Help Frustrated with limited storage/options

[Soundy]

This is going to be more of a rant thread... I've been looking around and don't know if there's actually a way to improve things without flashing a new ROM.

I'm really getting sick of the "Phone storage space is getting low" messages on this thing, and the lack of *efficient* ways to deal with it.

My older Windows Mobile 6.x phones gave me the option with every app I installed, whether to install to system memory, internal memory, or SD. Android... not. Laaaaaaame.

I've tried a number of "App2SD" utilities... all of them are tedious, only let me move one app at a time, and don't even move the app themselves, but just kick me to the phone's own app management anyway.

Can't use widgets from apps installed on SD? Laaaaaaame.

And most times, moving an app to SD breaks its icon. Temporarily. Or intermittently. Not a big deal, but still annoying. And laaaaaaame.

My buddy picked up a super-cheap Android tablet (sold as an e-book reader), flashed a new ROM onto it, and managed to set up a folder symlink to the SD card so anything he installed went to SD automatically and the system never knew the difference... appears I can't do that with the ancient version of Android on this phone. Blargh.

I've read a couple other threads where people suggest that "1.5GB is lots of storage, you should never run out of app space"... HA! Don't you believe it.

Really loving this "10-cent apps" event, because it means I get to spend even more time trying to figure out what I can install or move to SD to make more room in the minuscule system memory...

[/rant]

(Bonus rant: don't even get me started on the horrendous battery life - or lack thereof.)

 

[Xyro]

This is going to be more of a rant thread... I've been looking around and don't know if there's actually a way to improve things without flashing a new ROM.

That's the reason your friend was able to set up apps2sd the way he did on a cheap tablet - the cutsom rom he installed.

There are two types of apps2sd, the kind built into later versions of android and the kind that exists on custom roms, where the phone is fooled into thinking a partition on the sdcard is the internal memory of the phone.

Unlike the built in version of apps2sd, that won't break your widgets. Nor will it cause problems with icons. (Problems that both stem from the launcher loading much earlier than the apps on the sdcard are).

I realise rooting and installing a custom ROM is not for everyone, but it may be something you want to consider.

 

[Soundy]

I haven't even rooted my phone yet... not in a big rush to do that either. Had enough of mucking about at the base level with custom ROMs on two different WinMo phones, really would prefer not to go back to experimenting - I want a phone that "just works" (part of why it was a VERY close choice between this or an iPhone).

It's amazing how quickly little <10MB apps can chew up 1.5GB...

 

[CDPlant]

Have you cleared all the app caches? I didn't do that for ages and it freed up a lot of space. The history eraser app has an option to clear all of them in one go.

I have ~150 or so apps and Widgets and the majority are on the internal memory, I still have 500mb left on mine

 

[Soundy]

I have two or three different apps that claim to clear the app caches - 1Tap Cleaner, Android Assistant, one or two others... try them every now and then, it helps only marginally.

Something must be chewing up a lot of space and I can't tell what it is... seems to be very limited facility for really assessing space usage, short of going to each and every app's property page individually.

Just ran 1Tap... reports only 3.08MB in app cache.

 

[Jaffa]

Delete all the crappy apps you have installed that you never use!

 

[CDPlant]

Something must be chewing up a lot of space and I can't tell what it is... seems to be very limited facility for really assessing space usage, short of going to each and every app's property page individually.

There is clearly something else taking up a lot of room... unless you have several hundred apps on the internal memory I can't see how you could be low on space.

Take a look at something like the Sandisk Memory Zone - https://market.android.com/details?...lt#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5zYW5kaXNrLm16Il0. which will get you a break down of everything that is taking up space on your phone. You will then be able to find the things which are taking up the most space and delete them if necessary.

 

[Soundy]

Okay, something is amiss... now that I've updated to 2.3.5 (whole other issue there!), the new "Total Memory" line in the Quick Settings pulldown shows 600MB, 479MB used, 121MB free. Task Manager shows the same. Umm... WTF? Isn't this supposed to be 1.5GB????

 

[Soundy]

There is clearly something else taking up a lot of room... unless you have several hundred apps on the internal memory I can't see how you could be low on space.

Take a look at something like the Sandisk Memory Zone - https://market.android.com/details?...lt#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5zYW5kaXNrLm16Il0. which will get you a break down of everything that is taking up space on your phone. You will then be able to find the things which are taking up the most space and delete them if necessary.

Okay, installed that... there are NO photos, videos, music or documents showing in the phone memory, only installed apps. There must be some sort of massive system files eating up space... I've moved almost everything that can be moved to SD (some won't allow it, some need to stay on phone memory for their widgets to work).

 

[Omar Days]

Okay, something is amiss... now that I've updated to 2.3.5 (whole other issue there!), the new &quot;Total Memory&quot; line in the Quick Settings pulldown shows 600MB, 479MB used, 121MB free. Task Manager shows the same. Umm... WTF? Isn't this supposed to be 1.5GB????

Erm, isn't that the RAM and not the amount of storage space you have?

 

[Soundy]

Eh... you're right, my bad. DUH.

Still... my free storage since the update is now barely 80MB where it was hovering around 120MB before (of 1.1GB).

 

[Mehta23]

That's the reason your friend was able to set up apps2sd the way he did on a cheap tablet - the cutsom rom he installed.

There are two types of apps2sd, the kind built into later versions of android and the kind that exists on custom roms, where the phone is fooled into thinking a partition on the sdcard is the internal memory of the phone.
QUOTE]

Is this custom rom app2sd a universal thing or ...? Can i get it on ARHD

 

[McCookie]

Since I rooted I never ran out of space on my internal memory :/ since rooting I've always had 600mb+ available, got about 10 games and a load of apps, ( and pictures automaticly saved on SD card) And I've never needed apps2sd even before rooting, don't see why there is such a demand for that feature.

 

[Xyro]

Is this custom rom app2sd a universal thing or ...? Can i get it on ARHD

I'm not sure. It is a universal feature on some phones (like my old HTC Hero), but I dont remember seeing it too often on DHD ROM threads. ARHD's thread doesn't mention it at all.