Help 'Low on space' issue

[WC Jerome]

Here's my question:

Is there a way to set it so the 'Low on space' notification doesn't appear until you only have, for example, 10 megs left or lower? I just think that 18 is too high, in my opinion. When it gets to that point, I can't text, I can't surf the web, and I can't update any apps, among other things. This has become a real problem for me lately and I constantly clear the app cache with App2SD.

Now I know what some people are gonna say. Get rid of some apps. Well, my response to that is I have gotten rid of plenty of apps that I liked and only have ones that I 'really' like and need, at this point. This is all starting to remind me of my dreaded BlackBerry days!!! ...smh...

 

[koopakid08]

Here's my question:

Is there a way to set it so the 'Low on space' notification doesn't appear until you only have, for example, 10 megs left or lower? I just think that 18 is too high, in my opinion. When it gets to that point, I can't text, I can't surf the web, and I can't update any apps, among other things. This has become a real problem for me lately and I constantly clear the app cache with App2SD.

Now I know what some people are gonna say. Get rid of some apps. Well, my response to that is I have gotten rid of plenty of apps that I liked and only have ones that I 'really' like and need, at this point. This is all starting to remind me of my dreaded BlackBerry days!!! ...smh...

If you root you can put all your apps on SD card using link2SD.

 

[tcat007]

And glance down a few threads (on this page)... "Freeing memory...", "Low memory..." for more help.

 

[bac22]

Without rooting the phone you can move a fair number of apps to the SD card as well. Also if there are some apps you just are not using that much, why keep them on the phone? You can always re-install later if you need that app.

 

[AndyOpie150]

Here's my question:

Is there a way to set it so the 'Low on space' notification doesn't appear until you only have, for example, 10 megs left or lower? I just think that 18 is too high, in my opinion. When it gets to that point, I can't text, I can't surf the web, and I can't update any apps, among other things. This has become a real problem for me lately and I constantly clear the app cache with App2SD.

Now I know what some people are gonna say. Get rid of some apps. Well, my response to that is I have gotten rid of plenty of apps that I liked and only have ones that I 'really' like and need, at this point. This is all starting to remind me of my dreaded BlackBerry days!!! ...smh...

OK, so you would like some more room for apps,but maybe you don't want to permanently Root your phone. Try ROMTools, It will allow you to install a custom recovery(the stock recovery doesn't allow you to make a backup of your system), custom Kernel,or custom ROM(Harmonia 1.3 has the best app space bar none), and change your boot animation and theme. It establishes a temporary Root to install the above mentioned items,and then goes away at the first reboot. No Root left over! If this is something you might be interested in doing, go here http://androidforums.com/optimus-v-...el-rom-change-boot-animation.html#post3000366

 

[fadumpt]

What I just found out with my Optimus V is that it doesn't actually matter if the app is installed to the SD card or the onboard ROM, it still takes up onboard rom space.

I spent months constantly fighting to keep my space above 18MB so that I could still receive texts and it seemed like the more I removed apps I actually needed/used, the more space I would be losing to updates, etc.

Delete applications on the SD card that you don't need and your onboard ROM should clear up.

I found this out because I returned it to factory defaults and realized this as I installed apps.

I'm now at 75MB free and have apps I want on the phone

Note: It looks like only the actually app file itself takes up the space on the ROM if it's moved to SD card, actual install of the app is only on the SD card at that point. Basically, the app download is stored in ROM no matter what.

 

[MacFett]

What I just found out with my Optimus V is that it doesn't actually matter if the app is installed to the SD card or the onboard ROM, it still takes up onboard rom space.

That isn't an Optimus V thing, that is an Android thing. The dalvik-cache and bits of the app do reside in the internal memory.

 

[fadumpt]

I wasn't saying it was an Optimus V thing.

The big point here is that you don't have to root your phone to fix a low on space issue.
Just remove SD card applications that you don't need (and didn't realize previously were problems) and it'll clean up your ROM.

 

[jmessick]

I think the point is that maybe the 18 Mb limit is higher than it could be. Would be nice if that could be set to a lower value.

 

[fadumpt]

It's like with a hard drive on a computer...if you fill up the entire thing including the space used by the operating system for swap and OS stuff, then it's going to run slower and have little problems.
18MB is so you still have space for text, etc and whatever android needs to do in the background.

There's lots of applications I would have deleted before off of the SD card if I knew that would have helped my problem and then 18MB wouldn't be so bad. But you figure if it's on the SD card, why should it matter for ROM space. Lesson Learned.

 

[paulsaz]

I removed a bunch of games and apps from the SD, and went from 18 to 44 free. Thanks for the tip.

 

[AndyOpie150]

If you read the OP's first post he doesn't want to remove any more apps. We need to give him viable solutions that don't require the removing of any more of his apps.

 

[MacFett]

Is there a way to set it so the 'Low on space' notification doesn't appear until you only have, for example, 10 megs left or lower?

None to my knowledge.

