best app to clear (dalvik) cache and free up space

[AndroJOB]

I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy Mini with Froyo. As some of you may guess, my phone has only around 150 MB of space, and is down to 29 MB already. But this happened a little to quickly and after a little fiddling I discovered that the dalvik cache takes up around 15 MB.

It may not be much but I can have some use for this space. Does anyone know which (free) app is the best or how to clear the dalvik cache? I would've tried Titanium but I only think only the PRO version does calvik cache clearing. I'm considering ROM Toolbox, but I would appreciate some feedback first.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Harry2]

Not free but good is 'QuickApp Manager', search in market for 'Cerisier Bleu'.

Harry

 

[drewcam888]

Since you are rooted, I imagine you have a custom recovery like CWM which does it free.

 

[tcat007]

Link2SD has a menu option to do that. I use App Cache Cleaner - Android app on AppBrain daily since it's easy to automate.

 

[AndroJOB]

Actually, the reason I rooted my phone was to enable Amharic fonts and write Amharic on it. I'm not into the ROM or related stuff yet. As for quickapp, It's not that I don't want to pay but from where I live, online payment doesn't work. Besides, it's incompatible with my phone.

I think I'll try App Cache Cleaner and get back with you guys.

 

[tcat007]

Cache that large is usually browser cache. App Cache cleaner will clear it with no problem. I too rooted to get new fonts on my phone. I use Comic Sans for my system font, everything looks better. Although my main reason was to get my available memory up from 20-40mb to 100-110mb. I don't use any custom ROMs, everything works well and fast; if it ain't broke....

 

[AndroJOB]

Hi guys, I'm back again. I've decided to try Link2sd as it has an option to move delvik cache files to the sd. But there is one issue; before I can move the dex files, I need to make two partitions on my sd card. The problem is that it is unpartitioned. So I need an effective means to backup my files, data and apps, all of it, somewhere else before I go ahead with the partitioning. I have a lot already and I don't want to go through the hassle of replacing them individually. I got the feeling a simple copy-paste won't do them all (since I can't see the apps' files on my sd when mounted).

Any advice?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

You don't need an app to do this. Since you are rooted, just go to /data/dalvik-cache and delete the contents. Needed entries will be recreated after reboot and upon first run. The unneeded ones (like from apps you no longer have, or previous versions of apps) will be gone for good.

 

[rushyang]

You don't need an app to do this. Since you are rooted, just go to /data/dalvik-cache and delete the contents. Needed entries will be recreated after reboot and upon first run. The unneeded ones (like from apps you no longer have, or previous versions of apps) will be gone for good.

Hi there! I also just rooted my Samsung Galaxy Ace. When I browse from "Root Explorer" in "/data/dalvik-cache".. there are lots of stuff there ~65MB!
I also have just 180MB of Internal Memory, from which I have just 34MB left right now..

I just tried "Clear Dalvik-Cache" option from the Link2SD. But Still all of stuff is there! So I guess, it didn't work.

Are you sure I would just have to browse to "/data/dalvik-cache/" from root explorer and it is perfectly safe? I confused just because that why "Link2SD" didn't delete those cache..


Thanks

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Did it clear anything? I'm not familiar with the app you mention, but maybe it's smart enough to only delete orphaned (i.e., unneeded) entries? And yes, it's perfectly safe to clear the contents of /data/dalvik-cache (don't delete the folder itself though).

 

[rushyang]

Did it clear anything? I'm not familiar with the app you mention, but maybe it's smart enough to only delete orphaned (i.e., unneeded) entries? And yes, it's perfectly safe to clear the contents of /data/dalvik-cache (don't delete the folder itself though).

Hi Mr. Lucky..

First of all thanks for quick response. As you said, I cleared only *.dex files from "/data/dalvik-cache".. But right after deleting them, I could not open "ANY" application. When I tapped on application, it came with "Force Close" error.

I read somewhere that dalvik-cache is automatically generated on the boot. So I rebooted my phone, took little longer after boot animation. & after 1 minute of looong media scanning, I could again open all applications of SD Card.

So I checked size of "/data/dalvik-cache".. & again all 66MB size files were back!

Now I understand why Link2SD didn't clear all 66MB of dalvik-cache!!

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Now I understand why Link2SD didn't clear all 66MB of dalvik-cache!!

Exactly! If they are all back then they are all needed.

 

[smankins]

You don't need an app to do this. Since you are rooted, just go to /data/dalvik-cache and delete the contents. Needed entries will be recreated after reboot and upon first run. The unneeded ones (like from apps you no longer have, or previous versions of apps) will be gone for good.

Link2SD has an option to do this for you in one step. I think it is called Clean Up Dalvik Cache or something like that. It only deletes the unneeded files and does not require any reboot. You can look at the files before deleting if you want.

Rushyang - you will have to create a 2nd partition on your SD card for Link2SD to work. You can make a copy of your SD card on your computer via USB cable and then make a 2nd partition (it will wipe your SD card). Then you can put your copy of the SD card back on the SD card. Here is a tutorial for Link2SD written by someone else:

http://androidforums.com/optimus-v-all-things-root/364833-link2sd-you-tutorial.html

The 2nd partition should be formatted as FAT32 if you are stock but I have found you need to make it ext3 or ext4 if you have installed other ROMs after rooting. A recovery program can also partition your SD card and create the second partition for you.

Good luck.

 

[AndroJOB]

Hi guys.

Seems like a number of people share my issue. The problem with dalvik-chaches is that they will return after rebooting. That's why I installed Link2sd. However I'm facing a problem with partitioning the SD. Using GParted in Ubuntu, it failed and gave me the following instead:

GParted 0.6.2
Libparted 2.3
Create Primary Partition #1 (fat32, 6.78 GiB) on /dev/sdb 00:00:01 ( ERROR ) create empty partition 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS ) path: /dev/sdb1
start: 2048
end: 14221311
size: 14219264 (6.78 GiB) set partition type on /dev/sdb1 00:00:01 ( SUCCESS ) new partition type: fat32 create new fat32 file system 00:00:00 ( ERROR ) mkdosfs -F32 -v -n "Galaxy Mini" /dev/sdb1 mkdosfs 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010)
mkdosfs: unable to open /dev/sdb1
========================================
Create Primary Partition #2 (fat32, 743.00 MiB) on /dev/sdb ========================================

Am I missing something? Any help on how to get around this?

 

[smankins]

Hi guys.

Seems like a number of people share my issue. The problem with dalvik-chaches is that they will return after rebooting. That's why I installed Link2sd. However I'm facing a problem with partitioning the SD. Using GParted in Ubuntu, it failed and gave me the following instead:



Am I missing something? Any help on how to get around this?

Sorry, I am not familiar with Ubuntu but you can try to create your partition on your phone using the recovery program on your phone. I have done that with success using a Clockwork Mod recovey.