Wildfire S - Low Memory (excessive System Data)

[Charlie65]

Hi, I am new to this forum, but wanted to share something that may be interesting for other users of the Wildfire S. Here's how I seem to have resolved the low memory issue of my Wildfire S (for the time being).

I've been quite happy with my Wildfire S (Android 2.3.5), however, I used to have constant issues with low memory. After some research, I thought rooting the phone might be the only solution to free up some space. But I did not want to mess with the phone that much.

After some further research, using DiskUsage, I realized that my System Data was more than 90MB - that's a lot if you only have 150MB available. I could not find any sources for normal values, but 90MB just seemed excessive. Doing some further research I found hints that there might be some log-files that use up huge amounts of data. For HTC I identified anr_history.txt as possible culprit. Thing is, without root, I could not figure out whether I have such file on my phone (let alone figure out what size that file is). Of course, a factory reset would have deleted any log-files, but I dreaded the idea of having to do a full factory reset.

Playing around with adb, I could not access the file (without root). But I realized, that adb would let me change into directories.

Caution: The following will erase a system file on your phone. This may cause irreparable damage to your device. I do not claim that this solves any problems - just wanted to share my observation. Try at your own risk!

So here is what I finally did:

1. Get adb up and running
2. Using adb change into the directory: /data/data/com.android.htcprofile
3. Empty anr_history.txt with the following command: echo

 

[hpguru]

Didnt work here. I get an error "cd: can't cd to com.android.htcprofile". I'm running 2.3.4 by the way.

 

[gavinr]

I also have on average 14mb of free data I've deleted all kinds of things but honestly it doesn't make much difference. And my phone doesn't have that file. Any Idea of what else i can do other than delete caches and programs?

 

[Charlie65]

@hpguru - Thanks for your reply. Did you check whether you can change folders into some other (known) folders? If so, then possibly your phone stores these data somewhere else. Maybe its the android version. Also, I use a European (GSM) Wildfire S - maybe that is another difference.

@gavinr - Thanks. How do you know your phone does not have the file? Generally, try narrowing down what is using the memory. Did you check your System Data with DiskUsage? If it is not System Data, try to see what your apps use and whether that adds up to the memory usage you are seeing.

Charlie

 

[hpguru]

The file in question doesn't exist on my phone.

 

[Charlie65]

hpguru, how do you know that the file does not exist? Do you have a rooted phone? Note, I cannot see the file on my phone either (seems to be protected by the OS) - but still it should be there (though I only have indirect evidence).

Charlie

 

[sisu]

My phone is rooted. I have currently 67MB free out of 150MB. I use Simonsimons34's rooted stock ROM.

I do have the named file in the folder, but it's empty, size is 0B

Maybe he tweaked it to not save any logs to it, idk.

I like your idea, I should check it out on my daughters unrooted WFS

 

[hpguru]

No its not rooted. I used Astro File Manager to search for the file. If it exists I don't have sufficient rights to view the file

 

[playing around]

I was also constantly finding problems with low memory & at times mail & other apps would not sync due to low memory. I used to often manually delete app data to free memory which helped a bit. In the end I gave up on the battle & rooted my phone. I now enjoy having enough memory to install all the apps I want. I know rooting is not for everyone but it saved my wfs. 700mb free mem beats 18mb.

 

[samman282]

Hey guys,
as you all may know the Wildfire S has the problem that the internal memory gets low and lower with every day. There is a solution for that, however I don't take any responsibility for damages on your phones.
Download the Android SDK on the Android developer site . Then extract it to your desktop and start SDK Manager. After that install Google USB Driver and Android SDK Platform tools. Now you have to install the newest version of HTC Sync. After that connect your smartphone to your computer and head to Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB Debugging. Then you have to open cmd as an administrator and simply type in:
1.:
cd desktop\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools OR (if that does not work!!!) cd C:\Users\(YOUR PROFILE NAME)\Desktop\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
2.:
adb devices
3.:
adb shell
4.:
cd /data/data/com.android.htcprofile
5.:
echo

 

[CafeKampuchia]

Sammam, welcome to Android Forums. I've moved your post to an earlier thread where this is already being discussed.

