noles200

I switched from Moto Droid to Eris. I thought the Eris had 256mb of memory for apps. Apparently it does not.

I installed about 20 or so apps and one is called Infodroid (which I had on the Moto Droid). It tells me I have 105 of 159mb of space left. What happend to the other 97mb of space. All the specs on this Eris say that it has the same as Droid but it doesn't add up. Does SenseUI take up 97mb of app space. If it does I may just go back to Moto Droid (but I'm really liking the size of this compared to Droid).

Please help me understand where my 256mb went.....or explain why it's not 256mb when everything I read tells me it is.

antnyp85

Did you figure this out yet? I was wondering the same thing... When I was researching the 2 phones, I saw they had the same amount of memory...

noles200

Still have not figured it out. I may go to VZW today and look at the demo phones too. If the are the same I may have to go back to the Droid. Both phones have their positives and negatives (I really like the size and SenseUI of this phone) but this is on major negative that I just can't have. UGHHH!

I think I'm going to post this somewhere else too since people just aren't commenting on this in the Eris specific forum.

renee140

I would really like to know the answer to this so if you find out will you post it? Thanks

homerjrules

The standard apps that come with the phone I'm sure take up some of the memory. Maybe the phone only shows available memory left over after factory apps installed.

noles200

Standard apps could not take up 100mb of memory. I figured the SenseUI apps probably take up some space but not that much.

The answer is.........nobody knows why it only shows 159. HTC doesn't know, VZW Tech Support doesn't know and now the VZW store customer support doesn't know.

Long story short, I got a Droid again as I just feel I'd end up running out of space within 3 to 6 months. Just goes to show, stick with your first choice.

For those of you with an ERIS I'd beware of this issue. If you are not doing too much and not downloading too many apps you'll be fine but you may be very disappointed in the next 3 to 6 months if you run out of internal RAM.

**Edit - ok, maybe the Android OS and HTC SenseUI take up 323mb of the total 512 ROM available. That sounds like alot if you ask me but I will admit that I don't know much about these things.

Last edited by noles200; December 13th, 2009 at 03:53 PM. Reason: onion was able to educate me a bit on the difference between ROM and RAM

onion

SIGH....

Who EVER said it had 256mb of memory for apps? Nobody did you just made that up on your own.

Eris has 512mb flash and 288mb RAM

the 159mb of flash is whats left over from the 512mb of flash used to store the OS.

288mb of RAM is just that, 288mb of ram, you cant install and store apps in RAM it does not work like that.

I would recommend learning how computers work.

aleis

i wont fault you for this one

noles200

Never said I know how it works, only going buy what these people were telling me all along.

So it's the 512 of flash ROM where the OS runs and apps are stored then, right? If so does that mean SenseUI takes up almost 100mm of that 512 space and the Android OS takes up the rest? If so, the Droid has a TON more (almost 100mb more) of space to store apps.

I don't know much about these things, all I know is I am looking for the most space possible to store apps, mail, contacts, etc, etc since it can't be done on the SD card.

The lesson is much appreciated. I hope the people at HTC and VZW get that answer in case other uneducated people, from the ROM/RAM perspective think like I do.

L0stS0ul

The system including linux applications/libraries, default htc applications, android framework, ringtones, and other sounds comes to about 150MB. That does not include the linux OS. This was just the system directory. The HTC apps come to about 67MB of that. HTC has replaced pretty much every stock android application with their own more advanced version.

Once the device is rooted (note that the eris has not been rooted yet) you can put your apps on the SD card and the internal memory is just for the ROM.

Last edited by L0stS0ul; December 13th, 2009 at 04:35 PM.

noles200

I'm learning more and more. Thanks L0stS0ul. So it sounds as if the OS, etc takes about 217mb. Curious as to what takes up the rest of the ROM seeing there's only 159 left for apps and such.

onion

There is nothing left to not understand we have just gone over this already.

The OS/System with all its parts allocate 353mb of the 512mb flash memory. You are left with 159mb.

512mb - 159mb = 353mb. Simple 1st grade math.

This is not that diffcult to understand. 353mb is allocated for OS/System use ONLY.

There probably IS memory from the 353mb not being used right now but its still reserved for OS/System use only since the Eris is getting Android 2.0 which is going to be a larger OS.

