Tablet Rooting?

[Dave3d]

Hello everyone.
I have an issue with my Samsung Tab Pro 10.1 tablet (16GB version, 2GB memory, Android 4.4.2). Ever since google play updated about 3 months ago with the ability to install uninstall and place files anywhere it wants, my os has grown from 8-9GB to 15GB out of 16GB available.
I cant stop things from updating, and I dont know how to get rid of all the things taking up that space (my games are only about 3GB, and are split between the os and the external drive).

So, I want to know a few things.
1. CAN I get back any of the os drive? I saw a popup that said I had 400MB left of 16GB, and I click the 'Clear up space', but it only had my games on there. I did uninstall a lot of games I hadnt played in a long while, but that only freed up 600MB. So, since that google play update, the os has re-installed all the things I had disabled, like Hancom office suite, a lot of the samsung stuff, and a whole slewe of anything I had disabled it updated to the latest and turned them on. I have since turned them off again, but I cant uninstall the updates because every reboot makes google play re-install everything. Is there some area that has the cache files I can get rid of without having to do a factory reset, to gain back that 6GB that was lost after that dumb google update?

2. If I cant get everything stopped and my space back, how do I root my tablet? Is there anywhere that teaches you how to do it? I cant find anywhere that shows how to do it, but everyone talks about it like its not a big thing? I just want to know how to do it, so I can get my space back and turn stuff off competely I dont need at all.

3. I have 1 game that isnt backed up anymore. They stopped supporting backups. Its CSR Classics. How can I back this up so I have my game still if I do do a reset or a root? This is the only game that I need to backup, nothing else.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Dave3d]

So, again, nothing.
Can NOBODY talk about this?
Everyone seems to have a rooted phone or tablet, but nobody can say how to do it?
Is it against the rules or something?


My tablet now has 50MB remaining.
In another week it will be useless.

 

[mikedt]

So, again, nothing.
Can NOBODY talk about this?
Everyone seems to have a rooted phone or tablet, but nobody can say how to do it?
Is it against the rules or something?


My tablet now has 50MB remaining.
In another week it will be useless.

I'm sure it all depends on the make and model of the particular phone or tablet you've got there, if it's actually possible to root it or not. Some devices do and some don't.

 

[Jfalls63]

Have you disabled Auto Update Apps in settings for your Play Store account?
Have you Cleared Cash, Data and disabled all the pre-installed apps on your tablet that you don't use?

 

[Dave3d]

Rooting:
This isnt a phone, its a tabley only.
Its a Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 tablet.
The number is: SM-T520

Cache:
And yes, I have made everything only able to update if I manually update, which means I press the Install button when I go to the app store.
I have disabled everything I can (not a lot, but a lot more than my S8 can), and when I disabled them I did the clear cache and clear data before disabling them.
Thats the only things I know how to do.
Is there some app that can show what I can clean and what I cant? I tried that maid pro app, but it only cleans what is in memory, or uninstalls apps it can see (I dont know how my petty 3gb of apps on here can bloat up to 16gb, but there HAS to be something hidden that is taking up all this space).
Here is what I have in apps (oh, and the os is 4.2.2):
3d bowling - 14.6mb
alarm clock extreme - 36mb
allsharecast dongle s/w update (I cant turn this off, which is one of the things why I want to root it)
Amazon kindle 158mb (I do read on this, so have lots of books, but they arent novels, just reg book) - 158mb
carmageddon - 119mb (if I uninstall this I cant get it back as it was a pre-order bonus for the computer game, and the download link doesnt work anymore, since that was years ago)
Chrome - 134mb (I use this a lot)
criminal case - 503mb
csr classics - 875mb (I cant uninstall this as they no longer support the game, so I wont get all my cars back and gold and everything. I would have to restart from the begining). Also why I asked how to back up the save file for this game, so if I root the device I can still have my game back.
dragonsoul - 417
Galaxy Apps - 116mb (I cant turn this off, or stuff stops working)
gmail - 70mb (preinstall, cant turn it off, its my mail anyway when I am bed bound)
google 182mb
google play games - 21mb (this is what updated and started installing all my stuff I had turned off on every reboot, which is why I want to root, so I control it, not it controlling my tablet)
google play movies - 34mb (if I disable this some things dont work)
google play music - 37mb (if I disable this I cant hear in some games, and it gets auto updated anyway on reboot)
google play services - 164mb (maybe this is the one that updates everything on reboot?)
google play store - 42mb
google+ - 45mb (I cant turn this off it wont let me and reinstalls on reboot)
humble bundle - 4mb
huggge casino - 75mb
knights and dragons - 770mb (yeah, this one is bad. It wont go to external disk like my other games do, so the whole 770 is on the os)
lookout antivirus (comes with the device) - 34mb
maps 145mb (why did it get so big? it used to be like 12mb, sheesh)
mx player pro 26mb
nova launcher - 17mb (I love this app. I can see why EVERYONE is using it on the new phones for free, pro version)
wav player - 3mb
Portal quest - 186mb (I play every day)
ppsspp gold - 14mb
rocket player - 14mb (best music player out there as far as I am concerned)
S note - 66mb (gets reinstalled every boot)
samsung inapp purchases - 1.18mb
samsung push service (wont get any notifications without this)
samsung billing - 18mb (gets reinstalled every boot)
Save the world - 277mb
sidesync - 17mb (gets reinstalled every boot)
slots - 91mb
slots - 351mb
solitaire - 15mb
sudoku - 2mb

