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Help "Low on space" phone/application storage notification

After trying everything short of rooting my phone, I ended up deleting the "Google Earth" app from my Droid Incredible and FINALLY the problem went away!! I no longer get the error message about low space nor do I get messages of not enough memory to process my text messages and no longer have to delete text messages in order to receive new ones. The phone is acting like when I first bought it! I am very happy with my phone now! No wonder HTC couldn't figure out the problem, it was with "Google Earth" not the Android!
 
After trying everything short of rooting my phone, I ended up deleting the "Google Earth" app from my Droid Incredible and FINALLY the problem went away!! I no longer get the error message about low space nor do I get messages of not enough memory to process my text messages and no longer have to delete text messages in order to receive new ones. The phone is acting like when I first bought it! I am very happy with my phone now! No wonder HTC couldn't figure out the problem, it was with "Google Earth" not the Android!

it really can't be pinned on one single app, but google earth is one of the main culprits. Basically ANY app that stores a large amount of data in the /data/data partition will exacerbate the message. The phone only has 150mb to work with and that is solely HTC's fault (shortsightedness).
 
it really can't be pinned on one single app, but google earth is one of the main culprits. Basically ANY app that stores a large amount of data in the /data/data partition will exacerbate the message. The phone only has 150mb to work with and that is solely HTC's fault (shortsightedness).

If i root, will it fix this problem? Or do i need to install a ROM after i root to fix this problem?
 
If i root, will it fix this problem? Or do i need to install a ROM after i root to fix this problem?


The short answer is no, it won't fix it. But rooting gives you more options to deal with the problem easier (not enough space, ng cache cleaner etc).
 
it really can't be pinned on one single app, but google earth is one of the main culprits. Basically ANY app that stores a large amount of data in the /data/data partition will exacerbate the message. The phone only has 150mb to work with and that is solely HTC's fault (shortsightedness).

My problem lately is i have a ton of apps taking up just a little space. I keep uninstalling flash player updates to get rid of it cause i dont wanna uninstall crap.

What is weird though is that (so far) when it is showing 'low on space' i can still update apps, send/receive texts, etc... guessing i just haven't let it get too far
 
After trying everything short of rooting my phone, I ended up deleting the "Google Earth" app from my Droid Incredible and FINALLY the problem went away!! I no longer get the error message about low space nor do I get messages of not enough memory to process my text messages and no longer have to delete text messages in order to receive new ones. The phone is acting like when I first bought it! I am very happy with my phone now! No wonder HTC couldn't figure out the problem, it was with "Google Earth" not the Android!

I'm GLAD you got the problem fixed. I hope it holds out for you - the incredible is indeed incredible except for this software design problem.

I checked Google Earth and mine is very small. But before I rooted the incredible and moved it to the NotEnoughSpace partition I recall it as large.

The big size might be 'cache data', which can be cleaned out with the cache cleaner programs. I don't know, but it shows up small now.

My killer was the contacts database file which was at 50MB. (Have to be root to see it). So I killed it, restored my backups from a backup file, and all is well now.

I have about 230 apps with plenty of room left. I do avoid installing Firefox because it eats up a LOT of room.

There is also a call/dialer program (built in app) that creates a big file that kills the Droid. I moved it to eliminate the problem. Don't recall its name- I basically removed it.

Enjoy the Incredible.
Bo
 
My killer was the contacts database file which was at 50MB. (Have to be root to see it). So I killed it, restored my backups from a backup file, and all is well now

Even if you need root to see it can i still clear out contacts data and clear out all the space?
 
That may or may not be true. However, let me ask you this, does HTC have a process for reporting bugs?

No, it is not an android bug. Please read the massive thread stickied to the top of the support subsection for an explanation of the bug, but long story short it's because HTC didn't allocate enough space for the /data/data partition (and I also suspect that HTC's stock apps are larger data hogs than the equivalint stock apps).

And of course HTC has a process for reporting bugs...you email/call their Customer/technical support and report the bug.
 
I apologize if this had been discussed but I did not see this posted anywhere.

Two developers at XDA have come up with an MOD that can be flashed in Clockwork Recovery 5.02. The details can be found at the link but the MOD tricks you phone into no longer using the 150mb data partition which is the cause of the out of space problem. Instead the information is stored in a subfolder in the 750mb data partition and your phone does not know the difference. If you change to a new ROM, you have to re-run the MOD. Please read the directions and look through the thread before running it.

I flashed it on my phone and my wife's phone on Monday and it works great. Our low of space issues are now gone. Since flashing the MOD, it does take a bit longer to finish the initial startup sync after turning on the phone but afterwards our phones both run faster than ever and more importantly....no more out of space problem. :D

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1315372

There are two options, I used the Mod #2, I cannot speak to #3 although I assume it works as well.
 
No, it is not an android bug. Please read the massive thread stickied to the top of the support subsection for an explanation of the bug, but long story short it's because HTC didn't allocate enough space for the /data/data partition (and I also suspect that HTC's stock apps are larger data hogs than the equivalint stock apps).

