Help Frustrating internal storage issue

[Garaera]

I have 32GB of internal storage on my phone and an SD card with 64GB which is formatted as extended internal storage.
My phone is an Alcatel 3v (5032W) running Android 9 and my SD card is a samsung evo select.
For some reason I had this problem suddenly a few months ago as well but can't remember how I fixed it and can't find anything on this exact issue anywhere.
My internal storage appears full, can't update any apps and no matter how many times I've restarted my phone, ejected and reinserted my SD card, or how much I remove I am not getting any space back on my internal storage.
From what's listed on my device I should have plenty of space.
[GALLERY=media, 1050]Screenshot_2021-01-11-14-39-05-370 by Garaera posted Jan 11, 2021 at 3:25 PM[/GALLERY][GALLERY=media, 1052]Screenshot_2021-01-11-15-26-21-916 by Garaera posted Jan 11, 2021 at 3:26 PM[/GALLERY][GALLERY=media, 1051]Screenshot_2021-01-11-14-40-27-295 by Garaera posted Jan 11, 2021 at 3:25 PM[/GALLERY]

From what I see, your card is formatted as EXTERNAL storage rather than INTERNAL storage.

That is a good thing.

Ask me why later if you don't know.

The next thing I see is that about half of your device is filled with games.

Your internal memory is shared, that is between you and your device.

You have what you want on your device, but the device also is wanting whatever it needs and whatever junk may have come with it as well.

You really need to figure out what you NEED vs. what you WANT on the device.

Otherwise, you just need to buy a device with more memory.

The best place to start is with those games.
Get rid of any games that you do not play regularly.
Or, get anotherdevice just for the purpose of those games.
A $60-$100 device only on Wi-Fi can be used for this.

Another great way to save space is to eliminate any app that mearly takes youto a website.
These websites can be accessed just fine with your browser, and that will take up no space on your device.
Facebook, Insatagram, Twitter, Amazon, etc.

Try this as well...

Settings
Storage
Internal shared storage
Other apps
(three dot menu, upper right)
Show System
(three dot menu again)
Sort by size

Now you have a list of all apps on your device, in size order.

Choose the biggest one, right on top.
Clear the cache.
Do this for each app in turn.

The cache is nothing of real value, you will lose nothing.
In fact, as you use an app, it will build up again.

Now do this...

Settings
Apps & notifications
See all apps
(three dot menu, upper right)
Show System

Disable and clear data for any apps that youcan access via a browser.

Youtube, stuff like that.

Now, of course there are going to be differences, and even some inconveniences.

So in order to remedy most of that, and to even add functionality yet still save space, allow me to go a bit further.

Let's use Youtube for an example.
First, the app works well, and the site is more difficult and awkward.
Ok, so the best thing is to use the site when you need to use your account, and a different app when you want to watch stuff.

NewPipe is my answer.
It even allows you to download, listen in the background, and now you can watch Youtube without ads.
Here's the real kick- NewPipe is only about ⅓ the size of the Youtube app!

See what I am getting at?

You didn't show specific apps, so I am giving you a typical fix solution.
Most folks are on social media, and watch Youtube.

We are all trained in the mentality of 'there's an app for that' and so our devices get full fast and then we have issues.

We forget that we all have browsers that can do the work of many apps.

Just bookmark your social sites onto the browser, and then ditch the apps.
For certain apps like Youtube, use another app that is smaller and gives more bang for the MB.

A great source for such replacement apps is F-Droid.

https://f-droid.org/

Here you can find NewPipe (Youtube), and many others.

'm pretty sure this is some kind of problem with my phone removing the transferred data and still holding onto it.

From what I see, your card is formatted as EXTERNAL storage rather than INTERNAL storage.

That is a good thing.

Ask me why later if you don't know.

The next thing I see is that about half of your device is filled with games.

Your internal memory is shared, that is between you and your device.

You have what you want on your device, but the device also is wanting whatever it needs and whatever junk may have come with it as well.

You really need to figure out what you NEED vs. what you WANT on the device.

