Harmonic

I still get the message from time to time that my application space is low, and that I should delete apps to make room. Why should I have to delete apps? I've only had my phone for a month or so and I'm already out of space for apps? I do have over 200, but most of them I want to keep. There are thousands of apps available, I'm just getting started.

There should be somewhere I can store them. Is there any way I can install them somewhere else, like the 6GB of phone storage? I don't need that for music, that's what my SD card is for. I've moved some apps to the SD card, but some of them can't be moved.

When I get the low memory notification I often can't view my texts as well. Again, after a month I shouldn't be anywhere near out of space for texts. My last phone had over 1,400 texts on it and never ran out of space.

I have read some of the posts on here, but a lot of the causes are not what I'm dealing with. I don't use an email app on my phone, I use a browser to view my gmail on the web, so I don't have email saved on my phone. Anyway, none of the causes mentioned should have anything to do with app storage. When I delete some apps the message goes away, but if anything I want to download more apps, not get rid of what I already have.

I know the cause on my phone (no more room for apps). How do I make more room without removing apps I already have?

funkpod

hmm... i think just try some of the tips from this thread, like, clearing facebook data, dialer storage, etc. app2sd has a feature that you can clear cache, that helps sometimes.

golfinglenn

I had the same issue with the warning message. I had just downloaded a new app that replaced an old app (local news station) and had yet deleted the old app. Once I deleted the old app the alert disappeared as well. Glad mine was an easy fix ;-).

pirate943

'application data space is low'

sd card, total- .92 gigs, free- 675megs
internal phone- total 6.6 gigs, free- 6.27 gigs
phone memory- total- 748 megs, free 334 megs.

so, where am i low? and what gives, i thought phne came with 8 gigs on storage, why is it so unevenly partitioned?

iowabowtech

This thread still gets new posts every day it seems. Considering the mammoth it has become, plus the fact there are merged threads confusing the flow, I thought it may be prudent to repost once again, the single post that best explains the heart of the situation:

The /data/data folder is inaccessible by most file managers other than Root Explorer which obviously means you need to be rooted. So, if you aren't rooted, your best bet is to start deleting apps, cache and data in the Applications > Manage applications menu. If you are rooted, you can use higher powered cache cleaners and go straight to the data/data folder using Root Explorer and weed things out carefully while noting the filesize of the likely offenders.

iowabowtech

Couple tips added to the above post...

If you use an alternate browser, be sure to delete the data/cache from the native browser.

Dolphin is a large data hog. Clear cache for sure and make the call on your data. Mine's showing just under 4 MB right now which is significant. There is also a "Manage Space" option for Dolphin (we're still talking Menu > Applications > Manage applications here) where you can ala carte delete some data items without affecting others.

Email is a big user of both data and cache if you use one or more pop3 or similar accounts on the phone.

Google Voice...do you have a ton of old messages?

Take the time to weed through all aps looking for the large data users. Good luck.

Last edited by iowabowtech; April 28th, 2011 at 12:45 AM.

itbedave

Thanks for sharing your research. My question is - why hasn't someone figured out how to make that app space larger with one of these recent custom ROMs? 150mb on a phone with 8gb built in is MORE than ridiculous.

Medion

Dolphin allows you to cap your cache usage anywhere up to 6MB (6MB is the default), and allows you to move the cache to SD.

funkpod

i agree, and more so, why doesn't Google fix this, etc.

i just got the low storage again, used k9 mail, hopefully it would fix it, but i have been downloading a lot of apps, too. i just deleted my facebook data and it's gone away. so... we'll keep playing this game.

Medion

Some of us have tried. We've learned a few things though. Deodexed versions of the stock ROM use up more of /data/data by default. Considerably more (as much as 50MB). So, if you're running a custom stock ROM (really, anything based on the Incredible framework), you're going to hit this cap faster.

I made a ROM called Nothing Special, with this in mind. Due to being stock, odexed, and only having bloat removed, you gain about 12MB over the stock ROM, and 46MB over comparable deodexed ROMs (about 75MB over custom stock ROMs). You will still eventually hit the cap, but it's much harder to do so.

http://androidforums.com/incredible-roms/310797-nothing-special-plain-peanut-well-stock-rom-htc-incredible.html

veccster

I've had the "low on space" message 4 a few months now. I cleared data and cache on a lot of apps and now it is gone.

Happy DINCing!

bcress

Is there any word if the Thunderbolt, Incredible 2, Evo, and other similar HTC models are afflicted with this ridiculously low REAL app data space problem?

simpleblue

Does anyone know if the gmail widget is safe to use? And is the gmail widget related to the htc mail program? I ask because they look so similar.

