I just have no idea what to do... Please help.

[nahla_shaw]

I am trying to download updates for applications (Galaxy S2) from the play store, but the following message keeps popping up with every single one: "insufficient storage".

I went to the storage and this is what I can see:

Internal Storage:
Total space : 1.97 GB
APPS: 0.92 GB
Available: 203 MB

USB storage:
Total Space: 11.50GB
Available: 8.00GB

I have no SD card.

I tried to go into the apps and click on Move to SD card (although I don't have one, I thought they might move to the free USb storage) but I get the message "Couldn't move app. Not enough space storage"- this happens for all applications.

What can I do to move everything from the internal storage to the USB storage which has 8GB free?

Details:
Android version: 4.0.4
Model Number: GT-I9100


Thank you...

 

[nahla_shaw]

Any suggestions please?

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

What is this USB storage you're connecting too? To connect to USB drives you need to have USB OTG enabled. But a SD card really is the best solution.

 

[Rush]

Does your phone has a micro sd card slot? If yes, then you might have to add a sd card in order to move applications from the internal storage to the external storage. This should fix the problem you are having.

If you have any question(s), feel free to ask.

By the way, welcome to the community.

 

[djwebb81]

you should absolutely buy a micro sd memory card and insert it. They are cheap! If you can't do that then just delete some games or useless apps you use for entertainment then when you're done updating add back what you like the most. The Galaxy S2 does have a memory card slot and it comes with a 16 GB card included when you buy it. It takes up to a maximum of 32 GB card in that slot.

 

[lunatic59]

For now you should go to menu>settings>applications and sort by size. There may be some app data and caches that should be cleared to free up space.

 

[nahla_shaw]

Thank you very much for the replies. I will go out to buy an SD card for the phone, but what I don't understand is why I cannot use the 8 GB available on the usb storage which came with my phone?

Thanks again for all your comments and answers.

 

[nahla_shaw]

Update: I did buy an SD card, and started saving things on instead of saving on internal sd, but some programs cannot be moved, therefore I have more that 30GB of space now and I cannot do anything with it. Applications such as (Advanced task killer, avg antivirus, app lock, calendar, chrome, drive, facebook, and tune radio) cannot be moved at all.
Whenever I want to download anything new, I have to remove an application from internal sd and hope that the new one can be moved to the external sd card.

Is there any fix for this?

Thanks again.

 

[DragonSlayer95]

Seeing as how your probably running jelly bean 4.1.2, unfortunately moving apps to sd is disabled.

The only fix for this is rooting your device and forcing them to your sd card via link2sd

 

[nahla_shaw]

Seeing as how your probably running jelly bean 4.1.2, unfortunately moving apps to sd is disabled.

The only fix for this is rooting your device and forcing them to your sd card via link2sd

Forgive my ignorance, but how could I root my phone? and what does that mean?

 

[Hadron]

Rooting means gaining administrator access (to use Windows terminology). Allows you to do things that an ordinary, non-admin user cannot do.

The process varies between phones. To get the best advice on it, visit your device's All Things Root forum here - for the I9100 I believe that would be Galaxy S2 (International) - All Things Root - Android Forums.

 

[lunatic59]

Here's the good news and the bad news ... The application space in Android 4.1 and later isn't limited to an internal partition. In 4.0 and earlier phones with greater than 2GB of internal storage had that storage partitioned into system/application space and user storage. Later versions of Android use virtual volumes which allocate dynamically based on usage.

Unfortunately, because your phone started out with physical volumes, in order to provide in-place updates, manufacturers have preserved the partitioning scheme even though you may have a version of Android that supports virtualization.

In order to take advantage of these improvements, you'll have to reformat the entire phone's storage and flash an appropriate rom. It's not impossible to do, even for inexperienced users. We help people all the time here so if you want to try, there are many who are more than willing. I would be remiss not to caution you that there are some risks here and it can be quite daunting the first time through.

Let me know if you want to try and we can discuss the process in the appropriate forum. Galaxy S2 (International) - All Things Root - Android Forums

BTW, please completely remove Advanced task killer. It's useless beyond Android version 1.4

 

[scorpiondragon]

I'm having these issues on my Note. All was fine before the Jellybean update, now I'm having to free up space for upgrades.

 

[nahla_shaw]

Rooting means gaining administrator access (to use Windows terminology). Allows you to do things that an ordinary, non-admin user cannot do.

The process varies between phones. To get the best advice on it, visit your device's All Things Root forum here - for the I9100 I believe that would be Galaxy S2 (International) - All Things Root - Android Forums.

