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Insufficient Space On the Device. Samsung S4

T

TomBrooklyn

Newbie
Samsung Galaxy S4 (SGH-M919)
16GB

When trying to download apps, I am getting the dreaded Error message, "There is insufficient space on the device."

I am currently reading in Windows Explorer, with the phone connected to a PC, that there is 475MB free of 9.71GB.

I just deleted a lot of photos, recordings, and apps, and the 475MB free didn't change.

I have a Dumpster and I emptied it.

I installed a 64GB SD card and I moved about 100 photos, several hundred songs and a couple of audiobooks to the SD card and deleted them from the phone. That freed up, according to Windows Explorer, about 24MB. I think the real amount must have been more than that. I was able to add a few apps after that, but I am getting the error message again. The SD card has 53GB free.

I tried clearing the cache on many apps. That did nothing.

I have taken to deleting other apps that I rather not delete to see if I can free up some room. I deleted some of the largest apps I have; but that did not free up enough room to download Waze, the motor vehicle traffic app.

I'm wondering if I have to get rid of this phone and get a 32GB one.

Advise on how to correct this issue would be appreciated.
 
There are three memory types on the phone.

1. phone memory
2. internal memory
3. SD card memory

Apps are downloaded to the phone's memory.

Backup and uninstall apps which reside there in order to free up memory space.

Be careful not to uninstall system apps which may reside there.

- Dave
 
steiny180 said:
There are three memory types on the phone.

1. phone memory
2. internal memory
3. SD card memory

Apps are downloaded to the phone's memory.

Backup and uninstall apps which reside there in order to free up memory space.

Be careful not to uninstall system apps which may reside there.

- Dave
Click to expand...

Do you mean that as below?
1. phone memory = Device memory(device storage)
2. internal memory = RAM
3. SD card memory = SD card
 
Following is a link to a detailed explanation about the different memory types on Android, but the bottom line is that the available space on your SD-card is irrelevant. (It's like an external hard drive on a PC. It's good for storing files, like photos & song files, but it won't help with your "insufficient memory" problems.) Unless you're willing to root in order to effectively expand your internal memory (through a custom ROM/OS or an app like Link2SD) then you just need to remove some stuff from memory.

  • First, I'd recommend deleting as many text messages as possible-- especially ones containing photos, videos & audio.
  • Second, make sure that your email app isn't storing excessive amounts of data. Android should nicely manage IMAP-based emails services (like Gmail) so that older items in the Inbox, Sent mail, etc. are not stored on the device, and only the relatively current stuff is stored on the device, but I've seen Android devices fail to do that properly, and gobble up ever-increasing amounts of "data". If you have a POP email account then Android doesn't even try to nicely manage the email data. This can cause massive amounts of email data to accumulate on the phone-- especially in the "Sent mail" folder. If the email app is using excessive amounts of data, consider just going into "Settings//Applications/Manage Applications" and deleting the data. For IMAP accounts (like gmail) the appropriate amount of data will be cached back onto your device from the Gmail servers.
  • Third, make sure that none of your apps have screwed up and are hogging excessive "data". I've had that happen. In that case you can clear the data from "Manage Applications", but you'll lose any settings, etc.
  • Fourth, delete your least-used apps-- starting with the biggest data hogs.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4634774/android-memory-types-ram-v-internal-memory
 
You can also use an app like Disk Usage to get a visual representation of what's using your data. That can be a bit easier to work with than the Storage Usage display built in to the OS.
 
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