock apps I never use. I just happened to be looking at another Prevail (unrooted) which I was pretty sure had more apps installed but was showing more free space.

I had some free time, so I went into the "Manage applications" -> "all" tab for both phones and added up the total space that was listed. For my phone I had ~66mb installed and it shows 62.18MB available space.

On the second phone it has ~79mb installed and shows 66.84mb available space. (before checking free space, I opened App2SD on both phones to clear the cache)

I know for a fact that I've installed/uninstalled many more programs than the 2nd phone so is there some way that extra data isn't being deleted during an uninstall? Or is there some other reason why I have unidentified stuff eating my available space?

 

[new optimus]

So, I rooted my phone last weekend and was able to get rid of a bunch of the stock apps I never use. I just happened to be looking at another Prevail (unrooted) which I was pretty sure had more apps installed but was showing more free space.

I had some free time, so I went into the "Manage applications" -> "all" tab for both phones and added up the total space that was listed. For my phone I had ~66mb installed and it shows 62.18MB available space.

On the second phone it has ~79mb installed and shows 66.84mb available space. (before checking free space, I opened App2SD on both phones to clear the cache)

I know for a fact that I've installed/uninstalled many more programs than the 2nd phone so is there some way that extra data isn't being deleted during an uninstall? Or is there some other reason why I have unidentified stuff eating my available space?

Did you check the cache? I dont think this phone clears the davilik-cache in a timely manner when you uninstall. I may have misspelled that if so Oops.

 

[MykeHawke]

Did you check the cache? I dont think this phone clears the davilik-cache in a timely manner when you uninstall. I may have misspelled that if so Oops.

after looking at what is in the Data/Dalvik-Cache folder I think you're probably correct. However, whats the best way to clear this out? I did some quick research online and most tips were to delete it out of recovery mode, but I'm not so sure the Prevail allows for it.

I booted up in recovery mode and there was a "clear cache" or some similar option which I did, but it didn't clear out the dalvik-cache as there are still files in there for programs that are no longer on my phone. Is it safe to just delete the folder or all of the files in there, reboot and let them rebuild?

 

[new optimus]

after looking at what is in the Data/Dalvik-Cache folder I think you're probably correct. However, whats the best way to clear this out? I did some quick research online and most tips were to delete it out of recovery mode, but I'm not so sure the Prevail allows for it.

I booted up in recovery mode and there was a "clear cache" or some similar option which I did, but it didn't clear out the dalvik-cache as there are still files in there for programs that are no longer on my phone. Is it safe to just delete the folder or all of the files in there, reboot and let them rebuild?

dont delete the folder, just all the files in there, using root explorer there is an option for multi-select hit that then chose all.
Reboot right away or your phone will do lots of forced closed on apps. the reboot will take several seconds longer then normal as it rebuilds.

 

[haris163]

I used Droid Tweaker to clear the cache. The phone rebooted, took longer than usual like new optimus said.

 

[MykeHawke]

dont delete the folder, just all the files in there, using root explorer there is an option for multi-select hit that then chose all.
Reboot right away or your phone will do lots of forced closed on apps. the reboot will take several seconds longer then normal as it rebuilds.

This seemed to work. I was able to free up an additional ~30mb.

Since I don't know a whole lot about the dalvik cache, is this something that the phone will automatically try and clean out when space is getting critically low?

 

[new optimus]

This seemed to work. I was able to free up an additional ~30mb.

Since I don't know a whole lot about the dalvik cache, is this something that the phone will automatically try and clean out when space is getting critically low?

I thought it was supposed to clean up every so often and after uninstalling, however I dont believe that to be the case on this phone. I would say after so many reboots? maybe so much time has passed. Or like you say if space gets low.