The 353mb memory is NOT for YOU to use. Its for HTC and future updates ect.

DroidDO

I'm wondering how noles managed to switch back to the Droid. The Verizon people told me you can only swap once in your 30 days. Droid>Eris>Droid = 2 swaps.

BoulderAndroidFan

Another memory related question: With all my apps, my Eris is saying I have only 39mb of internal phone left (in the SD card and phone storage menu in settings.) Does this little amount of memory cause performance issues? Or is this just storage for apps and performance is only tied to RAM. I'll start dumping apps that I don't use if this causes performance issues--which I haven't noticed. The phone seems to run well still...Thanks in advance for any clarification!

renee140

When I bought my htc they sould me an extra card (not sure if this is the correct language) for 2 gb. When I looked at the one in the phone it is a 8 gb. Does that mean there is plenty area for storage but not enough memory to run everything?
Senior users please have patients with us junior users. When we ask these types of questions. We joined the forum to get help so please remember we are junior users.

iandroidian

This is my take on this. The eris is a faster computer than my first 386 clone and apple2and running on 4.5 floppy drive with only a few kb of ram.

All computers store data in hard drive in eris it's the internal memory. If you think you are running out of storage, you can create a folder to move application to an external storage the 8 Gg of memory. I have not tried it yet to see if it is possible, but if it is not, I am sure HT or another developer will figure out a way of doing it with out rooting it.

Ram is used to run application and it only stores it there temporarily, then they dump it one your done with the app. So what ever alloted ram is given to you should be more than sufficient unless you run all your apps at the same time and or running in the background. You'll need a task killer for that.

Please correct me if it wrong. I'm kind of rusty now, my 1, 0, days are long gone.

renee140

That makes perfect sense to me. Thanks for the reply.

L0stS0ul

It's a security thing. The Eris has RAM, ROM, and the SD Card. The SD card can not be used to store applications. Applications can store data on the card but the OS is locked down so that it will only run applications that are in the Rom. That is why we must install the apps.

RAM: 288 MB -- Memory space the OS/Apps run in
ROM: 512 MB -- Memory space the OS/Apps reside in (Read Only)
SD CARD: 8GB -- Memory for application use, media, and other file storage (read and write)

The only way around this is to root the phone which has not been done on the eris yet.

kraze0g

so this whole internal memory thing is not something to get concerned about in the future? also -- what exactly is "rooting" ? (sorry if this is a stupid question)

thanks

L0stS0ul

The small internal memory is a problem IMO. I have about 15 apps installed on my phone right now and I'm down to only 91MB of internal memory left. Basically I'm limited to how many applications I can have. I believe, but not sure, that all android phones have this limitation in one way or another. Some phones actually have less ROM like the HTC Dream with only 256. The Motorola Droid also only has 512 MB so moving to the droid won't be any better.

The concern is that as the OS grows, and it will, the amount of space for the applications will decrease. But the phone is pretty flexible. If this were to happen there is a possibility that the app storage could be moved to the external SD card.

Rooting is basically becoming super user on the phone. Android is linux at the end of the day and the super user is named "root". Basically the exploits find a way to install a program called SU in the system bin directory on the phone. SU is a program that allows applications or users to temporarily become super user. Once you are super user you can do anything on the phone. Change configuration files, update the OS, change hidden settings, and many more dangerous activities.

kraze0g

sounds....dangerous... :x

L0stS0ul

it is First thing a person should do when the root the phone is change the root password. Many people forget to do this one task which opens the phone up to attack from outside.

Fulltime Traveler

Is there a way to tell how much memory each app consumes when it isn't running?

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L0stS0ul

No there is not.

erisuser1

FWIW - for anyone who cares...

Here is how the 512 Mb of Flash in the Eris is partitioned (currently); you can see it for yourself in the system boot log ( get a shell running and run the command 'dmesg > /sdcard/dmesg.txt' )



[ 3.984344] Creating 6 MTD partitions on "msm_nand":
[ 3.984832] 0x1ff60000-0x20000000 : "misc"
[ 3.986358] 0x02c60000-0x03160000 : "recovery"
[ 3.987609] 0x03160000-0x033e0000 : "boot"
[ 3.988952] 0x033e0000-0x0dde0000 : "system"
[ 3.990295] 0x0dde0000-0x15fe0000 : "cache"
[ 3.991668] 0x15fe0000-0x1ff60000 : "userdata"

From the point of view of progressive addresses, this looks like this:
during normal operation, only system, cache, and userdata are mounted as filesystems: the first is read-only, and the other two are mounted read-write. I don't know what is in the first 44 Mb.

eu1

kinakomochi

L0sts0ul, thanks for being patient with us newbs. Learning how things work is supposed to be fun.

