Help Low on space

[laramieb]

Just got a notification that my phone storage space is getting low..only 6mbs left..and I did see a thread someone mentioned things not getting deleted from memory and I cant seem to free up any space deleting apps or scenes either.

Very confused as I only have 15ish~ Apps from the market installed, auto task killer is killing almost everything to up my battery life, I delete most of my emails..

Im also now experiencing a ton of lock-ups when trying to scroll through things like my application list, sometimes screens, loading the mail app etc..

Anyone else have this problem? This just started happening yesterday/today and before that it was running flawlessly

 

[mehrvarz]

This is unacceptable. I had the same issue. had to reset device and now I am afraid to install apps.

 

[laramieb]

Assuming you did a factory reset? Id really like to avoid losing my contacts..

Getting alot of unresponsiveness from my unlock screen and notifications shade..

Any help from anyone? Take it back? Ive had it since the 11th and these are the first problems I have had..and it doesnt have "with Google" on the back so you know id kinda rather keep it

 

[mehrvarz]

Which have you heard is better? "With Google" or "htc" on the back?

Assuming you did a factory reset? Id really like to avoid losing my contacts..

Getting alot of unresponsiveness from my unlock screen and notifications shade..

Any help from anyone? Take it back? Ive had it since the 11th and these are the first problems I have had..and it doesnt have "with Google" on the back so you know id kinda rather keep it

 

[nathanotis]

Which have you heard is better? "With Google" or "htc" on the back?

Neither is "better". Without Google just means the device is from an earlier production run. It's all about preference.

 

[Gambit]

Same problem. I just posted this on another blog:

I've only switched to Android since the Sprint Hero has become available and I love it except for one huge, glaring flaw (to me anyway) and that is the inability to install apps to the SD card.

I understand you can do this if you root your phone, but this should have been designed into Android from the beginning without having to mod anything. It is not even possible yet on the Sprint Hero. And how is the non-techie mass-market that Android is trying to appeal to going to be able to do this? I've only had my phone for a couple weeks, have downloaded less than 20 apps, and am getting low memory notifications. Clearing Browser and Google Maps cache helps, until I reuse those applications a few more times...

This limitation has taken something potentially great and cripled it.

 

[noonanjs]

Same problem. I just posted this on another blog:

I've only switched to Android since the Sprint Hero has become available and I love it except for one huge, glaring flaw (to me anyway) and that is the inability to install apps to the SD card.

I understand you can do this if you root your phone, but this should have been designed into Android from the beginning without having to mod anything. It is not even possible yet on the Sprint Hero. And how is the non-techie mass-market that Android is trying to appeal to going to be able to do this? I've only had my phone for a couple weeks, have downloaded less than 20 apps, and am getting low memory notifications. Clearing Browser and Google Maps cache helps, until I reuse those applications a few more times...

This limitation has taken something potentially great and cripled it.

I have this very same issue, is this something that developers are going to be able fix or are we stuck with this terrible flaw

 

[Deleted User]

I agree we should not get space errors. Third party apps should default to the SD card. I uninstalled some apps add-on apps I did not need IE the toggle tools (as they are built in). Then I reboot no reset necessary.

 

[Deleted User]

I sync my contacts to google it is like a free .ME account. Your contacts will then be downloaded and uploaded to thier servers instead of a PC or on the phone. I like this feature a lot.

Assuming you did a factory reset? Id really like to avoid losing my contacts..

Getting alot of unresponsiveness from my unlock screen and notifications shade..

Any help from anyone? Take it back? Ive had it since the 11th and these are the first problems I have had..and it doesnt have "with Google" on the back so you know id kinda rather keep it

 

[pdragon]

Personally, I'm hoping someone finds a way to remove the included apps without having to root the phone. Not a NASCAR or Sports fan myself. Don't use Twitter on the go. Don't sync with any email besides Gmail. Don't use any IM networks. Don't buy music off Amazon. You get the idea.

All that could be space I could recover for my own needs.

 

[Deleted User]

Good show. I tried to ditch the nascar and failed miserably hahahah. maybe rooting is the way to go to add SD for apps as well. Although I thought the Sprint flavor of rooting was not out? Also I kind of like not having to JB/Root to do stuff.