This is already my first full reset and I hope not to have to do ot again. My sympathies to all those so frustrated with this bug. I hope a solution can be found. It's been far to long.

bird jam

This warning is so damned annoying. Even as annoying as it is to have that warning icon on my top bar, I can at least live with that, but when I can't access my text messages because of it (as has been the case for the last 18 hours,) it is interfering with my use of the phone. I got a text from Verizon last week telling me I was eligible for an early upgrade but I was so happy with my DInc at the time that I ignored it. The resurfacing of this problem (it had been months since this happened) has me thinking twice now.

I have tried all of the suggested remedies in this thread. I have deleted photos, data, caches, and even apps that I liked but didn't consider "necessary." Just now, I finally deleted the pop account for my Yahoo mail - I liked having it and my Exchange account (for work) both in the same place, but I guess I'm willing to just use the Yahoo app for my mail. Deleting that pop account at least let me see my text messages again, thank god. But I still have the annoying warning icon.

I have loved this phone overall, but when I go significant periods of time without being able to access my damned text messages, it really makes me consider an iPhone now that they are on Verizon.

mooseamerica

I am having the Low on Space problem too, but omigosh I just can't wade through 559 posts to try to find the answer. Will a kind member please tell me what to do??

Thanks :-)

juanito157

Having the same problem after downloading the Netflix app! I moved the app to the SD card but it didn't work! Wtf? That makes no sense ! IPhone is gonna happen for me too, I think

euph_22

Read the first post on this page (page 12), with the quoted post.

bird jam

If I delete my program data for the "Internet" app, will it wipe out my bookmarks?

Harmonic

I am still getting the low on space warning, and I've had the phone less than 3 months. At one point I had 240 apps, but I've had to delete a bunch of them, so now I'm down to about 150, which may seem like a lot, but c'mon... there are thousands of apps available. We're supposed to just pick 100 that we want and that's it? There are so many little ones that just do one thing, it's not like each one is this big fancy program. I've mostly downloaded free apps, I haven't even started with the paid ones (I bought 2 or 3). Developers are losing money because I don't have any room for paid apps.

There has to be a way to fix this so we have more space available for apps. I've cleared caches, I removed all my kindle books (which I want), I don't use the email apps, everything I can think of, and the message is still there. I've uninstalled so many apps that I still want, and it hardly even helps. When I can't even access my text messages something is very wrong. I'm not about to delete my texts just because I'm out of room (I only have about 300, and my last phone had over 3,000 texts and never had a problem).

bird jam

Anyone? I'm unable to access my text messages right now, but I don't want to delete internet data if it means I'll lose my bookmarks.

This really ticks me off. I may be looking forward to iPhone 5 now. Never thought I'd say that.

captainm27

This is my Data Usage and I'm getting the low disk space warning.

gurana

My low app space notification came back.... doesn't seem to actually be app related, though not sure how I'd know for sure. Last time this happened, I just started nixing apps I didn't really use anyways. No change. Cleared all the data files, via app manager, for apps I didn't care about losing settings and such on... no change. Then I did those two steps for apps I did use, but could live without -- which makes me more mad every time I think about it. Still didn't fix the problem. In the past, it would eventually go away. This time, I just started to get a bunch of force closes, slow response for everything, minimal battery life, etc... I then rebooted, just to have a situation where the phone won't boot. It just loops the droid boot animation/sound. while I can't say it's stuck in an infinite loop... I let it go on for 10 attempts previous, to no apparent change. (I posted this with more details as a thread, too. Haven't seen anyone else withthis particular snafu.) If anybody has suggestions on how I might force it to start, I'm open to suggestions... Didn't really want to spend an evening at VerizonWireless store, or on the phone for customer support.

Caipirinha

Unfortunately, clearing data will get rid of your bookmarks, cookies, stored passwords etc. Found out the hard way
I think there are some apps out there which let you save/backup your bookmarks. I haven't tried any of them, but "Bookmark Tree Manager" has good ratings.

h0lby5

Have you tried reducing the amount of mail you can see from your exchange account? For whatever reason when I upped mine from 1 day to 7, I got the warning, and then when I went back to 1 day in my inbox it went away... Just in exchange inbox --> Menu > More > Settings > Send & Receive > Download Past Mail

Not sure how much space that actually takes up, but it seemed to help me get rid of the warning message.

rgr555

I'm getting same annoying problem. I have ~550mb free space, and an extra 8gb sdcard. There's no reason why I should have low space.