Otherwise, you just need to buy a device with more memory.

The best place to start is with those games.
Get rid of any games that you do not play regularly.
Or, get anotherdevice just for the purpose of those games.
A $60-$100 device only on Wi-Fi can be used for this.

Another great way to save space is to eliminate any app that mearly takes youto a website.
These websites can be accessed just fine with your browser, and that will take up no space on your device.
Facebook, Insatagram, Twitter, Amazon, etc.

Try this as well...

Settings
Storage
Internal shared storage
Other apps
(three dot menu, upper right)
Show System
(three dot menu again)
Sort by size

Now you have a list of all apps on your device, in size order.

Choose the biggest one, right on top.
Clear the cache.
Do this for each app in turn.

The cache is nothing of real value, you will lose nothing.
In fact, as you use an app, it will build up again.

Now do this...

Settings
Apps & notifications
See all apps
(three dot menu, upper right)
Show System

Disable and clear data for any apps that youcan access via a browser.

Youtube, stuff like that.

Now, of course there are going to be differences, and even some inconveniences.

So in order to remedy most of that, and to even add functionality yet still save space, allow me to go a bit further.

Let's use Youtube for an example.
First, the app works well, and the site is more difficult and awkward.
Ok, so the best thing is to use the site when you need to use your account, and a different app when you want to watch stuff.

NewPipe is my answer.
It even allows you to download, listen in the background, and now you can watch Youtube without ads.
Here's the real kick- NewPipe is only about ⅓ the size of the Youtube app!

See what I am getting at?

You didn't show specific apps, so I am giving you a typical fix solution.
Most folks are on social media, and watch Youtube.

We are all trained in the mentality of 'there's an app for that' and so our devices get full fast and then we have issues.

We forget that we all have browsers that can do the work of many apps.

Just bookmark your social sites onto the browser, and then ditch the apps.
For certain apps like Youtube, use another app that is smaller and gives more bang for the MB.

A great source for such replacement apps is F-Droid.

https://f-droid.org/

Here you can find NewPipe (Youtube), and many others.

 

[puppykickr]

From what I see, your card is formatted as EXTERNAL storage rather than INTERNAL storage.

That is a good thing.

Ask me why later if you don't know.

The next thing I see is that about half of your device is filled with games.

Your internal memory is shared, that is between you and your device.

You have what you want on your device, but the device also is wanting whatever it needs and whatever junk may have come with it as well.

You really need to figure out what you NEED vs. what you WANT on the device.

Otherwise, you just need to buy a device with more memory.

The best place to start is with those games.
Get rid of any games that you do not play regularly.
Or, get anotherdevice just for the purpose of those games.
A $60-$100 device only on Wi-Fi can be used for this.

Another great way to save space is to eliminate any app that mearly takes youto a website.
These websites can be accessed just fine with your browser, and that will take up no space on your device.
Facebook, Insatagram, Twitter, Amazon, etc.

Try this as well...

Settings
Storage
Internal shared storage
Other apps
(three dot menu, upper right)
Show System
(three dot menu again)
Sort by size

Now you have a list of all apps on your device, in size order.

Choose the biggest one, right on top.
Clear the cache.
Do this for each app in turn.

The cache is nothing of real value, you will lose nothing.
In fact, as you use an app, it will build up again.

Now do this...

Settings
Apps & notifications
See all apps
(three dot menu, upper right)
Show System

Disable and clear data for any apps that youcan access via a browser.

Youtube, stuff like that.

Now, of course there are going to be differences, and even some inconveniences.

So in order to remedy most of that, and to even add functionality yet still save space, allow me to go a bit further.

Let's use Youtube for an example.
First, the app works well, and the site is more difficult and awkward.
Ok, so the best thing is to use the site when you need to use your account, and a different app when you want to watch stuff.

NewPipe is my answer.
It even allows you to download, listen in the background, and now you can watch Youtube without ads.
Here's the real kick- NewPipe is only about ⅓ the size of the Youtube app!

See what I am getting at?

You didn't show specific apps, so I am giving you a typical fix solution.
Most folks are on social media, and watch Youtube.