Personally, I'm hoping someone finds a way to remove the included apps without having to root the phone. Not a NASCAR or Sports fan myself. Don't use Twitter on the go. Don't sync with any email besides Gmail. Don't use any IM networks. Don't buy music off Amazon. You get the idea.

All that could be space I could recover for my own needs.

 

[noonanjs]

Personally, I'm hoping someone finds a way to remove the included apps without having to root the phone. Not a NASCAR or Sports fan myself. Don't use Twitter on the go. Don't sync with any email besides Gmail. Don't use any IM networks. Don't buy music off Amazon. You get the idea.

All that could be space I could recover for my own needs.

This would be great as well as finding a way to install and run apps off of the 32gb sd that they made available to the Hero, would truly make this phone a "Hero" pun intended

 

[Slug]

I love it except for one huge, glaring flaw (to me anyway) and that is the inability to install apps to the SD card.

Unfortunately there's also a 'glaring flaw' if you do install apps to the external storage card; unmounting the card while in use, as is done when connecting via USB, can either crash the phone or corrupt the card.

 

[Alcaron]

Which to me also falls into the category of "should have been designed better".

I LOVE this phone, I really do. But a big part of why I switched from the iPhone was the fact that _I_ bought this device, I want to be able to do whatever I want to it, I own it.

To find out that I can't put a custom ROM on because it's locked down...isn't disappointing, it's flat out stupid.

I haven't had space issues yet, but I'll be honest, it does make me leery hearing it come up more and more after only a few weeks.

 

[pdragon]

Which to me also falls into the category of "should have been designed better".

I LOVE this phone, I really do. But a big part of why I switched from the iPhone was the fact that _I_ bought this device, I want to be able to do whatever I want to it, I own it.

To find out that I can't put a custom ROM on because it's locked down...isn't disappointing, it's flat out stupid.

I haven't had space issues yet, but I'll be honest, it does make me leery hearing it come up more and more after only a few weeks.

Welcome the US phone market. I get what you're trying to say and totally agree with you. But the US market lately is much more into leasing things to people than outright selling. Just look at the music & software industries. There's very few cell carriers that have completely opened up their major market phones to let the users do whatever they want with them.

At least you can install unofficial apps without rooting the phone. It's just a checkbox in the Settings. Android is a step closer in the right direction, compared to what's been available lately.

 

[laramieb]

Youve done hijacked my thread!

So I went and deleted all my emails, extra scenes, a few apps, cleared all my browser stuff, powered off/on the phone and im still at....low memory..I cant do anything..take pictures or even add a frickin photo frame to one of my screens..

help.

 

[romeosidvicious]

Youve done hijacked my thread!

So I went and deleted all my emails, extra scenes, a few apps, cleared all my browser stuff, powered off/on the phone and im still at....low memory..I cant do anything..take pictures or even add a frickin photo frame to one of my screens..

help.

You likely have a too much stuff loading at start and trying to do stuff, queuing up system calls, and so on. I can't replicate the behavior you are describing to be completely honest. If I remove an app I get space back. But the space available for apps is not the same as the memory in which apps run. Are you running out of storage or is the phone telling you it's low on memory because those are two very different things.

ROM = OS and APPS: 512 MB
RAM = Memory where OS and apps run: 288 MB

And never the twain shall meet. If you are running out of memory you likely have a badly coded app somewhere. If you are running out of storage space then you have installed too much stuff. Different solutions would be required. Please elaborate on what the problem you are seeing actually is.

 

[laramieb]

I am actually running out of storage. I've only got maybe 10 apps, no calendar entries, no saved emails, no bookmarks, no extra scenes, 6 pictures taken with camera..this thing is basically new save my contacts texts some pics on sd card...it should NOT be low on storage. And like i said after deleting things I'm gaining no space..I'm now not receiving texts cant take pics..nothin.

My RAM seems to be fine besides some lockups and bad scrolling..

