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Help Storage Issues?

troy_cummings

troy_cummings

Newbie
So I recently came from the VM Supreme, which was an awful mess, and got this phone for Christmas. I love it with all my heart, but there is one thing that annoys me. I was looking at the storage setting in the settings app, and it said there were about 3 gbs of "unknown" on my internal SD card. After inspecting my phone via a file manager, I noticed why. There are three different areas for /storage, "/storage/emulated," "storage/ext_sd," and "storage/sdcard0". I understand what "storage/ext_sd" is (my external SD card). I understand what "storage/sdcard0" is (my phone's internal memory). What is "/storage/emulated"? And why do the two files inside of it ("/storage/emulated/legacy" and /storage/emulated/0") contain the same exact files from "/storage/sdcard0"? Because of this, I have 3 copies of every single file, unless the file is on my external sd card. And when I delete a file from one of the 3 linked folders ("/storage/emulated/legacy" "/storage/emulated/0" and /storage/sdcard0") it deletes that file from the other ones? Sorry if this doesn't make any sense, but I can tell these 3 folders are taking up all my data. Help?? By the way, at the very top of each picture, it says what folder it is.
 

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The emulated folder is a result of multi user profiles that was introduced in 4,2. What you are seeing are just symbolic links or symlinks. They don't actually take up any extra space. They're like shortcuts in windows. It seems like it's taking space because the file manager sees the link and automatically reads what its linked to. so if you check the properties for the emulated folder it's actually showing the size as double the sdcard0 because it's actually reading sdcard0 twice. Once in emulated/0 and again in emulated/legacy.

Its confusing but deleting from one of these folders will actually delete from sdcard0 so DO NOT do it.
Again... It is not using extra space.
 
sirrx7 said:
The emulated folder is a result of multi user profiles that was introduced in 4,2. What you are seeing are just symbolic links or symlinks. They don't actually take up any extra space. They're like shortcuts in windows. It seems like it's taking space because the file manager sees the link and automatically reads what its linked to. so if you check the properties for the emulated folder it's actually showing the size as double the sdcard0 because it's actually reading sdcard0 twice. Once in emulated/0 and again in emulated/legacy.

Its confusing but deleting from one of these folders will actually delete from sdcard0 so DO NOT do it.
Again... It is not using extra space.
Click to expand...
Oh, I guess that makes sense on why there were multiple. The only reason I thought it was taking up more space is because the storage setting says that almost 4 gigabytes are being taken up by "other" (see picture).
 

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Remember, the phone comes with 8 GB but almost half of it is used up with the OS and everything else that comes installed from the factory. Also, cache files, game data, app data are also considered as "other". As a matter of fact, anything that isn't specified in the storage settings list is considered as "other".
 
sirrx7 said:
Remember, the phone comes with 8 GB but almost half of it is used up with the OS and everything else that comes installed from the factory. Also, cache files, game data, app data are also considered as "other". As a matter of fact, anything that isn't specified in the storage settings list is considered as "other".
Click to expand...
Oh well, as long as my phone still works, then I can live with this. thank you so much!!!
 
Not a problem. If you find yourself getting insufficient storage errors or if you just don't like putting everything onto internal storage keep in mind that this phone is very easy to root and "fix" so that most of your apps can be moved and/or linked to the external storage.
 
sirrx7 said:
Not a problem. If you find yourself getting insufficient storage errors or if you just don't like putting everything onto internal storage keep in mind that this phone is very easy to root and "fix" so that most of your apps can be moved and/or linked to the external storage.
Click to expand...
I was thinking about rooting this, but I thought about how I came from a rooted virgin mobile supreme, and how I caused more problems than I fixed by rooting it... But I'm still debating whether or not to root it
 
I hear ya. Rooting has it's benefits and drawbacks. Most issues people have are from running custom Roms. If you root and stay stock everything SHOULD run like normal.
Of course any time you root you do run the risk of doing harm to your phone so you're right to be cautious about it. Not everyone needs to be rooted and for some, the risks outweigh all of the benefits.
Personally for me, the benefits of being rooted dwarves any risks.
 
sirrx7 said:
I hear ya. Rooting has it's benefits and drawbacks. Most issues people have are from running custom Roms. If you root and stay stock everything SHOULD run like normal.
Of course any time you root you do run the risk of doing harm to your phone so you're right to be cautious about it. Not everyone needs to be rooted and for some, the risks outweigh all of the benefits.
Personally for me, the benefits of being rooted dwarves any risks.
Click to expand...
Well, I suppose I could root it, as long as there is some support. Like, does CWM recovery work on this? Is there an image I can flash if something goes wrong? I just dont want to risk breaking this phone too
 
Yes cwm works just fine. We have the latest ruu from HTC if something goes wrong. Unfortunately there isnt much info here and most of the 816 activity is on the XDA forum.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2775801
Step by step instructions onunlocking the boot loader and rooting.

BTW I don' t want to come off like I'm trying to pressure you into rooting. Like I said it really isn't needed to enjoy the phone as is and definitely carries some risks.
 
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sirrx7 said:
Yes cwm works just fine. We have the latest ruu from HTC if something goes wrong. Unfortunately there isnt much info here and most of the 816 activity is on the XDA forum.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2775801
Step by step instructions onunlocking the boot loader and rooting.

BTW I don' t want to come off like I'm trying to pressure you into rooting. Like I said it really isn't needed to enjoy the phone as is and definitely carries some risks.
Click to expand...
Oh okay:) and I understand, and rooting is nice, I know that from experience, but it's jut dangerous. I might actually do it. Is there anything I should be careful of?
 
As long as you read through the instructions and don't rush through and risk missing something you should have no problems. When you have cwm installed make sure you make a nandroid. There is a VM stock nandroid available but its just good practice to have your own nandroid should you ever need to save yourself from a mistake.
 
sirrx7 said:
As long as you read through the instructions and don't rush through and risk missing something you should have no problems. When you have cwm installed make sure you make a nandroid. There is a VM stock nandroid available but its just good practice to have your own nandroid should you ever need to save yourself from a mistake.
Click to expand...
Wait, do I need to flash CWM?
 
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