I just think that 18 is too high, in my opinion.

Virgin and LG have stated that this is the free space needed by the phone and OS to keep functioning correctly.

When it gets to that point, I can't text, I can't surf the web, and I can't update any apps, among other things.

Because the phone needs some space to perform OS functions and if you take up all of the available space it can no longer function. Possibly getting to the point where it couldn't delete things easily.

This has become a real problem for me lately and I constantly clear the app cache with App2SD.

My best suggestion is to root the phone and use Link2SD.

 

[raynoldsk]

I agree with Mac. I resisted rooting for months, but now I don't know why. it really solves that problem of having to delete apps right and left to keep the phone happy.

 

[AndyOpie150]

None to my knowledge.

Virgin and LG have stated that this is the free space needed by the phone and OS to keep functioning correctly.


Because the phone needs some space to perform OS functions and if you take up all of the available space it can no longer function. Possibly getting to the point where it couldn't delete things easily.


My best suggestion is to root the phone and use Link2SD.

He could ROOT his phone using the Gingerbreak .apk(can't mess up you phone if you don't get it right the first time) and then use your great tutorial on Link2SD

 

[AndyOpie150]

Something I forgot to mention WC Jerome,If you do decide to ROOT your phone make sure you install a custom recovery and make a backup of your system(the stock recovery wont let you make a backup of your system),that way if you have a "Ooops" or a "Did I do thaat", then you can restore everything back to before it happened. If you have any questions on ROOTing your phone or installing a custom recovery go to the "All Things Root" section.

 

[xrae]

Now I know what some people are gonna say. Get rid of some apps. Well, my response to that is I have gotten rid of plenty of apps that I liked and only have ones that I 'really' like and need, at this point. This is all starting to remind me of my dreaded BlackBerry days!!! ...smh...

This is the same battle I fight. What good is this nifty device if it will only run a calculator and the crappy stock apps without running out of space? Don't make me delete Angry Birds!

It's been a headache for me the past couple days. I use Stitcher probably more than any other app. After an update a couple days ago, the program now tells me it needs 25+ MB free on either the ROM or SD card to run and auto-closes most of the time. I have freed up about 20MB on the ROM and can get it to work, but for some reason -- even though my preferences tell the app to use SD card -- it's not caching to SD card. Well, I was listening via Stitcher today and now only have less than 8MB free on the ROM and most other apps don't have room to work, and every five minutes I get the out of space text message error. I've rebooted a couple times thinking maybe there's some kind of temp file or cache that wasn't cleared out, but nothing. No other apps updated today.

Any ideas? Are there temp files that junk up the onboard storage like on a PC, and if so, how do we find them and clean them out?

 

[Petrah]

This is the same battle I fight. What good is this nifty device if it will only run a calculator and the crappy stock apps without running out of space? Don't make me delete Angry Birds!

It's no different than a desktop pc. If you fill up the hard drive with too much stuff, the computer is going to run slow and you will have issues with it. Adhere to what they give you to use without going overboard and you should get great use of this nice little phone.

This is why it's important to research your interests before shelling out your hard earned cash. It's the only way to know weather or not the item of interest will fulfill your needs.

 

[MacFett]

Go to /data/tombstones/ chances are there are some files there you can delete. If you don't have a cache cleaner, you may want to look into one. And when you're done pulling your hair out over this check out the tutorial link in my signature.

 

[raynoldsk]

Pssst--check your sig, Mac. It went away.

 

[MacFett]

Pssst--check your sig, Mac. It went away.

Odd, that post and the one previous have no sig but the one above that does. http://androidforums.com/optimus-v-all-things-root/364833-link2sd-you-tutorial.html

 

[Petrah]

Go to /data/tombstones/ chances are there are some files there you can delete. If you don't have a cache cleaner, you may want to look into one.

Will cleaning the cache get rid of those tombstone files? Or do you always have to manually remove those?

Was Root Explorer the app you recommended before? Is there a free file explorer that also let's you view those files so you can manually remove them? I'm using ConnectBot at the moment, but I don't much care for it.

Edit:

Odd, that post and the one previous have no sig but the one above that does.

It's something they've implemented into the forum posts. Signatures are essentially only supposed to be seen in your first post of a thread, but not any posts in the thread afterwards. It's buggy sometimes from the looks of it though.

 

[AndyOpie150]

Rooted or not(Although its way better when your rooted) Super Manager is a really good .apk and file manager.

 

[koopakid08]

I use ES file explorer. It's free.

 

[MacFett]

Will cleaning the cache get rid of those tombstone files? Or do you always have to manually remove those?

No it will not. They have to be removed manually.

Was Root Explorer the app you recommended before? Is there a free file explorer that also let's you view those files so you can manually remove them? I'm using ConnectBot at the moment, but I don't much care for it.

I recommend Root Explorer (it is a pay app and one of the few pay apps I say to buy) but I also use ES File Explorer (as KoopaKid suggests) which is free. Different interfaces, sometimes I like one more than the other.