We are all trained in the mentality of 'there's an app for that' and so our devices get full fast and then we have issues.

We forget that we all have browsers that can do the work of many apps.

Just bookmark your social sites onto the browser, and then ditch the apps.
For certain apps like Youtube, use another app that is smaller and gives more bang for the MB.

A great source for such replacement apps is F-Droid.

https://f-droid.org/

Here you can find NewPipe (Youtube), and many others.

 

[Garaera]

From what I see, your card is formatted as EXTERNAL storage rather than INTERNAL storage.

That is a good thing.

Ask me why later if you don't know.

The next thing I see is that about half of your device is filled with games.

Your internal memory is shared, that is between you and your device.

You have what you want on your device, but the device also is wanting whatever it needs and whatever junk may have come with it as well.

You really need to figure out what you NEED vs. what you WANT on the device.

Otherwise, you just need to buy a device with more memory.

The best place to start is with those games.
Get rid of any games that you do not play regularly.
Or, get anotherdevice just for the purpose of those games.
A $60-$100 device only on Wi-Fi can be used for this.

Another great way to save space is to eliminate any app that mearly takes youto a website.
These websites can be accessed just fine with your browser, and that will take up no space on your device.
Facebook, Insatagram, Twitter, Amazon, etc.

Try this as well...

Settings
Storage
Internal shared storage
Other apps
(three dot menu, upper right)
Show System
(three dot menu again)
Sort by size

Now you have a list of all apps on your device, in size order.

Choose the biggest one, right on top.
Clear the cache.
Do this for each app in turn.

The cache is nothing of real value, you will lose nothing.
In fact, as you use an app, it will build up again.

Now do this...

Settings
Apps & notifications
See all apps
(three dot menu, upper right)
Show System

Disable and clear data for any apps that youcan access via a browser.

Youtube, stuff like that.

Now, of course there are going to be differences, and even some inconveniences.

So in order to remedy most of that, and to even add functionality yet still save space, allow me to go a bit further.

Let's use Youtube for an example.
First, the app works well, and the site is more difficult and awkward.
Ok, so the best thing is to use the site when you need to use your account, and a different app when you want to watch stuff.

NewPipe is my answer.
It even allows you to download, listen in the background, and now you can watch Youtube without ads.
Here's the real kick- NewPipe is only about ⅓ the size of the Youtube app!

See what I am getting at?

You didn't show specific apps, so I am giving you a typical fix solution.
Most folks are on social media, and watch Youtube.

We are all trained in the mentality of 'there's an app for that' and so our devices get full fast and then we have issues.

We forget that we all have browsers that can do the work of many apps.

Just bookmark your social sites onto the browser, and then ditch the apps.
For certain apps like Youtube, use another app that is smaller and gives more bang for the MB.

A great source for such replacement apps is F-Droid.

https://f-droid.org/

Here you can find NewPipe (Youtube), and many others.

Sorry but it is formatted as internal storage and no matter what I delete from my internal storage I am not recovering anything. As I said in my main post, add up the data being used for each category they sort the data into it does not total what it says is being used.

this photo shows the SD card is formatted as internal, as it only gives the option to format into external.

ADD THE TOTAL.
0.21
0.08
11.00
0.21
6.3
+6.00
=23.8 GB

 

[puppykickr]

How much memory on the device itself?

32GB, right?

How much memory on the SD card?

64GB, right?

It appears that either the card is bunk, or not being read by the device as internal.

If it was being read as internal, at least on my device, the internal memory would show the 32GB and the 64MB added together.

I can't remember how the SD card memory was shown when I did it that way.

If I remember correctly, it showed that it was internal memory, and gave its total memory as taken.
It was not full, but it was shown as such.
Its level of use was properly represented as a total of the internal memory.

Because the memories were combined, there was no distinction between the two.

Only when saving media was there the option to save to the card or to the real internal memory.

From what I see in your pics, your car is about half full, and your phone is basically full.

Try this app to see if it helps you better see what is going on.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.kgurgul.cpuinfo/