Help OTA Lollipop failed due to insufficient space

[bls]

Didn't see this posted elsewhere so I'd like to ask:

The OTA Lollipop update was ready to go on my Sprint S4, so I went forward. However, the process failed with a warning message about insufficient storage. So I figured I should just clean out the storage as much as possible, then try to force the OTA update again.

Step 1: cleaning out the storage

I have 6GB free on the SD so I assume the OTA update needs to sit on the internal memory. Anyone know how much space I need to clear for it?

So on the internal storage I just have ~ 500MB free right now. By moving all the photos and videos from internal --> SD, I could get it to 2GB free. Not enough? After removing that stuff I'd need to slowly move all possible apps to SD, not sure I could get much more than 3-4GB free.

Step 2: forcing the OTA update

Is this even possible? I've headed to System Update/Update Samsung Software but that doesn't seem to queue the update download.

Any advice or pointers to threads I missed would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[CargoMatatu]

I had similar problems to this on my Galaxy S2 and had to remove a whole bunch of apps to make it work.
So I ditched my S2 and upgraded to the S4.
That was fine for a couple of years but now I'm facing the same thing again.

I am NOT going through all that hassle again!

I really don't like the way Samsung has been going in recent times - no removable battery on S6, no removable Micro SD card on the S6 - so I'm finally jumping ship, ditching Sammy and moving to the LG G4.

 

[bls]

I know what you mean! But my S4 still works great so I'll be sticking with it (until the S6 gets some serious discounts for Xmas 2015!).

One thing that would help would be if there was some easy way to pull all the photos and videos off. I already have Google Photos Backup and Dropbox Camera Upload working, so in theory all my photos and videos are already backed up, and I should be able to delete what's on the phone without any worries.

 

[cptavim]

You need about 1 GB of free storage space on your phone's internal storage, but if I were you I would want at least 1.5 GB of free space just in case.

What I did before I got the update, was that I spent about an hour freeing up space on my phone. I deleted unnecessary apps that I didn't need or use and I uploaded all the pictures and videos I had to my Google Drive (about 1.5 GB) and I deleted the ones that were on my phone. Then deleted any old files in downloads and other places and I put some music files in my Google Drive too and the deleted them. I ended up deleting a lot of stuff and backing up a lot more and I somehow ended up with 4 GB of free space. Then I just started the System Update and about 30 mins later it finally arrived!

 

[mlloyd1]

any ideas on forcing an update after a failure due to low space?
checking again for updates has not been successful.

thx,
mlloyd1