Thank you very much for the information. I will try this. Could you please refer me to the suitable forum for this? I typed in *#1234# and got the following: (please see attachment for screen capture)

Thanks again

 

[nahla_shaw]

Here's the good news and the bad news ... The application space in Android 4.1 and later isn't limited to an internal partition. In 4.0 and earlier phones with greater than 2GB of internal storage had that storage partitioned into system/application space and user storage. Later versions of Android use virtual volumes which allocate dynamically based on usage.

Unfortunately, because your phone started out with physical volumes, in order to provide in-place updates, manufacturers have preserved the partitioning scheme even though you may have a version of Android that supports virtualization.

In order to take advantage of these improvements, you'll have to reformat the entire phone's storage and flash an appropriate rom. It's not impossible to do, even for inexperienced users. We help people all the time here so if you want to try, there are many who are more than willing. I would be remiss not to caution you that there are some risks here and it can be quite daunting the first time through.

Let me know if you want to try and we can discuss the process in the appropriate forum. Galaxy S2 (International) - All Things Root - Android Forums

BTW, please completely remove Advanced task killer. It's useless beyond Android version 1.4

The idea of formatting really scares me. How will I save everything? Will everything I have there be deleted?
Should I try rooting first and then this? or try formatting the then rooting?
Sorry for the number of questions and I appreciate all your help.

Can you please recommend something to replace advanced task killer?

Thank you

 

[lunatic59]

The idea of formatting really scares me. How will I save everything? Will everything I have there be deleted?
Should I try rooting first and then this? or try formatting the then rooting?
Sorry for the number of questions and I appreciate all your help.

That's a good sign. Honestly, the most problems we fix/face are from people who forge ahead without knowing what they are doing and don't ask for help from more experienced users.

First, your data ... you need to back up all your data OFF the phone. Images, music, video or other media, and you will need to also save any personal data like SMS messages or email that you wish to keep. If you sync with google, your contacts and gmail are already backed up. The easiest way to check that is to log into gmail from a pc using the account that your phone is registered to and see if everything is there.

If you have any game or app data you want saved, we'll probably have to address that on an app by app basis because the most popular solution (Titanium backup) won't work with an unrooted phone.

When you reformat and flash you will put your phone back to factory settings and you'll have to install and configure everything again.

Reformatting before rooting won't get you anywhere and rooting in and of itself won't be much better. You may not necessarily need to root at all if you are simply flashing a stock rom, which will remove the partition restrictions.

That question is best asked in the device forums. I'll move this there if you'd like.

Can you please recommend something to replace advanced task killer?

Thank you

Yes. Nothing. Android does a much better job of memory management on its own than any app can hope to achieve. Let it do it's thing.
Why You Don't Need a Task Killer.

 

[nickdalzell]

You cannot use the 8gb USB storage because only 8 KB remains.

Task killers are complicated. If I let Android do its thing on my phone which has 256 mb RAM, it crashes or restarts when it runs out, became I have a ton of apps trying to fit in it. Android usually kills my launcher causing a huge lag as it attempts to restart it. For that reason I use Go Task Manager which is set to kill any app I haven't whitelisted if memory gets above 89% used ( when it starts becoming unstable and slow) and I white listed all system apps as well as apps I use often or which have notification services. Seems to work fine.

 

[lunatic59]

If I let Android do its thing on my phone which has 256 mb RAM, it crashes or restarts ....

Let's not confuse the OP, please. Let's also not turn this into another task killer thread. That topic has been beaten to death with a dead horse.


Yours is a special case. You have a phone with limited resources running custom firmware with known issues that it was never designed to run. You have managed to get it to do what you want using a variety of kludges, but that's akin to saying I can tow a house trailer with a mini-cooper, if I strip out the trailer and stop every 5 miles to let the engine cool off. Possible, but why would you want to?

In any case, we're talking about application space and partitioning on a stock Galaxy S2.

 

[nahla_shaw]

That's a good sign. Honestly, the most problems we fix/face are from people who forge ahead without knowing what they are doing and don't ask for help from more experienced users.

First, your data ... you need to back up all your data OFF the phone. Images, music, video or other media, and you will need to also save any personal data like SMS messages or email that you wish to keep. If you sync with google, your contacts and gmail are already backed up. The easiest way to check that is to log into gmail from a pc using the account that your phone is registered to and see if everything is there.

If you have any game or app data you want saved, we'll probably have to address that on an app by app basis because the most popular solution (Titanium backup) won't work with an unrooted phone.

When you reformat and flash you will put your phone back to factory settings and you'll have to install and configure everything again.

Reformatting before rooting won't get you anywhere and rooting in and of itself won't be much better. You may not necessarily need to root at all if you are simply flashing a stock rom, which will remove the partition restrictions.

That question is best asked in the device forums. I'll move this there if you'd like.


Yes. Nothing. Android does a much better job of memory management on its own than any app can hope to achieve. Let it do it's thing.
Why You Don't Need a Task Killer.

