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System files on Nokia 6 (2018) after Oreo update (8.1) take up 12G... is that normal?

Hi,I bought a Nokia 6 (2018) today and was asked to update to Oreo 8.1. After the update, I now notice in Storage that the system files take up 12G of space. On my trusted Nexus 5X (which I could also update to 8.1), the system files only take up 6G. I think that's rather strange but what do I know. Anyone out here that can shine a light on this? Thanks.
 
The Nokia 6 (2018) supports the A/B partition scheme for "seamless updates". This basically means it has 2 sets of system partitions, so it's to be expected that the total size will be larger.

For what it's worth, I can think of some manufacturers who manage to take up that much space even without the A/B scheme - possibly why none of their phones are using it so far ;).
 
Thanks for your reply, Hadron. Any ideas on how to reduce this 12gb size? A 12gb File system on a 32gb phone hardly seems like the way forward for Android on Nokia.
 
I really doubt that you can. It will be dominated by the sizes of the partitions (there may be a few system files in other places, but it will treat the entire partitions as "used" space, which is fair as you can't access that space). Resizing the partitions would be a specialised and risky modification, going much deeper than just rooting the phone, and with a fair chance of breaking the device, either immediately or when it tries to install an update. Maybe it would be possible for an advanced modder to remove one set, provided you never wanted to update the software again (not even a security patch), but I doubt that anyone has even tried.

You would need root even to see how much free space there is in those partitions (which would be the maximum you could possibly gain by resizing). All I can say is that my Pixel 2, which also has A/B partitions, is using 9.4GB for system storage, which isn't much smaller.
 
Yep, you have to live with it, but it's nice to know you have a mirrored backup of you entire system at all times.
 
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