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Help "Low on space" phone/application storage notification

benomix said:
this problem finally temporarily bricked my phone at the end of last week. i had, not just one, but two simultaneous low application disk space icons in my notification bar. i tried to power cycle my phone. after that, it would not boot, it just kept cycling through the htc and verizon "droid" screens. i tried removing the battery to fix the problem since that usually solves problems like this; but that did not work. i had to do hard reset to get it working again.
Click to expand...

This is Exactly what happened to me.

I wonder if some of the many "random reboots" and "constant restart" threads are aware of this potentially being the problem. I haven't seen it mentioned in the nearly 1000 posts i've read on the topic.
 
RedDiamond said:
This is Exactly what happened to me.

I wonder if some of the many "random reboots" and "constant restart" threads are aware of this potentially being the problem. I haven't seen it mentioned in the nearly 1000 posts i've read on the topic.
Click to expand...

Another good reason to root your phone. When you root, you can make nandroid backups and restore your phone to an earlier state even if you get the constant boot cycling.
 
Hey guys,

I went searching and found this answer in another forum and it did the trick. Under settings > applications > manage applications > all > com.htc.socialnetwork.prov. if you clear data you should get rid of the annoying low on space error. When I looked at mine, the data on the app was at 10MB. I cleared it and haven't had the problem since.
 
Users need to recognize the Dinc has several types of memory. The "hard drive" like space is the roughly 7 gigs of RAM on the handset or external memory card. There is also RAM (768 megs) available to store programs/applications.

The "low memory" message relates to the working memory of the handset (i.e., your "RAM" in a computer) and its need to swap out to an external cache directory which in inaccessible to an unrooted user. So it doesn't have to do with a user having 2 or 22 gigabytes free on an SD card, or 5 gigabytes free on the phone's storage. It doesn't even have to do with how much of the phone's RAM itself is being used.

The phone's cache is contained generally in a folder \data\data which is partitioned to 150 megabytes (and, so far, I haven't seen anyone over on xda-developers successfully hack that limitation). When less than 15mb is free in that partition, the system returns an "low memory" message.

The myriads of reports on this thread (save for a couple which point to a similar explanation over on xda-developers forum) are examples of actions a user can take to clear the code which appear to be linked to applications in specific, but in general, all relate to code in that cache partition.

Google Earth and the HTC Mail application are frequently cited as causing the error as well, but I believe these stem from those applications' use of the cache partition.

For rooted users, there are a handful of apps which will attack the problem, including Root Explorer, Cache Cleaner and a new beta program Not Enough Space. But that doesn't mean that rooted users are immune to the message.

It's a problem endemic to HTC's approach to Android, and is not necessarily cured by alternative ROM's.
 
^^ right, its not one app that is really the cause. everything 'thinking' its a certain app is not really correct. its just the way it appears.

Although facebook with contact sync leading to 213514325 contacts is a problem for some and should be checked to see if that is the problem as part of diagnosing the issue
 
I cleared the app data for all HTC Peep, messege, internet, and a few others this morning and the warning I was getting, went away. This is after removing half my installed apps last night (which didn't help), despite being nowhere near limited on space for either SD or Internal memory. I had read numerous threads around the internet last-night, generally blaming HTC apps, and the one that finally fixed the problem was clearing Internet.
 
My wife had this problem on her Incredible for weeks. I moved every app possible to the SD card, removed Google Earth, and cleared her HTC apps data/cache, and that was the end of it. That was about 3 months ago and there have been no problems since.
 
I am being told that I have low disc space on both my phone and my SD Card. I have several Gigs available on both, in actuality, so what is causing my phone to tell me this annoying notification. I haven't downloaded any apps in the time since this started (about 3 weeks or so).
I have noticed, however, that my phone seems to be reacting slower than it was. flipping between home screens, pulling up Handcent, all slower. Internet browsing is still fast but the actual phone screens are suffering somehow.

... well crap...

Just now my phone told me that "com android something has stopped working unexpectedly" and force closed... like 20 times. now my phone is starting itself up over and over and over and over... saying DROID real freakin' loudly.


HAHAHA... WTF????
 
Hey, this is a nasty bug derived possibly from a couple of HTC Apps. In order to get rid of the error, go into manage applications and clear the cache of HTC Mail App, Friend Stream, People and Messaging. This might get rid of the error.

*Edit- the major app that caused the problem is HTC Mail. I usually clear data, cache and force close it and it gets rid of the low disk space. However sometimes it does comeback....

HTC doesn't really want to admit to the error and has not announced any fixes....

The only other option, which may be the only permanent option is to do a hard reset on the phone. Which sucks cause you have to kind of start all over. However this supposedly gets rid of the error.
 
Very common issue:
http://androidforums.com/incredible-support-troubleshooting/183963-application-data-space-low-space-notification.html
 
oh whoah. sorry. I didn't mean to bump an old thread nor to give an old topic a new thread. Sorry.

I hadn't even thought that it may be a known issue.


:- \

Thanks for the thread link.
It's moot now because my phone has turned into a zombie.

-K-
 
DoctorKaylah said:
oh whoah. sorry. I didn't mean to bump an old thread nor to give an old topic a new thread. Sorry.

I hadn't even thought that it may be a known issue.


:- \

Thanks for the thread link.
It's moot now because my phone has turned into a zombie.