 

[elguapo76]

I had the same issue. It started when I noticed that my my memory went down to 15mb from roughly 63mb. I erased some apps but then my memory went down to 3mb. Around the same time I stopped receiving sms's and voicemail. Hard reseting the phone multiple did not fix the sms or voicemail issue, not sure about the ROM leak. Called Sprint twice. First time the rep who's call center is taking "all Hero calls" seemed surprised and when she started researching the issue it seemed like she had ran into an issue that was just developing and her tone changed. She promised she would call me back within the hour but never did. Second time the rep said to return it to Best Buy as there is an issue with a "bad batch". I did that today and all my missed sms's and voicemails started rolling in. The new phone I got is a "with Google" version and is revision A. Tonight I noticed my ROM memory went down from 93mb to 53mb without me adding any new applications since this afternoon. My guess is that there is a serious ROM leak happening. It may be an issue with the phone or an application that is being loaded. I am not running any app killers. I am going to guess that the phone's ability to receive sms and vm messages gets corrupted when the ROM gets full. I've seen various posts of people who have stopped receiving both, maybe it has been brought upon by the memory issue. Some have been able to fix it with a hard reset others like me have not been quite so lucky. I would advise you all that if you start developing this issue not to let your phone's ROM go down too low. For those of you that have run into this problem what apps do you have installed? Maybe we can find a culprit. I will post mine tomorrow. I have 25 apps and it is very late here.

 

[Sabre66]

Noticed a similar drop in available space too. Mine is much less severe, but confusing none the less. I usually have between 38-60 Mb showing, but yesterday I powered off my phone and on restart I had 88...more than ever had. Throughout the day I noticed that drop back into the 60's.

I use Advanced Task Manager and constantly kill processes in the list, but I've noticed that using the same apps and killing them yields a slightly different amount of free space each time. And I never set any default/ignore settings either.

It definitely seems there's a leak somewhere.

 

[elguapo76]

Sabre66 I believe what you are describing is RAM usage and perfectly normal. Difference between ROM and ROM is RAM is filled with programs and information currently in use in the background and foreground. Therefore throughout the day your memory will go down as you open more programs and data and keep it active. The system should maintain that number at a usable level so 30mb of free RAM is normal. When you kill a program or restart your phone if frees up RAM because it is not active in the background. Now ROM is the area where you store your programs, think of it as a hard drive. This should not change significantly throughout the day unless you add more programs or receive an extreme number of emails into your ROM. To check your available ROM memory go to Settings > SD Card and Phone Storage and it will be listed under "available space".


My ROM memory went from 53mb to 31mb this morning. Without adding anything. I will be doing a hard reste on the phone and running stock for a day or two to see if that helps. Then I will install Programs slowly to try and isolate if one of the apps is the issue.


These are the programs I have Installed:

Amazon.com
Astro File Manager
Bank of America
Battery Widget
Boxee Remote
Cardio Trainer
CArdio TRainer Race Aganist Yourself
Car Locator Free
Connect Four
Craigsphone
DC Metro Map
Dogg Catcher
Facebook
FakeCall Free
FX Camera
Google Skymap
Google Voice
gtasks
Handcent SMS
Jelix Lite
Last. FM
Keyring
Layar
Locale
Movies aka Flixter
My Backup Pro
Myspace
Nimbuzz
Package Tracking
Pandora
Power Manager
Qik
Quickoffice
Shazam
Steel
The Weather Channel
Wikitude
Xgalaxy 2 Lite
Toggle Headset Widget

Runnig Clock and Weather Widget
Pandora Widget
Battery Widget
Twitter
Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS Widget

 

[romeosidvicious]

I am actually running out of storage. I've only got maybe 10 apps, no calendar entries, no saved emails, no bookmarks, no extra scenes, 6 pictures taken with camera..this thing is basically new save my contacts texts some pics on sd card...it should NOT be low on storage. And like i said after deleting things I'm gaining no space..I'm now not receiving texts cant take pics..nothin.

My RAM seems to be fine besides some lockups and bad scrolling..

Some of the symptoms might be unrelated. I know that some of the space calculations are cached and the only truly accurate space calculation is after a soft reset for some reason. I think it's lazy and bad practice to cache free space calculations but based on a number of posts here and at XDA this is the case. Are you using a task killer?