Are we able to get a free upgrade to Incredible 2 or something similar with this problem? This prevents me from doing work on my phone. Does Verizon or warranty work with this problem?

euph_22

No, no and no respectively. (ok, you could TRY to get a warranty replacement for it, but good luck with that. Especially since swapping it out with another Incredible won't help you).

Did you try the suggestions for dealing with the problem? (like: clearing cache from apps, adjusting how long the mail inbox stores email, deleting text/picture messages, clearing application data, so forth).

Last edited by euph_22; May 19th, 2011 at 05:19 PM.

hgoldner

I have literally hundreds, at least 300 apps installed, so it's not the number of apps, it's the size that the apps decide to take out of \data\data, regardless of whether you move them to SD or not.

For those of you who aren't rooted, let me tell you what's hogging space in my \data\data partition although, (as I've mentioned above in this thread), I run an app called NotEnoughSpace which moves stuff out to other locations so it's not "really" in that partition any more.

First of all, the single biggest hog of \data\data is your contacts database. I have 1690 Outlook Exchange contacts and that takes up nearly 27 megabytes in the partition. Remember, you have 150 megabytes, but you only want to use 135, so contacts can take a huge chunk of that.

Another thing I've seen repeatedly murder the space is synchronization of Facebook contacts. Can't understand why, but I do not recommend syncing Facebook contacts to the phone --- will absolutely kill that partition and bring the handset to its knees if you lots of Facebook friends. My daughter did that on her Incredible (even though its rooted and running Nothing Special (Plain) mentioned above, and completely lost functionality of her handset until I talked her through deleting the Facebook contacts.

Mobiplayer takes 10 megabytes.
Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Air each take at least 1 megabyte.
Google Earth takes several megabytes.
Firefox takes 8.1 megabytes
"Internet" (the default browser) takes 1.1 megabytes.
PowerAmp takes 1 megabyte
Angry Birds (any of the 3 versions), Shazam, gReader Pro all take gobs of space.

And, finally, the Mail app is a huge pig, even if you don't use it (it's required for Exchange functionality, regardless of which email client you ultimately use).

Finally, the only way you can directly manipulate what's in the partition is to be rooted. Period.

__________________
HTC Rezound S-OFF Rooted with ICS 3.14 Leaked Firmware
ROM: Nils' Business ICS 4.0
Recovery: RA Vigor 3.15
Tablet: Arnova 10 G2 (PMN) running Finless' 1.5b

euph_22

I just wanted to say that those all depend GREATLY on your individual situation. Just because contacts for you are the biggest user doesn't mean that is universally true. If somebody has a lot of text messages or picture messages, for example, that might be a greater culprit.

ned4spd8874

Sorry to crap, but "NotEnoughSpace" sucks. I bought it and used it for a while, but had to stop using it after a while. I can't remember everything that was happening since it's been a couple months, but one thing that I know was happening was a lot of the apps would disappear on me all the time. Be forewarned!

__________________
Check out my movie website: http://AfterCredits.com

bobarr

Thanks so much for the info! I promptly deleted Firefox to save space. Earlier it took a hard reset/reload for me to get rid of the space problem.
I think I'll try rooting the device to learn more. Its a shame that once rooted, a partitioning program can't be used to 'slide the partition size' up a bit. Bo

pedro_lopez

I fix my low memory stuff following this procedure...

1st. When the low memory tag was noticed, please click on it and discover which app contains a significant quantity of bytes. For example my contact storage occuppied
almost 67 mb.

Click the summary on the dialog window of low memory. For example in my android the
device has only 87 mb. So I am very close to full the memory of personal data.

If you open the task manager, you can also see the personal data memory used.

Then, I backup all my contacts, because this application was about 90% of the memory of personal data used. When all the contacts were copy to the sd, now click again in
the dialog box of low memory... and I delete all data from contacts storage to 0 mb.

Of course you will lose all your contacts.

Now sync again your contacts and by a reason I don´t understand the contact storage only weight 18mb instead of the 67 mb.

I repeat, I don´t understand why this is happend, but the problem was fix.

regards to the forum

P

NightAngel79

Just thought it was worth quoting this old post, never know if this might help someone......

also a users post (i don't remember who) was added to the OP on my recommendation. It was pretty informative IMO. Any other REALLY good explanations that can be added to first post to better help people who dont wanna sift through over a years worth of this thread (this thread really is a year old)
Please !report them or PM me or woop and ask/recommend a post.

__________________

Sync your files online and across computers with Dropbox. 2.5GB account is free! And get extra free space from referrals - Just click here and sign up
Site Rules/Guidelines and Zero Tolerance Policy
GameFans - All things Gaming!