I also have a bit over 100mb left -- have to triage apps, as intuitively I didn't feel that should go much lower. Thanks for clearly explaining why.

Fulltime Traveler

I just noticed Menu | Settings |Applications | Manage Applications.

When I look at the Storage numbers there, is that telling me how much memory the app is consuming when it is running or how much memory is used to store the app?

L0stS0ul

that's how much physical memory in storage including any cache data and the application's file size. That is not how much memory it uses when running.

Fulltime Traveler

Now I'm confused.

When I asked a couple days ago "Is there a way to tell how much memory each app consumes when it isn't running?" you responded, "No there is not."

Isn't the "application's file size" the amount of memory it consumes when it isn't running?

Please educate me.

Thanks.

L0stS0ul

what type of memory are you talking about? There are two types of memory. Physical memory which is the ROM or application storage. And then there is the running memory which is RAM. From your question it sounded like you were asking how much ram an application uses when it isn't running which there is no way to tell.

ROM is storage, RAM is memory which is why I thought you were talking about RAM

Fulltime Traveler

I was asking in the context of the discussion at the beginning of this thread, which was concern about installed apps eventually consuming the memory on the Eris, not the memory used by an app while it's running.

When I run InfoDroid it tells me that the phone has 106 of 159 MB of "Internal memory" free. I presume that is the nonvolatile memory that is used to store apps and that as I install more apps that number will decrease, correct?

OfTheDamned

Correct. The 106 of 159 is ROM the "hard drive" of the phone. As you install apps this number will decrease. Apps that cache information will also take up some of the space on this memory. This is easily regained by clearing the cache for that app. The browser and the album are the to 2 cache glutons that I know of. You can clear the cache for an April by going into applications and select the app. Then just hit clear cache. Sorting the apps (menu - sort) will make it a little easier to find the glutons.

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cmotion

I was wondering about clearing out the cache... on the Album app particularly. When I look in the Manage Applications my Album app is now usually number 1 or 2 (depending how often I clean out my browser), and I noticed that the vast majority of Storage (4.2 of the 4.28MB) is in the cache section. I just want to make sure that by deleting that I'm not going to delete the actual pictures in my albums.

OfTheDamned

No, you won't delete you pictures by clearing the cache. The cache is short term memory and it is stored to bring things up faster. If you clear the cache in the albums app everything will still be on your SD card.

rick12

I've removed several apps from my Eris this morning, and according to Android System Info, it hasn't made a dent in the amount of memory used. It lists download cache, "Data Max" (159mb, 26 free), external storage, total and free RAM. I would have expected "Data" to be include under RAM. Which of these is the ROM?

scary alien

rick12,

I assume Android System Info is an app? (I don't have this one, but I do see it in the Market)...

I think the simplest way that most of us use to tell the free memory for apps is in Settings -> SD card & phone storage and the last/bottom section:

Internal phone storage
- Available space
- 78.42MB (you number will vary here)

This is what I use to tell to see how much application memory I have left...is that what you are looking for?

nomarsgirl

Regular maintenance is all that is needed to keep this phone running well. Periodically clear your cache, delete old messages (or back them up) and consider uninstalling apps you never use. We all like to download lots of apps and play with them to see what they do. Most of them are fun for a little while, but don't end up being something you use often. If it is a free app you rarely use, remember that you can always download it from the market when you need it rather than always keeping it on your phone.

There are also a lot of different apps that do the same thing. Pick the one you like best, and get rid of the duplicates. You should have plenty of space to store the apps you really need.

scary alien

+1 ...when I rooted, I only re-installed about half of the apps that I originally had installed in 1.5. I just used AppBrain and/or kept a list of what various apps I liked (there's always Market search too).

Jdiulus

Dude how many apps could you possibly want to put on your phone? I would never even come close to using 159mb.