Noticed a similar drop in available space too. Mine is much less severe, but confusing none the less. I usually have between 38-60 Mb showing, but yesterday I powered off my phone and on restart I had 88...more than ever had. Throughout the day I noticed that drop back into the 60's.

I use Advanced Task Manager and constantly kill processes in the list, but I've noticed that using the same apps and killing them yields a slightly different amount of free space each time. And I never set any default/ignore settings either.

It definitely seems there's a leak somewhere.

The first thing you saw was due to what I mentioned above with the space calculations not being updated in real time and requiring a soft reset. However I suspect that using task killers may be part of the problems that are being seen. If you kill a task that's writing to the disk it could be marking sectors as used without data being committed and therefore the application restarts after a reboot it didn't finish the write, doesn't know about the data, but the OS is seeing the sectors as used. Force Killing applications that are not out of control is always a bad idea on a multi-tasking OS like Linux (Android), BSD, and other Unix based OSs. That's only one of the problems with using task killers on a regular basis.

One of the other problems you will have with using a task killer in the way you describe is losing the ability to receive messages, sync contacts, and generally screwing up the way your phone is supposed to work. There is a reason that a task manager is not included with the OS.

 

[romeosidvicious]

Sabre66 I believe what you are describing is RAM usage and perfectly normal. Difference between ROM and ROM is RAM is filled with programs and information currently in use in the background and foreground. Therefore throughout the day your memory will go down as you open more programs and data and keep it active. The system should maintain that number at a usable level so 30mb of free RAM is normal. When you kill a program or restart your phone if frees up RAM because it is not active in the background. Now ROM is the area where you store your programs, think of it as a hard drive. This should not change significantly throughout the day unless you add more programs or receive an extreme number of emails into your ROM. To check your available ROM memory go to Settings > SD Card and Phone Storage and it will be listed under "available space".


My ROM memory went from 53mb to 31mb this morning. Without adding anything. I will be doing a hard reste on the phone and running stock for a day or two to see if that helps. Then I will install Programs slowly to try and isolate if one of the apps is the issue.

A lot of apps cache data that you don't see such as your location, weather, and so on. It's normal to see a drop in space that is recovered with a soft reset as apps will constantly cache data so that they perform faster. While caching 20mb of data seems like a lot when you consider all the data that comes into your phone it really isn't.

I would use a clean Sense setup without any widgets anywhere except on the main screen and have those be minimal, soft reset, look at the free space on the ROM, and add stuff back from there and see what the results are.

 

[Sabre66]

Wow, I guess I really need to read up on Linux based systems. I'm obviously a newbie to Android. Thanks for such great info. I'm gonna try not using the task killer for a few days and see how performance is affected.

Here's another question. How often do you guys power down your Heroes? I'm so used to always leaving my phone on and never turning it off, so I'm wondering if that's detrimental to a Linux based device.

 

[romeosidvicious]

Wow, I guess I really need to read up on Linux based systems. I'm obviously a newbie to Android. Thanks for such great info. I'm gonna try not using the task killer for a few days and see how performance is affected.

Here's another question. How often do you guys power down your Heroes? I'm so used to always leaving my phone on and never turning it off, so I'm wondering if that's detrimental to a Linux based device.

It's not detrimental to Linux devices in general. My phone has been off once this week because I let the battery run all the way down at work while using WiFi and not thinking about it. Cached data may look like an issue, and while I haven't looked deeply into it, I suspect the cache is setup to use X% of open disk space so as the available disk space shrinks so does the cache. I have a Linux server with over a year of uptime and while totally off topic KSplice will allow years of uptime because a reboot isn't needed for kernel upgrades any more. I suspect that a phone, Linux or not, will need rebooting every once in a while but mine currently has: 30:41:25 uptime and is running fine. My awake time sucks because I have it set not to sleep while on power and was home all day yesterday but it's been running for over a day without any issues. With my TP I started my day by silencing my alarms and rebooting the phone. So far this hasn't been necessary with the Hero.