Last edited by NightAngel79; May 23rd, 2011 at 07:36 AM.

arfyness

Bobarr, it's just the data for the applications. The app itself may be contained on the removable SD card, but if it stores a lot of data to the "application data space" it will fill up quickly. I totally agree though, there should be MORE SPACE in the application data space. My Incredible's 8GB internal and 32GB microSD is useless if apps I wanna use can't make effective use of all that space...

Last edited by arfyness; May 24th, 2011 at 03:12 PM.

snakep

After researching my problem here and elsewhere, I've tried most of the suggestions. I've removed all apps that I seldom use, I've cleared all the cache in my applications, and I've reduced the number of emails stored on the server. I even got a little overzealous and accidentally wiped out all my texts and deleted all of the program data (including account information) for the HTC mail app. I normally use the Gmail app, and I've even deleted all the data for that one, so now it just says "Waiting for sync." Unfortunately, it won't sync while the low space notification is still there.

Despite all my efforts to reduce the number of apps and cache, I still seem to be actually low on storage. In phone memory, I have 37.7 MB available out of 748. I don't have root, so I can't see /data/data. Does anybody know what else could be hogging space? I would like to install a terminal emulator, but right now I can't even install or update any apps.

funkpod

I dunno what to say, usually those things work....maybe you have to force reset, if you already have cleared everything else out?

snakep

That's kind of what I'm expecting to have to do, but I'm still hoping to figure something else out.

euph_22

If you're at 37.7 MB of available space, it's probably not a bug (certainly not the common low on space problem most people have). Clearly cache/data won't be likely to help too much, since data/cache is usually not stored on the internal storage (private data/cache will be stored in the data/data partition which is separate from what your talking about, and non private will generally be on the SD card). Go into the application manager menu in settings (from the home screen hit menu, select settings then manage applications, and hit all). You can sort the applications by size (you might have to toggle it a couple of times before it sorts everything). Do you see anything taking up an inordinate amount of space? If so, that might be your problem. Try uninstalling (and reinstalling if you wish) those apps and seeing if they take up less space on the reinstall. Assuming that does help (which is honestly a longshot, you're going to have to either move apps to the sd card (they will still take up some space in the internal, but not as much) or uninstall things. You're better off starting with the big apps (since getting rid/moving 1 30 MB app is easier/quicker that 30 1mb apps).

You could try a factory reset, but assuming you reinstall everything, your expected space savings will be minimal. If you don't reinstall everything, you really just took a brute force route to uninstall those apps.

On an unrelated not, what are you planning on doing with a terminal emulator without root? I'm just curious.

Last edited by euph_22; June 5th, 2011 at 10:36 PM.

snakep

Thanks for the reply. Do you know what threshold I should reach to be safe? I have looked through the application manager at all apps sorted by size, and the largest is Aldiko at around 10 MB, but it's already on the SD card. They go down from there, and I really don't have that many apps. That's what is so confusing; I don't understand how so much space is being used.

Part of the reason for getting a terminal emulator was to try to see what's in some of these directories. I do have Astro, but /data/data appears empty. From what I've gathered recently, I think it's because I don't have permission. I also was considering rooting the phone if that would help see what's causing the problem, but right now it says I have insufficient space to installsomething as small as the Android Terminal Emulator, which is less than 100 kB.

You mentioned private data; does that just mean data that only root has read permission for? Also, are all the apps stored in /data/data (except those on the SD card)? What else is in /data/data? I found some files in /proc that look like file tables but I couldn't tell the size of the partitions.

coco savage

man i had this problem....sometimes there is a quick fix with deleting data from maps, peep...but a month ago my fix was done through uninstalling updates to gmail, maps, google search and then reintalling. (cant find the web page)

Recently after reading some things in here....deleting Angry birds, and call history did the trick. It just seems something different each time for me...ugh

euph_22

Minor quibble, but no apps are stored in /data/data. That's just where apps save data. And since the developer of the app decide what to save where, what's actually being saved there. But it was intended for email, messages, and other data the user would presumably not want read by a 3rd party, hence it's in a secured folder. And you're right, you have to have administrator positions to see the /data/data partition.

My understanding is that you get the warning message starting at 10% (~80MB), and the phone locks down at 5% (~40MB).

sweeds

I have had a persistent notification on my phone for the last week. It reads:

Low on space
Application data space is low. To up...

When I click it it takes me to the application management, I assume to uninstall or move files to my SD. I have a 32Gb (working, yes I tested it with h2testw) micro SDHC card. I have app2sd and have transfered many of the moveable files to the SD card.

