Help Cache Vs. Data.

[LBPHeretic]

Okay, I did a quick search around about this and I did not see much that was helpful or pertinent to my question. My question is when I am in the Apps Management section of the Settings and there is the list of apps and services installed on my HTC Hero and I sort them by the size, what is the exact difference between "data" and "cache" in each of the apps installed?

The apps using up the most space seem to have large caches of things, like the Mail and Internet app for example. I assume that the cache is the email and web pages, respectively, stored in my handset's internal memory. Is the data storing the settings for each of the apps? I suppose ultimately what I am getting at here is if I want to free up space in my handset's internal memory, which of these should I delete and what effect would it have on the apps that are associated with the deleted cache and/or data? I do not want to delete settings for apps if that is what data contains. Additionally, I am worried if I delete the cache for the Mail app, it would delete all the email stored on my handset at the moment. How do you all manage cache and data and your handset's internal memory? I am not running out of internal space at the moment, but I am just curious about this for future reference.

 

[Joehunni]

Data is any saved settings for that app whereas cache is useless, just delete cache to free up memory as when you delete data you will lose all info and settings.

 

[roadkill6972]

install quick system info pro and delete all cache with one click. its better then one at a time.

 

[tazcollins]

install quick system info pro and delete all cache with one click. its better then one at a time.

Just learned something else. Installed it, cool. Under the processor tab can you tell me something. The items running are in different colors, white, blue, yellow, gray, and green. what does the different colors mean? TC

 

[LBPHeretic]

Okay, the app that was mentioned sounds useful and I am definitely going to look into that. However, as an aside, would deleting the cache of my Mail app delete all the email stored on my Sprint HTC Hero?

See, that is what I am worried about. Deleting something I actually want to keep on my handset.

 

[Joehunni]

deleteing cache wont get rid of anything you want or need whether it's email or whatever.

 

[billnuss]

Any idea how I can delete "data" from my mail? Even after taking my email accounts out of my Eris it still says i have 80 mb locked up in there and I don't have enough space on my phone to read or send a text (although I can still email?!)

I don't know what they do but I also deleted the files in the .mail folder on the memory card...

 

[Joehunni]

You should be able to just remove that email account from the phone and then re-add it.

 

[LBPHeretic]

Well, he said that he did that but 80MB of space was still being consumed by the Mail app. I have heard of this problem before with HTC's Mail app.

I think the solution, unfortunately, was to hard reset your handset. I could be wrong though.

 

[Joehunni]

Did you clear the data and cache and then reset after removing the email account?

 

[tazcollins]

Just learned something else. Installed it, cool. Under the processor tab can you tell me something. The items running are in different colors, white, blue, yellow, gray, and green. what does the different colors mean? TC

Bump! Does anyone know? TC

 

[LBPHeretic]

I am not sure about that, man. Sorry about that because I wish I did.

I ended up deleting the cache of a bunch of the apps that were taking up the most space on my Sprint HTC Hero. I freed up over 20MB of space with no ill effect to my handset. I will give the cache manager app a try next time to simplify the process. Thanks for all your help, everyone.

 

[jakolson]

Features - qsysinfo - Feature introduction for Quick System Info - Project Hosting on Google Code

 

[AndyTheRadioMan]

I didn't know there was a TRASH folder in my mail and had a bunch of stuff caught up there taking up memory.
If you are in your inbox, and press the menu button and then press folder, it will let you switch between folders....one of which is trash. I emptied that, and it freed up a bunch of memory.
Sorry if that's an obvious "no brainer", but it caught me by surprise a while ago.

 

[LBPHeretic]

I didn't know there was a TRASH folder in my mail and had a bunch of stuff caught up there taking up memory.
If you are in your inbox, and press the menu button and then press folder, it will let you switch between folders....one of which is trash. I emptied that, and it freed up a bunch of memory.
Sorry if that's an obvious "no brainer", but it caught me by surprise a while ago.

Yeah, I knew about that fortunately. However, I bet quite a few people do not know about that.

HTC decided to bury that in the menus for some reason. It would be easier if you could just set it to delete the email from your handset without having a trash folder to deal with.