SAMSUNG S3 - GT-19300 STORAGE

[dfsolu]

This phone is rooted and on cm-11-20160115-SNAPSHOT-XNH0E0O00N-i9300.

For some time now I've been having difficulty installing and upgrading apps because of low storage space despite EM File explorer reporting only7.89/25.57 and SD card 3.99/29.27 or a total of 22% being used. Windows reports slightly different figures. My research tells me that Android does not use memory efficiently, and that I can't write apps to my SD card because I am on 4.4.4.
I've done most things that I have been recommended on various forums, including clearing cache and deleting "dead data folders" ( the latter had the most effect) I've also removed most less frequently used apps and media files.

QUESTION
-Can it be correct that I have this problem when only 22% of total storage and 31% of internal storage has been used?
-Can someone recommend any other solution to this problem?
-Would cm-13...... solve this issue or aggravate it?

I am wondering if it will have any benefit to change the OS backwards to 4.1 again. It is also noted that some suggest a fix by changing system files which I am not keen to do, but am willing to undertake as a last resort.

This phone is still adequate for my purpose and I am loathe to spend the money replace it at this point.

Thanks for your kind assistance.

 

[El Presidente]

Can you see if you can install this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.storagetruth

It's only a few hundred KB so it should be ok.

Paste or screenshot the output if you can.

That will give us an accurate overview of what size the various partitions on your phone are.

Once we know that, we can take things from there.

 

[dfsolu]

Can you see if you can install this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.storagetruth

It's only a few hundred KB so it should be ok.

Paste or screenshot the output if you can.

That will give us an accurate overview of what size the various partitions on your phone are.

Once we know that, we can take things from there.

Thanks for your response.
Have already done this, on file:-

 

[El Presidente]

I don't see anything there that could cause problems and from your initial post, it sounds as though you've done everything I would normally suggest.

What size apps are you trying to install? Big games etc, or smaller stuff?

You could try updating to CM13, Marshmallow has an option to use the SD Card as internal memory (at least CM13 does on my handset) so you'll have ample space to install stuff.

The only downside to that is you'll lose all content currently on the card so you'll need to back it up before hand.

 

[dfsolu]

Some more info for the record. I had problems updating or re installing BBC news 21.2 M; Google Chrome 47.2M; First Aid v2.2 47.9M; Uber 25.0M (this was about 40M at the time) My observations were that the problems occurred with the bigger apps.

I currently have uninstalled about 5 apps which Ill try to re install at some point.

In some cases I deleted apps and tried re installing with limited succes.
I then installed "SystemCleanup" and found that by deleting "Dead Data folders" it allowed me to install/update all the above apps after one ore two attempts.

I understand that CM13 does provide for apps to run on S.D Card, but I don't see a stable version of that for my phone as yet and am concerned that Ill move in to an area of more issues.

I have nothing of importance on my SD card and have backed it up to my PC and or Titanium, but my gut-feel is to leave it alone until I start hearing of stable releases that run on my phone.
As far as I know, there is no official upgrade to Android 4+ for this phone and If I remember correctly, memory issues were cited as the reason. That is also why I was considering changing the OS backwards.

Thanks again, if anyone else has any ideas or comments I'd like to hear them.

I will eventually post a final conclusion.