And, almost EVERYTHING is sent to my 124GB external memory card. I know not everything goes there, it splits it between the os and the card, or has a tiny bit on the os and almost everything on the external card). So, 5gb of data shown here, almost all of which is on the external card, so maybe 2GB of that 5GB is on the OS. And the os has 16GB of disk memory, 2GB memory memory). With nothing but the os running, it takes 1.4GB. As soon as I run a game, it goes to 1.7 or 1.8GB memory used. I have the Dev Options on, so I can make it use less graphics otherwise it cant even run 1 game on its own, I have to run 1 game, clear all memory, run the next game, clear memory, etc etc etc. So, yeah, rooting will fix having to have all of those samsung apps and whatnot running all the time? The ones I cant get rid of?

So, with that, I really dont know why my 16gb os is all taken up, when really there should only be about 3-4GB of data on the os. There HAS been a lot of os updates done though, and I dont know if they keep that info in some cache folder somewhere? But, I had like 7GB free when that google app update did its thing (said it can update w/o asking, can install anything it wants, can delete anything it wants), and it took up the rest of my remaining os space (it took up 6GB of space in like 3-4 days), until I now have 500mb remaining.

So, yeah, that why I want to get rid of everything (root), but keep google play somehow so I can get my games and apps I bought already, and my games I play every day (there are like 6 games I play all the time, a few that I play once in a while when at the Dr.'s or whatnot).

Thanks.

 

[Jfalls63]

https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...-how-to-root-install-custom-recovery-t3087451

 

[Dave3d]

https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...-how-to-root-install-custom-recovery-t3087451

Thank you very much.
Is it very hard to maintain a rooted device (I wont install anything that isnt already on it, so...)?
And is it easy to NOT have the Samsung stuff on there? Will it impede my installing my games and playing them, and getting free offers for energy/gems?

And, is everyone like me, who can NOT find out where the CSR Classics save game is? This is really the only save I need, well maybe that and Carmageddon since it came out when the devs only knew about pc, and not android, so no cloud saves at all either.

 

[Jfalls63]

Having root access needs a little more caution for the user than non rooted for the simple fact that you can make changes to the system.
As long as you use good judgement when downloading and installing apps, from reputable sources, you shouldn't have any issues.
Rom partitions are of a fixed size. Most of the pre installed apps will be in the system partition and apps that you install will be in the User Data partition. Deleting apps from the system partition will not give you more space in the user data partition.
Some custom roms based on stock will have a lot of the Samsung bloat removed and will work perfectly fine.
Most will recommend that you use something like Titanium Backup to freeze (disable) apps that you normally can't without root. Disabling them first, to see how your tablet operates without them active, before you remove them completely.
Can't help with the games since I don't play any.

 

[Dave3d]

Well, I have only ever got games through google play, except Carmageddon, which was an apk file from the developers themselves.
So, if I root, I wont be able to get all of that 12-14GB of Android side drive space back? I have no idea what took up all that space, unless its games I installed to check out and then removed, and they left stuff behind that should have been deleted? And when google installed that 6GB of stuff that I had disabled and didnt update.
Will I be able to FORCE games to my external drive? Like, Knights and Dragons, which wont even move a tiny bit to the external drive in normal mode?
I just think if I even just (what is it called? re-did the os to new again, or to what is the current os) I think I would get back at LEAST half my os side drive space.
I wouldnt do anything except what I have tried to do, which is keep all the bloatware off the device and install my games to the external drive.
Am I expecting too much then? Rooting wont do what I want it to?
Thanks.