Thanks you very much. I always have to check details and read what is there before I do anything like this. Would it be ok if I returned to the forum within a month or so to do that? I am preparing for my wedding at the moment and I am going away for my honeymoon. When I take pictures, my phone saves them to the new usb that I bought, so I can live with that until I return.

Thank you for your patience

 

[lunatic59]

Thanks you very much. I always have to check details and read what is there before I do anything like this. Would it be ok if I returned to the forum within a month or so to do that? I am preparing for my wedding at the moment and I am going away for my honeymoon. When I take pictures, my phone saves them to the new usb that I bought, so I can live with that until I return.

Thank you for your patience

Absolutely! You've got much more important things to think about right now without throwing in some technobabble. Good luck on your upcoming wedding and always back up those honeymoon photos.

When you are ready, just track me down and remind me about this thread. I've got a memory like an elephant ... with a really bad memory.

 

[nahla_shaw]

Absolutely! You've got much more important things to think about right now without throwing in some technobabble. Good luck on your upcoming wedding and always back up those honeymoon photos.

When you are ready, just track me down and remind me about this thread. I've got a memory like an elephant ... with a really bad memory.

lol that's funny
I have actually saved all my pictures and videos on my computer. The only thing I am worried about are my contacts and the Sims Freeplay and subway surf.

Do you think it would take a long time to do it?

Thank you

 

[lunatic59]

lol that's funny
I have actually saved all my pictures and videos on my computer. The only thing I am worried about are my contacts and the Sims Freeplay and subway surf.

Do you think it would take a long time to do it?

Thank you

If your contacts are sync'ed with Google, then they are already backed up. The game data is a little trickier and it would be prudent to check with other gamers who've actually transferred the games from phone to phone without losing their levels/points or whatever those games save. I don't play much beyond the odd game of solitaire.

How Long?

For someone with experience and all the files they need and assuming everything goes flawlessly, probably 2 to 3 hours from the beginning of the backups to first successful boot with the new OS. For someone who's never flashed a phone before and all the things that usually get missed or done incorrectly, 6 to 12 hours is more realistic. And this doesn't take into account the time waiting for your "help" to respond. If those helping you here are online, it can be pretty quick, but they still have to type the reply and you have to read and understand it. If they are not online and no one else has the information, you could wait a full day. Remember that we are all just regular people with real lives helping each other out for no other reason than to help.

 

[nahla_shaw]

If your contacts are sync'ed with Google, then they are already backed up. The game data is a little trickier and it would be prudent to check with other gamers who've actually transferred the games from phone to phone without losing their levels/points or whatever those games save. I don't play much beyond the odd game of solitaire.

How Long?

For someone with experience and all the files they need and assuming everything goes flawlessly, probably 2 to 3 hours from the beginning of the backups to first successful boot with the new OS. For someone who's never flashed a phone before and all the things that usually get missed or done incorrectly, 6 to 12 hours is more realistic. And this doesn't take into account the time waiting for your "help" to respond. If those helping you here are online, it can be pretty quick, but they still have to type the reply and you have to read and understand it. If they are not online and no one else has the information, you could wait a full day. Remember that we are all just regular people with real lives helping each other out for no other reason than to help.

Wow, I really appreciate what you all do here. I mean I have seen how many posts many of you are writing and it is amazing. In any case, I would love to read a bit about the procedures needed, so I could leave here with homework for when I return. When you are free, could you please just send me a few links about saving sms, contacts, and I would love to read more about formatting. (I won't do anything of course by myself, I'll just go through the instructions beforehand because I like being prepared)

Thanks again for the quick reply.

 

[lunatic59]

Sure no problem, but please confirm a few things first ... Your phone is the Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-i9100? Go to menu>settings>about phone and let me know the current Android version and Kernel. Is yours a contract free phone or is it branded by Orange?

Your intention is to stay stock? You have no interest in rooting if not necessary? And you don't mind the Samsung Touchwiz launcher? (and carrier apps, if branded?)

Backing up your SMS messages is easy. Install a backup app. I use SMS Backup & Restore. You backup your messages to a file and move it to a PC, copy the file to the new phone (or newly flashed phone in this case), then install the app and restore your messages. You should have all your messages back.

 

[nahla_shaw]

1) Yes it says GT-I9100
ANDROID VERSION 4.1.2
Kernel Version: 3.0.31-2111311

2) I bought my phone from a private store and put the Orange sim into it. I have no contract with orange.

3) I prefer not to root unless you advice me to.

4) I'm embarrassed (I searched for Samsung Touchwiz). They say it initially comes with the phone, so I don't mind anything that was already there and I have to re-install it.

5) Thank you I will download this even before I leave just in case,


Thanks again and again