Under Settings > SD & phone storage the memory reads:

Total/Available
SD Card: 29.71GB/13.91GB
Internal Phone Storage: 6.46GB/5.75GB
Phone Memory: 748MB/630MB

Am I missing something? It seems like I have more than enough memory. And now I am getting errors that there is not enough space to process/store SMS messages and is starting to become a real problem. Suggestions?

sdrawkcab25

Here you go, the notification has nothing to do with the memory you see, but is talking about a 150Mb partition for app data:

"Low on space" phone/application storage notification

Ps: merging this with the thread that is linked above.

Last edited by sdrawkcab25; June 6th, 2011 at 07:18 PM.

NightAngel79

What Euph said was spot on but what i cant get over is you only having 37.7mb available. AND you said you don't have many apps. At one point i had WELL over 350 apps on phone and still had around 300mb available. I was periodically getting the 'low on space' message because of data though. Almost seems like you have a bad phone or something. How long have you had your device?

sweeds

Quoted to continue to the knowledge train.

Is there any way to increase the partition size?

Skorpios1027

Not that anyone has been able to find

__________________
"We only need stay diligent and keep watching the stars. And one day there will come a familiar flash, an undulating blue tunnel will appear, and Moya will come racing into our lives once again.I can only imagine the awesome stories our friends will have to tell us then..." - Rockne S. O' Bannon Feb 2003

snakep

I've had my phone since last October. When I first started researching this problem, I noticed that most of the results were from early last summer. I found a few posts suggesting that Froyo solved, or at least reduced, the problem. Froyo had been out for a while when I got mine, so I've never even had 2.1 on my phone. But then, my issue seems to be a little bit different than what I've seen other people report.

Back to what euph said: if the apps aren't stored in /data/data, where are they stored? I've found a bunch of files in /mnt/asec that might be apps, but I don't know. There are a bunch of directories with names that correspond to some of the apps that I've downloaded, and in each directory is a file called pkg.apk. Are these the actual executable files? I think that the stock apps are stored in /system/app. Though I can't tell what is in /data, I know that its total size is 748.02 MB, and when I uninstall apps (I got rid of Pandora after reading some older posts; it hasn't helped) the available space in /data increases.

At this point, I've cleared all data for HTC mail and messages, the latter before realizing that it would wipe out all my messages. When I look at the application settings, they have zero cache and data. In fact, all of my apps have zero cache now.

One more question: what is the difference between phone memory and what I would traditionally thing of as memory? It seems like "phone memory" is more like a partition for storing app data vs. a location for data that is currently being used by applications, like RAM on a PC. When I open Advanced Task Killer, it says that I have 181MB available and Settings->Applications->Running Services says there is 171MB +115MB available.

Rob.G

The downloaded apps are stored in /data/app/.
Stock apps, as you have deduced, are in /system/app/.

That's correct, it is a partition for storing data. It's not the internal or phone memory that's listed in any file explorer.

snakep

Now that I'm starting to get a clearer picture of my problem, I wonder if there are files in /data/data that haven't been removed after I cleared cache and data for various apps. For example, I cleared the data from the HTC mail app, which cleared all of my account information, but maybe it left some of the mail files in place. Also, I uninstalled the Lightning Bug app but it left behind some data on the SD card. Maybe some of the other apps I've uninstalled have done something similar in /data/data.

I would like to gain root access and go take a look for myself, but because of my low available space I can't install any apps right now so I can't get a terminal emulator. Is there a way to install directly to the SD card? If not, my only choice might be to reset and start over.

carylev

well i hate to say it but im afraid my time with the DINC is coming to an end as a result of this problem. in the past ive been able to make the notification go away by deleting long text msg strings, but i randomly got the notification this am, cleared out my texts, and its still there. i checked and i have no cache to clear and im at a point where im not willing to delete any of the large apps i have installed. my gmail doesnt push when i have this notification and i just dont see a solution. whats the point of having a smartphone with 5.88GB of available internal phone storage if i cant use it???

i really have no interest in updating my phone. i love my DINC other than this annoying problem and i really wanted to wait for a viable 4G/dual processor phone. but i cant go months without getting my email pushed to my phone and its absurd that i shouldnt be able to add any more apps.

im not a superuser or tech savvy enough to root my phone or really understand what the data/data partition is so thats not an option for me. if anybody has a potential solution for me i would be eternally grateful. frankly none of the current phones available on verizon have captured my attention and im frustrated beyond description. anybody? anybody? bueller?

ned4spd8874

Alas, I am having the same thoughts as yourself. I AM tech savvy and am rooted; and have tried the magic partitioning tools which just made things worse. I am eligible for an early upgrade and have started to seriously consider getting a new phone. I'm just afraid that the new device will still have this bug.