And of course HTC has a process for reporting bugs...you email/call their Customer/technical support and report the bug.

Has HTC confirmed the bug and are they working on a fix?
 
It's not really a bug, they made the partition that small on purpose (stupidly). The fix is getting a different model phone or rooting and using workarounds.

A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways.

I would have to disagree with you there.
 
So I have gotten this warning a few times and have been able/ willing to clear some apps out and make the warning "go away". I have moved what I can to the SD card and cleared cache's where I could. My biggest offender in this is now my dialer storage. I have read through this whole thread so I am familiar with the /data/data storage issue and all that. I am not rooted and don't plan on it. I was wondering if there is any way to clear the dialer storage. I ran a back-up on my SMS messages and then deleted all those and the dialer storage didn't budge. I even restarted to see if that would change anything. No such luck. Before GB I was able to clear the data in dialer storage and then restore my SMS texts and all was good. Now that GB has been loaded there is no option to clear the dialer storage from the phone. Does anyone know how/ if I could do this now? Is there a "back way" to go in and do this? I haven't tried docking the phone with my computer yet but I guess I could try to see if that does anything. Phone is currently working fine but I want to clear the dialer storage to avoid any future problems. Thanks all!!
 
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways.

I would have to disagree with you there.

my point was that HTC doesn't consider it a bug. They intended for the partition to be that size and have no intention to "fix" it. The problem for users has existed through 3 or 4 OTA updates without an attempt.
 
my point was that HTC doesn't consider it a bug. They intended for the partition to be that size and have no intention to "fix" it. The problem for users has existed through 3 or 4 OTA updates without an attempt.

Not to mention I can think of NO way that HTC can mess with our phones partitions via OTA. Couple that with the fact that our phones are EOL and that equals SOL... unfortunately... I feel ya though. Been getting this issue more and more lately
 
Good luck with the problem. I've been following these threads for 10 months since I got my Incredible. To my knowledge the only solution is via the rooting method.

Since that program is built-in and can't be deleted, I simply moved it to the SD card, completely (while rooted). This eliminated it, but if/when I upgrade or need warranty work I have to move it back where it was. I think this disables automatic upgrades, so I'm still with the original system, doing fine.

Other memory problems creep up to eat up /data/data'. Be prepared.
However my main problem was a bug that made my contacts data file to grow to 50MB. Nothing fixed it, so I deleted it and reloaded my contacts. The file is less than 1MB now. So I'm now running over 200 apps and 1/2 my /data/data is available.

Rooting provides several good functions, but is pretty complicated to do (for normal folks), and sometimes presents big problems.

I just upgraded my SD card to class 10 to speed things up. But I had to install a SD speedup program (rooted) and got a great speedup.

Good luck with your Incredible - it is that when /data/data isn't full. :)

Bo
 
I don't know, but it may be worth a try if you are willing to re-enter your contacts. I had a backup (mybackuppro) and they came back OK.

I have a program that saves your phone contacts into a form readable by Google. Then you import them into Google, delete all phone contacts and let Google sync it up. I'm going to try it soon. Don't want to re-type all that stuff!

Good luck, Bo
 
I really don't like syncing with google contacts, and have just learned to deal with it. However, if I follow your (and other poster's) suggestion to delete and reload my contacts file, can I do it from my backup assistant only, and not pull in the google list, yet still be able to read my gmail?

thank you in advance for your help.

yes, just sign into your google account first from a PC and make sure there is no contacts listed.... But if there is contacts there, I'd make a backup of them before deleting them, just in case some of the contacts on your phone are being synced to google.
 
I don't know, but it may be worth a try if you are willing to re-enter your contacts. I had a backup (mybackuppro) and they came back OK.

I have a program that saves your phone contacts into a form readable by Google. Then you import them into Google, delete all phone contacts and let Google sync it up. I'm going to try it soon. Don't want to re-type all that stuff!

Good luck, Bo
Curious why you dont just use google to back them up?
I really don't like syncing with google contacts, and have just learned to deal with it. However, if I follow your (and other poster's) suggestion to delete and reload my contacts file, can I do it from my backup assistant only, and not pull in the google list, yet still be able to read my gmail?

thank you in advance for your help.

You can turn off contact syncing completely, it is listed separate from gmail under accounts&sync
 
Okay I've done a search and I'm not finding a similar thread but if one does exist please let me know so I don't repeat.

I have an Incredible and I keep getting Low on Space error and it is causing my gmail to not sync. The problem is I have plenty of space. Here's my stats:

SD Card
Total Space 7.39GB
Available Space 6.63GB

Internal Memory
Total Space 6.46GB
Available Space 6.35

Phone Memory
Total 748MB
Avail 571MB

I have also emptied my cache but there was only 1.5mb in there anyway.

I got this information by going to >settings>SD & Phone Storage.

Please tell me there's something to do besides a factory reset? Thank you!
 
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