 

[samman282]

Thanks . Okay, I didn't notice that.

 

[Daisymae]

Hey guys,
as you all may know the Wildfire S has the problem that the internal memory gets low and lower with every day. There is a solution for that, however I don't take any responsibility for damages on your phones.
Download the Android SDK on the Android developer site . Then extract it to your desktop and start SDK Manager. After that install Google USB Driver and Android SDK Platform tools. Now you have to install the newest version of HTC Sync. After that connect your smartphone to your computer and head to Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB Debugging. Then you have to open cmd as an administrator and simply type in:
1.:
cd desktop\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools OR (if that does not work!!!) cd C:\Users\(YOUR PROFILE NAME)\Desktop\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
2.:
adb devices
3.:
adb shell
4.:
cd /data/data/com.android.htcprofile
5.:
echo

 

[Garawa]

I'm scared of doing stuff like this! I've just did the SDK thing that forces stuff onto the memory card and that worked ok, is this any more dodgy or more difficult than that or no different?

I have lost memory that I cannot get back by clearing caches or data and my downloads total the same but somewhere I have lost over 18Mb that isn't showing up and I wonder if it is this.

 

[jamesbil]

Just done it! had to mess around with the address a bit, but got there.
gave me about 1mb more.

 

[Garawa]

This solved my problem. I had lost memory galore that I couldn't get back after clearing caches etc, it was a mystery. Last night I had 6Mb, the best I could get from clearing everything. This morning the phone had locked up and after rebooting I had 3Mb! I did this and now have 35Mb - thankyou very much!

 

[jared04]

After doing this, several things happened. My phone was telling me I had ~15mb free but I couldn't run gallery or other applications ect that require a certain amount of memory free. After doing some cleaning up with caches and data ect I've made enough space free to run things again.

Is there a way to reverse this procedure?

This is an awesome little phone, but the lack of internal memory is such a major let down on a smart phone and gives people a bad taste of HTC, if they were looking to upgrade to a higher end model.

 

[jamesbil]

just trying again as i did a reset, am now getting cant cd message at step 4

 

[samman282]

Why, what do you all get?

 

[diorama22]

I just tried this on my wildfire. went from 10mb to 25mb. Thanks!

 

[sven31415]

I guess clearing this file has to be done from time to time as this file will continue to pile up data.

Is there a crontab in android that could execute this ?

Sorry for the question i am new to that android stuff and only familliar with unix/linux systems.

BR

sp: Maybe better link this file to /dev/null would solve the problem permanently

 

[Rasavior]

Hi, I'm also a wildfire user who has the same data problem, as of now I'm at 0% left it's apparently all used up. I removed all the apps I installed and cleared alot of data off of apps. I'm not very tech savvy so if somebody can help me fix this problem it would be GREATLY appreciated. Also when I cleared the data from the internet app the status bar on top that displays the time usually is gone..
Thanks,
-Matt

 

[rjmendus]

If you can root your phone and install a custom rom you can get lots of free space.
Currently I'm running cm 9 on my wildfire s. I have 2 gb of internal storage. Its pretty easy to get this. You need a rooted device with a 8gb or more sd card. The sd card should also be a class 6 or higher. if you use a low class sd card your phone will lag like hell.

Create a partition(this is the new internal memory) on your sd card which is a ext filesystem.[I created a 2 gb partition]. Then go to the recovery and flash the data2sd script. Finally reboot.

There you go 2 gb of internal space!
Here's the link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1490607

 

[RSchreurs]

The following step:

4.: cd /data/data/com.android.htcprofile

returns "change: permission denied" for me.
So, I tried "echo " " > /data/data/com.android.htcprofile/anr_history.txt"
This returned without an error message.
System data shrunk from 88.7 MB to 70.5 MB.

Also, at first, "adb devices" returned no connected devices. I first had to download HTC Sync to obtain a driver.

 

[mosy7]

Mine too