Phone storage?

[mills23]

Why is it that my phone says it has 21mgb left but won't let me install any more apps? What am I missing here?

 

[johnlgalt]

Where does it say you have 2 1MB left?

 

[mills23]

In the settings menu.

 

[johnlgalt]

more specific - where? Are you looking at Phone storage or RAM?

 

[ratman6161]

Why is it that my phone says it has 21mgb left but won't let me install any more apps? What am I missing here?

It makes a difference weather the available space is in the built in memory or on the SD card. With Android 2.2 it became possible to install applications on the SD card but the app itself has to support that. Also, you generally have to install it in the onboard memory first and then move it to the SD card. Also, it is possible that the app you are trying to install is greater than 21 MB. Most apps are a lot smaller than that but some can be biggger. For example my phone shows the Barnes and Noble Nook app as taking up 19.07 MB.

 

[mills23]

It says phone storage.

 

[Darth Enzo]

I get a similar message anytime the available storage dips below 25MB. Apps won't install, text messages bounce, essentially anything that requires even temporary location of a file (no matter how small) in the phone's onboard storage.

 

[mills23]

Same here, but why?

 

[takeshi]

Why is it that my phone says it has 21mgb left but won't let me install any more apps? What am I missing here?

You can't completely fill internal storage. Some space is reserved as your apps need space to function. Internal storage isn't just for apps but for data and cache as well.

You can remove some apps, cleanup your data and/or move apps to SD to free up some internal storage.

 

[The_Chief]

Yeah, I start getting nervous if my internal storage drops below 30MB and freak out at 20MB. I uninstalled apps I don't use (or you could move them to the SD card) and I keep my caches clean.

 

[johnlgalt]

Internal storage is also used by things like:

• SMS storage
• Call log
• App cache(s)

So, if those are full, you'll find you're out of space.

However, I have had as little as 14 MB on my phone free and still been able to install apps. That might be because I am rooted, so....I'll look into it.

 

[mills23]

Is there a way to clear app cache without going thru every one of them?

 

[johnlgalt]

If you're rooted it's easy enough, using a variety of apps, including CacheMate for Root Users | AndroidApplications.com or the free version of that app, but Quick App Manager | AndroidApplications.com allows you to do it without root (according to its description). There are other apps as well, including one that I see allows rooted users to move their Cache to the SDCard, saving phone memory.

 

[mills23]

I was moving some apps to my SD card but when I do that then I can't update most of them.

 

[johnlgalt]

Every now and again updating apps is a PITA, and you just have to keep retrying. What I've found is that if there are more than 3 apps to update do not use the update all button. Also, certain apps just won't update correctly for whatever reason (I suspect it's because the app is 'active' in terms of its service running, and the update process has a hard tme closing the service down in order to update the app).

Notorious for me are the apps CraigsList Notifica and Skype - both of which, coincidentally (or not) have services that run all the time.