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Managing internal storage and sdcard

JAy3001

JAy3001

Android Expert
I brought my wife a brand new phone that has 8gb internal storage, so I put a 32Gb sd card in it and thought that would be fine.

Alas not, now I only buy phones with massive internal storage so it's been a while since I have had any storage issues.

But it turns out most of the os and pre-installed apps take up that internal space. She has quickly ran out of space which leaves me trying to manage it!

Now it's 2014 and for the life if me I cannot figure out why android still cannot manage it's own resources, still there are limitations with sdcards.

At the moment it's not even worth her having an sdcard with the ammount I've managed to move to sdcard.

So am I missing a trick here or is android still crippled by it's storage issues?
 
JAy3001 said:
I brought my wife a brand new phone that has 8gb internal storage, so I put a 32Gb sd card in it and thought that would be fine.

Alas not, now I only buy phones with massive internal storage so it's been a while since I have had any storage issues.

But it turns out most of the os and pre-installed apps take up that internal space. She has quickly ran out of space which leaves me trying to manage it!

Now it's 2014 and for the life if me I cannot figure out why android still cannot manage it's own resources, still there are limitations with sdcards.

At the moment it's not even worth her having an sdcard with the ammount I've managed to move to sdcard.

So am I missing a trick here or is android still crippled by it's storage issues?
Click to expand...

Most decent devices are OK these days, as long as you've got enough internal storage for what you think you might need, like 16GB or 32GB. If a device only has 8GB and the system software is taking 5GB, do the math. Carriers may bundle a load of extra stuff on their subsidised phones, bloat, which takes up space as well of course. 8GB internal storage is definitely within the budget device category these days. Many apps can store their associated data on external SD, like offline GPS sat-nav apps.

There are some bad exceptions though. The Oppo Find 7, it has 32GB internal, only 2.9GB free for installing apps, because of the way the internal storage is organised and partitioned. And fact the manufacturer is aware of it and does offer a fix. There's also a third-party community solution as well.
 
Indeed, my wife wanted a half decent budget phone. (Desire 610) She loves the phone, but sadly I forgot about the storage issues with android or thought they may have sorted something by now.
 
With Android, the internal storage is for installing apps and games, and removable external SD is for data, photos, MP3s, movies, etc. But some manufacturers do only provide maybe 8GB. I came across one device that only had 120MB free internal, but that was a counterfeit Samsung.
 
But this is something that is not advertised.

Hardware manufacturers/Carriers simply adversise that the internal space is expandable via an sd card to "x" ammount, when indeed it is limited no matter the size of the sd card.
 
Carrier Bloatware, especially when disabled or uninstalled, uses a lot less storage that what some people allow apps to rack up on their devices in the form of caches.

I was just looking at my friend's S4. It has 889MB of Cache on it. That's more space than I'm actually using for Play Store App installs on my Note 3.

Set Everything that You Can to save to the SD Card (Browser, Camera, Apps that allow it, etc.).

Don't install apps that you don't use regularly.

Uninstall and/or disable apps that you don't use regularly, even preloads, regardless of who developed it. If you don't use Play Movies and TV and Play Newsstand then Uninstall Updates and Disable them. Some of the Google Apps are very good for racking up huge caches. Play Newsstand, Drive, Play Music, Google+ and others can rack up up to a Gig or more in cache with heavy use.

You want to make sure you both clear cache in Settings -> Storage and Clear Data on some of these apps now and then because for some of them that is the only way you can get them to yield back the storage they're using (as it gets classified as App Data and not part of their Data Cache).

8GB aren't so bad if you put in a "little more work" to manage the storage. 16GB and especially 32/64GB can allow you to largely ignore those issues, especially if you put your personal data exclusively on the SD Card.
 
So what... nobody resolved this? There must be some better way for these phones to manage their space. Is there an app to use to help it? Did anyone go to the vendor store to ask?
 
jgwnyc said:
So what... nobody resolved this?
Click to expand...

The solution is in the responses; if you need capacity for lots of apps, you need lots of internal storage. Media (video, music, photos) and user data (files, downloads) go on external storage.

As for apps, if you're prepared to root the device there are several proven software solutions available e.g Apps2SD.
 
Some people argue that internal space is not that important anymore due to cloud storage/sync and streaming.

This is great when at home or in town/city and you have a good data usage contract. But the moment you loose connection or you exceed your data allowance you have nothing on your phone!

So the solution is big internal storage! :-)
 
I am avingstmy interat least 0mmbQUOTE="jgwnyc, post: 6829202, member: 1780436"]So what... nobody resolved this? There must be some better way for these phones to manage their space. Is there an app to use to help it? Did anyone go to the vendor store to ask?[/QUOTE]
JAy3001 said:
Some people argue that internal space is not that important anymore due to cloud storage/sync and streaming.

This is great when at home or in town/city and you have a good data usage contract. But the moment you loose connection or you exceed your data allowance you have nothing on your phone!

So the solution is big internal storage! :)
Click to expand...
JAy3001 said:
Some people argue that internal space is not that important anymore due to cloud storage/sync and streaming.

This is great when at home or in town/city and you have a good data usage contract. But the moment you loose connection or you exceed your data allowance you have nothing on your phone!

So the solution is big internal storage! :)
Click to expand...
It is ideal to have at least 125_150mb free international storage. What most don't realize is that when you use android most of your Ram it affected your data connection. I use CM cleaner and it's smaller cache cleaner app complex with Solo Launches wide cleaner to Max out junk data while over taking my IS. The problem is on boot up I have to run all three to keep the phone from freezing.


I do have a 16gig sdcard but I am saving that for a Linux based Red.
 
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