Help Completely insane, phone gave me more storage automatically

[Ronnyp74]

I have had my Galaxy S4 for a few months now. I love the phone. I used to have the iPhone 5 and HATED it. My wife has the HTC One and I think the Galaxy beats both. Official Android plug over LOL. The one thing I HATE about the Galaxy S4 is that it is loaded with bloatware that you can not remove. These pre installed apps, take up almost half of the internal storage space. I download a ton of apps (mostly games to keep my kids entertained) and I was at 4% internal memory left. I was thinking about trying to root the phone, but having no clue what I am doing it made me nervous. I kept getting the error message that I was getting very low on internal storage and that certain functions may not work properly on my phone. I wake up this morning (after having done nothing to the phone at all) and all of a sudden my internal storage has like 60% left. I am not complaining because this is great, but does anyone have a damn clue as to what possibly could have happened? Did the Android fairy fix my phone for me while I was sleeping? This is beyond weird.

 

[funkylogik]

Lol i have no idea. Can you post a screenshot of the Storage settings screen?

 

[Joelgp83]

It's possible the main cache partition got cleared, freeing up extra space. Not sure what would trigger it automatically, but it would be the most non-destructive explanation for the discrepancy if none of your apps were uninstalled.

 

[nickdalzell]

you must have a literal ton of stuff. i only have the S3 but i got 200+ apps/games and still have well over 5GB remaining and never have moved anything to the SD card yet.

Sometimes when an Android phone's cache or dalvik cache gets so full the device random reboots and when you check afterwards (many folks wouldn't even know their phone even rebooted itself) the memory has freed itself.

 

[mikedt]

I have had my Galaxy S4 for a few months now. I love the phone. I used to have the iPhone 5 and HATED it. My wife has the HTC One and I think the Galaxy beats both. Official Android plug over LOL. The one thing I HATE about the Galaxy S4 is that it is loaded with bloatware that you can not remove. These pre installed apps, take up almost half of the internal storage space.

Did you buy it from a carrier? It's more than likely their bloatware rather than Samsung.

 

[wisguy84]

Yeah, he probably means carrier bloatwear; though Samsung does add additional code on top of the Android base.

 

[jefboyardee]

Did the Android fairy fix my phone for me while I was sleeping?

When you catch her, send her over to my phone.

 

[Joelgp83]

No no no, you're supposed to put your loose tooth underneath your phone and then put your pillow on top of it and go to sleep....wait, which fairy are we talking about here? :hmmmm2:

 

[mikedt]

Yeah, he probably means carrier bloatwear; though Samsung does add additional code on top of the Android base.

Which should only be Touchwiz, Samsung Apps and S Planner probably. Because I'm currently looking at my non-carrier, non-mainland Samsung. You can change Touchwiz for whatever launcher you like, no rooting required :thumbup:

 

[mikedt]

No no no, you're supposed to put your loose tooth underneath your phone and then put your pillow on top of it and go to sleep....wait, which fairy are we talking about here? :hmmmm2:

I put many a tooth under the pillow and no fairy ever called. But now my best student is a dentist and I now get free dental care.

 

[Ronnyp74]

Yes, I meant carrier Bloatware. I got the phone from Verizon. I have a total of 170 apps. The bloatware apps I am referring to are apps like Blurb Checkout, TripAdvisor, HP Print, Google Play Magazine, Flipboard, Audible, Samsung Watch On, Samsung Push Service, Amazon Mobile, Google +, Kindle, Amazon MP3, Google Play Movies, Google Play Books, My Verizon Mobile, IMDB, Google Play Music, NFL Mobile etc. My internal memory is at 58%, External SD Card is at 45%, RAM is at 35%.

 

[mikedt]

Yes, I meant carrier Bloatware. I got the phone from Verizon. I have a total of 170 apps. The bloatware apps I am referring to are apps like Blurb Checkout, TripAdvisor, HP Print, Google Play Magazine, Flipboard, Audible, Samsung Watch On, Samsung Push Service, Amazon Mobile, Google +, Kindle, Amazon MP3, Google Play Movies, Google Play Books, My Verizon Mobile, IMDB, Google Play Music, NFL Mobile etc. My internal memory is at 58%, External SD Card is at 45%, RAM is at 35%.

Yeh that's a carrier supplied phone OK. The one's I've highlighted are definitely Verizon affiliate stuff. No Facebook? presumably they're not a Verizon affiliate. The others are either Google or Samsung, which is what I would expect on a Samsung phone, although my Samsung from Hong Kong, didn't have Google Movies, Google Music, Google Magazine or Google Books, because those are for the USA. Although my phone came with YouTube. You might want to look into rooting your phone.