 

[Jfalls63]

Have you tried to do a cache wipe in recovery? Normally to get into recovery on Samsung devices is, from off, press and hold power, volume up and home till phone starts to boot the release power and continue to hold the other two till you see the recovery menu.
Use the volume down button to scroll down to Wipe Cache, then press power to select. The choose option to reboot.

 

[Dave3d]

Will that wipe all my games?
Or does it just wipe the OS cache?
Or is that the way to apply a clean OS and start over again?

Thanks for info.
This might help my wifes VERY aging 1GB samsung tablet too.

 

[Jfalls63]

Just the OS cache. All games and data should be fine.
If you wanted to start over with a clean slate, factory reset, but backup everything you don't want to lose first.
Phones that I have that still have a traditional recovery, I'll do a cache wipe a couple times a year just to clear out the clutter.

 

[Dave3d]

OK, I did the cache wipe.
It did say 'Error' when I selected to reboot though. I have no idea why. It wiped the cache just fine. Just the 'Reboot Now' said 'Error'.
Available Space still says 780MB though, so that cache wipe didnt do anything at all.


Thanks for the suggestion though.

Here is what my disk space says:
Total Space: 16GB
System Memory (minimum amount to run the OS): 4.35GB
Used Space (Storage currently used): 8.7GB (which, you can see above, I only have 5GB of stuff, and most of that is on the external storage drive)
Cached Data: 662MB (I am assuming this is what I cleared above?)
Misc Files: 1.54GB
Available Space: 780GB

SD Space (External): 120GB
Available Space: 86GB (I have all my music here, and video's, and games from other devices (all legal, I bought everything) like psp etc...

I am wondering if the OS copied over my music (which is about 5GB worth) ? Could that have been why I lost all that space?
Or, can I clear out the previous OS backups (it has updated the os like 5-6 times since I have had it) ?

I just want to know if there is some app that can show me WHAT all that used space is. What it is storing, or using. Because I should NOT be using 8,7GB worth of stuff.

EDIT:
OK, I did a google search and found out how to find 'some' info.
Used Space > Apps
8.38GB
WTD?

Pictures and Video's:
14.5MB

Audio:
116K
(so, it didnt duplicate the audio and video, so it seems, unless the app copied them over to the os drive instead of leaving them on the external storage drive).

Downloads:
41.2MB

Soooo.........
Again it comes down to WHAT apps is not putting the amount it says it is on the Ext storage, like it says its doing when you click on the app? You know, where it shows so much on internal storage, and how much on external storage?

 

[Dave3d]

Well, I finally found out.
Sigh.

Things turned off:
google play newstand
google play books
youtube
hangouts
hancom office
hword viewer
e-meeting
drive
hshow viewer
hcell viewer
cisco webex meetings
samsung print service
google text to speech
flipboard
dropbox
hp print
ant+plugins
epson print
magazine
talkback
apcupdater
hancom office viewer
hancom office
ant radio
chocoeukor
streetview
blurb checkout
netflix
pagebuddy
=
80MB total
Is this stuff STILL on the os drive though? Even though its cleaned of cache and turned off?


SD Card USED apps:
Huge Casino 638MB
Slots Adventure 279MB
Save the world 199MB
Amazon Kindle 188MB
Criminal Case 161MB
CSR Classics 104MB
Slot Pharoh 92MB
Dragonsoul 86.5MB
Portal Quest 65MB
PPSSPP 46MB
MXPlayer Pro 31.1MB
Solitair 24MB
3dbowling 14MB
Rocket Player 10MB
Sudoku 9.25MB
John 4MB
=
1,974MB
So, it seems that it was the other way around.
Only 2GB of that 5GB+ is on my External Card, and the bulk of it is being used by my OS drive instead.


Seems like I will either have to do a complete reset, or uninstall stuff, or root. All of which I dont WANT to do, but it seems necessary.

One other thing:
WHY is my battery getting SO hot now? (again, ever since that google update only).
It gets SO hot it almost burns my hands just touching the back of the tablet.
Its SO hot, it makes my leg hot THROUGH a thick blanket. And I mean SWEATY hot, and I barely ever sweat.

Its when it is plugged into the charger, or when I start playing a game (ANY game, even the cheap games that have no graphics whatsoever, like Solitair).