-K-
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It's happened to me twice. Had to do a hard reset and reload everything. I no longer use the native HTC MAIL program whatsoever. I believe it is the culprit. I now use the K9 app for all my pop mail accounts. I haven't had it happen it quite a while since dumping HTC Mail.
 
After reading through this thread and seeing that everyone had their own cure-all, it's clear there's no one solution that fixes the problem. I installed 3 games last night and got the low space warning. I moved over a number of large apps to SD to no avail. I cleared some cache, both in-app and under the app manager...nothing. What ended up working for me was clearing data on Opera Mobile and two others (can't remember) which were hogging a good deal of space. Finally went away. I have a couple questions for those who know: I understand what the cache is, but was does clearing data do to these apps? What might I lose as a result? And where is this data/data directory? I'm using Astro file manager and can't find it. The only data directory I have is empty. Is it hidden?
 
Well after countless battles with this problem, I was going through all the apps in size order to view cache levels. When I got to HTC Sense, there was no cache files but the app size was the exact same as the data size, about 3MB. I use LauncherPro so i didn't hesitate to clear the data.

Bam!! Problem solved in an instance!! Once I cleared all app data from HTC Sense, the icon went bye-bye.

Just another fix to consider if nothing else is working for you.
 
kyler13 said:
After reading through this thread and seeing that everyone had their own cure-all, it's clear there's no one solution that fixes the problem. I installed 3 games last night and got the low space warning. I moved over a number of large apps to SD to no avail. I cleared some cache, both in-app and under the app manager...nothing. What ended up working for me was clearing data on Opera Mobile and two others (can't remember) which were hogging a good deal of space. Finally went away. I have a couple questions for those who know: I understand what the cache is, but was does clearing data do to these apps? What might I lose as a result? And where is this data/data directory? I'm using Astro file manager and can't find it. The only data directory I have is empty. Is it hidden?
Click to expand...
Clearing the data will restore those apps to the like new state when you first downloaded them. depending on the app this can be bad or no harm is done. angry birds would mean you lose all progress and have to start over. Foursquare this would just mean logging back into the app and setting up the few settings they have. So i would be cautious on what apps you do this too. No app should be take up a ton of room though, so if one app is using 30 MBs then something is problem wrong and clearing the data would be wise

jcarley0830 said:
Well after countless battles with this problem, I was going through all the apps in size order to view cache levels. When I got to HTC Sense, there was no cache files but the app size was the exact same as the data size, about 3MB. I use LauncherPro so i didn't hesitate to clear the data.

Bam!! Problem solved in an instance!! Once I cleared all app data from HTC Sense, the icon went bye-bye.

Just another fix to consider if nothing else is working for you.
Click to expand...
if you do this you will lose all homescreens and various other stored data and settings. i would only do this if you dont use sense. 3 mbs is reasonable for this app
 
howarmat said:
Clearing the data will restore those apps to the like new state when you first downloaded them. depending on the app this can be bad or no harm is done. angry birds would mean you lose all progress and have to start over. Foursquare this would just mean logging back into the app and setting up the few settings they have. So i would be cautious on what apps you do this too. No app should be take up a ton of room though, so if one app is using 30 MBs then something is problem wrong and clearing the data would be wise
Click to expand...
I received a text yesterday and noticed all my threads are gone. I don't recall what I did to Handcent in my shotgun-style attempt to clear the low space warning, but clearly I wiped out my texts. I'll definitely have to be mindful of what I'm clearing out in the future.
 
Just tried Cache Cleaner NG. It's a free root-only app. After running the app and leaving the app, the notification went away immediately. Also, all the apps that were updating and had skreached to a stop when the notification went up have now resumed.

Don't know how long this will last, but I can say that I've been dealing with this since August. I've done 2-3 hard-resets, removed a multitude of apps, cleared data from various apps, and tried just about every other trick I've read about.

Hgoldner's explanation above has to be the one seemed to most promising to me and my subsequent try at a Cache Cleaning app seems to have done the trick. I will admit, every time something has solved the problem in the past, I've felt like I've finally found the answer. HOWEVER, I was never too big a fan of Hard Reset being the answer. I much prefer the Cache Cleaning method.

I am going to do nothing else and see how long it is before I get the notification again. Then, I will clean it again and see if it rids me of the annoying notification. Then, I will set the Cache Cleaner on a schedule (an option) and see if after the same approximate time period I encounter the notification. I imagine this trial-and-error experiment might take a while to complete, but I'll do my best to update when I get more follow-up info.
 
every time i try installing this game i receive an error saying theres insufficient storage, i have plenty of space and pretty much nothing on the phone to begin with, anyone know a solution to this?

already past the refund point so dont bother telling me to do that ;)
 
@ dltberry: has the K-9 and Handcent been a permanent fix for the "low on space' message since your original post?

I have Handcent already but didn't care for K-9 interface when I installed it a few months ago (I uninstalled it shortly after downloading). However, I could live with K-9 if it means I'll no longer have to clear the caches and stored data on my my apps a few times a week.
 
Won't be a permanent fix. I've come to the conclusion that I will just have to deal with this with HTC and their partitioning system. Cache Cleaners help, but still not a permanent fix.
 
Are these any resolutions for the Low Disk Space Warning for the HTC Incredible? How is that I keep deleting Cache and uninstalling or deleting applications, but yet, the Low disk Space Warning keeps showing up.

Anyone have an answer for this?
 
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