 

[Ronnyp74]

Yes, Facebook too. I got it at a Verizon Wireless store, not just an authorized dealer that carries Verizon phones. I am good now that the phone mysteriously gave me a ton more internal memory. I have thought about rooting but I don't want to screw up my phone. Plus, I have a ton of custom ringtones, keyboards, launchers, notifications etc that I am afraid will be lost.

 

[funkylogik]

Be careful about modding an s4. I was reading a post by Chainfire about the Efuse. Its like a physical fuse thats tripped when the flash counter is tripped and it cant be reset: warranty void
Actually im gona make a thread about that....

 

[JIMV]

Yes, I meant carrier Bloatware. I got the phone from Verizon. I have a total of 170 apps. The bloatware apps I am referring to are apps like Blurb Checkout, TripAdvisor, HP Print, Google Play Magazine, Flipboard, Audible, Samsung Watch On, Samsung Push Service, Amazon Mobile, Google +, Kindle, Amazon MP3, Google Play Movies, Google Play Books, My Verizon Mobile, IMDB, Google Play Music, NFL Mobile etc. My internal memory is at 58%, External SD Card is at 45%, RAM is at 35%.

Nothing in the mobile world annoys me more than bloatware on a product I own....Someone should invent an app that removes this crap even if the carrier loves them.

 

[funkylogik]

The bloat is in the /system part of the storage which is locked to "read only" unless you root the device so its impossible to uninstall without rooting or flashing unbranded firmware
Even without bloatware, a huge chunk of the s4's storage is taken up by the OS (touchwiz) because of all the samsung features/gimmicks

 

[droid.]

Yes, Facebook too. I got it at a Verizon Wireless store, not just an authorized dealer that carries Verizon phones. I am good now that the phone mysteriously gave me a ton more internal memory. I have thought about rooting but I don't want to screw up my phone. Plus, I have a ton of custom ringtones, keyboards, launchers, notifications etc that I am afraid will be lost.

Ronny, glad to hear you have you space back. Rooting is not that difficult and doesnt really do much to the phone. Search the forums on how to do it and you can run this app : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tvkdevelopment.nobloat&hl=en
which will allow you to remove the Bloat.

I take no responsibility for this app, although I have used it and it worked for me.

Good luck.

 

[breadnatty08]

Moved to S4 forum.

 

[mikedt]

Nothing in the mobile world annoys me more than bloatware on a product I own....Someone should invent an app that removes this crap even if the carrier loves them.

Do you really "own" a carrier supplied and subsidised phone? - not until you've finished your contract commitment. More like a product that's leased to you IMO. You default on contract payments they IMEI blacklist it rendering it useless as a phone. Plus it's unlawful to unlock it while still subject to contract in the US. To avoid any of these issues you can always buy a non-carrier S4 direct from Samsung, but it will probably cost you around $800 up-front.

From what funky posts, it looks like Samsung has put some kind of self-destruction thing into the S4 to try and deter using unofficial ROMs, voids the warranty. Is it really a "product I own"?

 

[Nick33]

Ronny, you can always go into task manager then ram, and clear out ur memory. I do this every few days. Also, did u happen to reboot ur phone or shut it off for a while? Ur device may have closed out apps that were running in the background. Just a guess.
I personally enjoy the app "clean master" you can clear out ur cache and close apps running in the background as well. It also helps clear out old files and folders that are sticking around from unistalling and what not. Try it out.

And to everyone else, no. No, we do not own our phones. I was almost thrown out of bestbuy bc the samsung tech (i use that term VERY loosely) knew i had rooted and actually got angry with me. I has told him i was rooted bc he was about to try a fix on my phone and i didnt want him bricking my phone. The little bastard threw my phone down and proceeded to follow me around the store like i was gonna go rooting every device on display! Needless to say i blew up at him.
Sorry for the long story on ur post ronny, but it just proves a point... We DON'T own the phones we paid for...

 

[CimBa07]

Ronny, glad to hear you have you space back. Rooting is not that difficult and doesnt really do much to the phone. Search the forums on how to do it and you can run this app : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tvkdevelopment.nobloat&hl=en
which will allow you to remove the Bloat.

I take no responsibility for this app, although I have used it and it worked for me.

Good luck.

I was actually looking into rooting my phone too to get rid of the bloat but decided against it because it's needed to update the phone and many suggest just freezing the app, but the app would still take space. Updating could break root though, but if you're running custom roms then you may not need to if the rom has the update.

 

[Ronnyp74]

Yes, I actually did shut the phone off because it froze. I then turned it back on and then went to sleep. When I woke up, everything was fine.