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Help How to see what's taking up my storage?

A

arkim

Newbie
I recently purchased a 16gb microSD card for my SGS2.

I haven't transferred any songs or pictures to the card (I do have some on the phones memory though) yet, somehow, space is being used up on it. I do download games/apps regularly however as far as I know they are set to install onto the phone's memory.

Is there a good way to see what files are taking up space on the USBStorage, SD Card, and System storage?

Is there a good app that'll allow me to see what files are on what part of the phone, details etc? A computer app or a phone app is fine, if such exists.

I'd like to have full control over my storage as the Task Manager/My Files doesn't allow me to do much.

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Best is to connect using the USB and browse through the PC. Some part of apps can be saved to the external microSD card via move to SD. There are also a lot of file managers out there like Astro, ES explorer... you can try those.
 
I installed Astro Manager but it's not quite what I'm looking for. It'll show me what files are taking up the USB Storage space (the approx. 2.45GB), however how can I find out what's taking up the 16.47MB on the microSD card?

I've plugged the phone into my PC with USB debugging mode ON (to be able to see the microSD card), and there are no files showing, except the LOST.DIR directory which has no files in it. Very strange.

Also, what about the files under System Storage? How can I see which files take up that space?

I wish there was the feature to click on each section under the Storage tab, and that would show you the files under that directory so you can see what is taking up the respective amount of space. If there's such an app, that would be great.

Edit: So, I can see which files take up what part of the directory on the phone under USB Storage(via Astro File Manager) and the external MicroSD card (via USB Debugging ON and plugged into PC), however what about the files under System Storage? Is there a way to see those?

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arkim said:
what about the files under System Storage? Is there a way to see those?
Click to expand...

Not as a normal user, no. The /system partition is only accessible with root access but user-installed apps aren't installed there, only pre-installed ones.

Btw, you're reading it wrongly. The fact that the sdcard 'bar' is gray indicates that it's empty - the figures mean <used capacity>/<total capacity>. I'm not sure why it's indicating more "used" than is available in "total" but I suspect it's simply because it's a new card that as yet hasn't been written to.
 
Thanks.

I can see the .androidsecure and LOST.DIR folders under external_sd, however it says the directory is empty (for both folders), which is obviously not true. That's why I mentioned the PC method as it's the only way to view the files, unless there's another file manager that can.
 
If there is nothing currently on the microSD card, then maybe you can do this.

1) Connect the SD card to the PC via adapter.
2) Format and check the space available.
3) Connect to the phone. And see what happens to the space available. Android folders like Lost.Dir will be automatically created.

Before you do though, have a look through Settings/Manage Applications/OnSD and make sure none of the apps are ticked. If it is, move it back to phone since its indicative that the app is there in the Android_secure folder.

Cheers
 
arkim said:
I've plugged the phone into my PC with USB debugging mode ON (to be able to see the microSD card), and there are no files showing, except the LOST.DIR directory which has no files in it. Very strange.
Click to expand...

Not strange at all. That directory is automatically created by the OS and should normally be empty. :)

arkim said:
I can see the .androidsecure and LOST.DIR folders under external_sd, however it says the directory is empty (for both folders), which is obviously not true.
Click to expand...

Why? Didn't you say that you've not copied anything to the card yet? /.android_secure will only contain files if you have installed/moved apps to the card, and its contents are only visible when connected to a computer as a removable drive (the leading "." tells Android to hide folder contents).

One thing you don't mention is if you formatted the card in the phone after inserting it. If not I advise that you do before using it; although cards come pre-formatted it's always safer to do so with the intended device.
 
Slug said:
Not strange at all. That directory is automatically created by the OS and should normally be empty. :)



Why? Didn't you say that you've not copied anything to the card yet? /.android_secure will only contain files if you have installed/moved apps to the card, and its contents are only visible when connected to a computer as a removable drive (the leading "." tells Android to hide folder contents).

One thing you don't mention is if you formatted the card in the phone after inserting it. If not I advise that you do before using it; although cards come pre-formatted it's always safer to do so with the intended device.
Click to expand...


I have not copied anything to the external microSD card (hence it should be empty, yet there is 16.47MB worth of data on the card. When I try to view these files with ASTRO, it says the dir is empty, but obviously it's not). I have installed applications & games on the internal memory of the phone, but absolutely nothing on the external microSD card.

When I bought the SD card, the first thing I did was popped it into the phone and formatted the card. It shows the right amount of space available. As soon as I installed a few apps/games however, 16.47MB have been used up on the card, which is what is strange.

As I said before, I have not installed any apps/games/movies/music/pics onto the external microSD card. The 16.47MB are taken up by 3 files created by games that I've installed onto the phone's memory, if I recall correctly as I did the USB debugging-to-PC method and saw those files. The files are .ASEC files. I don't know if I can delete them as I still have the respective games installed. Again, I did not install them onto the microSD card. It seems as if the phone has decided to do place these .ASEC files onto the microSD as I didn't tamper with any of the installation settings.
 
With the microSD card in place, sometimes after downloading the files are saved into the microSD card directly. Don't ask me why. That's why you need to check at the "settings/manage applications/on SD" and check if any apps are ticked. If you don't want it in the microSD, you can moved it back to the phone and delete the files in the android_secure folder.

You can only view the files in PC. Even Astro will show it as empty even if it isn't.

Cheers
 
so to access the micro sd card contents, the USB debugging option should be ticked before connecting the phone to the PC??
what is this USB debugging.
thank you
 
arkim said:
The 16.47MB are taken up by 3 files created by games that I've installed onto the phone's memory, if I recall correctly as I did the USB debugging-to-PC method and saw those files. The files are .ASEC files. I don't know if I can delete them as I still have the respective games installed.
Click to expand...

Right, I'm following things better today and can recognise the difference between MB and GB. :o

As Russell says the games may have installed their own data files onto the SD card. They're coded to do that by the developer so that they work correctly with devices that don't have internal storage. Uninstalling the game(s) may remove it, but often it remains so that you don't lose progress/high scores etc when updating firmware or resetting the device. In that case you'd manually delete the files if not required.
 
1981 said:
so to access the micro sd card contents, the USB debugging option should be ticked before connecting the phone to the PC??
what is this USB debugging.
thank you
Click to expand...

I never had to use USB debugging. Just went to "settings/wireless & network/usb" and just connect via USB. Follow the instruction on the phone. And that's about it.

I think USB debugging is an attempt to connect straight via USB without going through a few steps along the way. Since it work in the normal method for me, I didn't bother with it.

Cheers
 
Thanks for the Settings>Applications>Manage Applications>On SD suggestion, whoever it was.

That's exactly what I was looking for. I scrolled through the list and just like I saw in the USB mode, the check marks were beside the same games I had mentioned previously.

I clicked on each one and selected the "Move to phone" option to move them to the phone's memory.

The space is back down to the default 96KB/16GB. :)

Thanks again.
 
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